Burian+Kitchen

Module 1

The name of the organization I will be using for this project is Midvale Elementary School. This is where I am a current fourth grade teacher.

A technological problem that I found within my school is that only about half of the classrooms currently have a Promethean Board. This unfortunally has created a minor amount of resentment among staff because there was no discussion as to who was to receive the boards within their classrooms.

Approximately 400 students attend Midvale, which educates children from Pre-K through fifth grade. Class size ranges from 13 - 26 students (my class is the largest) in regular education classes, and each of the six special education classes has between 5 and 12 children. Our students go on to attend Henderson Middle, Tucker Middle, and Tucker High schools.

Located in a quiet community setting, Midvale Elementary ranks in the top 10% of all elementary schools in Georgia when state curriculum test scores in reading and math are considered. The students' success was achieved with the help of a dynamic faculty and staff, dedicated parents, and supportive community members. We have been selected as one of only sixteen elementary schools in the state to participate in the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program. The IBPYP, which began in the fall of 2003, offers academic challenges that will stimulate and inspire "high achievers" from Tucker and surrounding communities. Midvale is one of three IB schools in DeKalb County. Midvale was named a State School of Excellence in 2006.

The school's stated technology mission goal is to improved the use of technology in it's classrooms. Part of the last SACS visit demonstrated that teachers need to incorporate more technology into their lesson plans. In order to help solve the problem the school purchased Promethean boards for roughly half of the staff. At this point administration would like to add Promethean boards to the rest of the classrooms and include more training.

Module 2

Cause Analysis

The desire of the school is to fully implement the technology that is now available for the majority of classroom teachers. Promethean boards, laptops, and software have been purchased using after school funds, yet not nearly 100% of the faculty is implementing the use of technology into their lessons. Some grade levels are enforcing technology projects and utilizing the Promethean boards while others are sticking with paper/pencil only. The problem occurs because technology moved forward while many staff members feel that they were left behind with little or no training. The gap lies with teachers not taking the initiative the train themselves and a school district running on very little funds and cannot afford professional development training.

The school would like full use of the Promethean boards by next school year and the leadership committee has noted that all grade levels should incorporate at least three major projects per school year that involve the use of technology. The leadership committee has established a need for a technology committee in order to train staff with current teachers that understand and use the available technology.

The key personnel that can provide me with insights to the performance problem is the principal of the school. Mrs. Susan Wilson has led the school for over three years now and would like for the staff to fully understand how to use the boards. I will be purposing my intervention to her at the end of the course.

Module 3

The human performance problem in the school is twofold. One, there are not enough Promethean boards/laptops for every classroom and two, many staff members do not incorporate the technology they currently have into their lessons effectively. Looking at three possible budgets to get things moving forward in the building I would do the following: If I had a $5000 budget I could not fix the problem of not having enough Promethean boards because they cost approximately $3000 each. So with the money I would try to help solve the next problem of not having enough laptops in the building by purchasing a rolling cart of laptops for the building to share. The only problem is that they can only be in one place at a time. We deal directly through Dell and that seems to be the only way we can purchase the computers. They have quoted me a price of $800 per laptop and $300 for a printer, $100 for a portable router and the cart is another $250. The cart is designed to hold ten computers so I'm looking at close to 9,000 for the cart. However, with a $5,000 budget I would only buy part of the cart to at least get a start. If I had a med-cost budget of $25,000 I could install most of the Promethean boards and maybe a cart of laptops. Again, I'm looking at $3,000 per board, however when I counted classrooms there are only six general ed. rooms without boards. That comes to $18,000 for boards plus $9,000 per cart. A total of $27,000 would be just over the medium range budget. If I had a high budget of $50,000 I would purchase the rest of the Promethean boards (18,000), enough laptops for the upper and lower grade levels (18,000), and include some ad-ons to the boards such as activexpressions (I'm the only one in my building with a set and they are nice). I would also pay for some training, but encourage administration to enforce the use of technology if staff has been trained. Aside from the budget I am thinking of starting a technology help group of sorts as a committee for next year.

Best Choice for budget

At this point I have to decide what is more an important, training staff members or purchasing hardware. After reading my colleagues' discussion posts I am aiming for the medium range budget of $25,000 to purchase the rest of the boards. I chose the price range because it 1) can be an obtainable goal, 2) get the most bang for the buck, and 3) get more student hands on computers within our school. I am putting together a team right now that is willing and able to train the rest of the staff as well as serve as a support group for teachers struggling with the technology. Therefore, the staff development aspect would be free.

Module 4

Justification---

Rejection of budget of $5000-- With only $5000 to spend on technology we as an organization would not be able to provide employees with the hardware needed to provide cutting edge lessons to our students. With a cost of $3000 we would only be able to purchase one board and provide training to all staff. However, at this point the organization wishes to expand the opportunity for students to encounter the technology across all grade levels. Also, there is no room to expand the current number of computers available to all students at any given time. While this budget is the easiest to obtain, it does little to solve our technological dilemma at the moment.

Rejection of the budget of 50,000. We as a staff just found out yesterday that we lost 5 points for our school (1 pt=full time, 1/2 pt=part time). Thus, we are losing all special area teachers and one Kindergarten teacher (I am safe for now). With no music, art, language, or possible P.E. we are in an extream budget crunch. The district is giving little to technology improvements to our schools. Therefore, $50,000 may have well be $50,000,000. It is not going to happen. This budget of course would fix a lot of the problems within the school, but as stated it is far fetched thinking right now.

Justification for budget of $25,000. I am optimistic about the opportunities to gain this budget for next school year. I have spoken to some key individuals within our school and the PTA president said that through fund raisers we will be able to support a budget of $8000-$9000 for the improvements. Alongside that amount the principal noted that we did not "cash in" our after school funds from this year that equal in the amount of $12.000). The district has now agreed to purchase one board per school over the summer, which will bring the amount needed for the boards to $12,000. The rest of the money will be used to begin the laptop cart for upper grades. Much is pending on PTA and if the principal is willing to commit the after school funds to this improvement project. This strategy is better than the other two because it will meet our needs and is now very obtainable.

Project Manager Responsibilities

As the project manager I play the role of leader, motivator, and coach. I am the one pushing to obtain the activboards for the rest of the gen. ed. population (special ed. has their own seperate funding). Therefore, I am taking charge of talking to the right people in make this happen for our school. I am doing my best to motivate the principal into using after school funding to help make the purchase. I also will be coaching the staff on how to utilize the boards beyond using them as a fancy white board. I am going to be making the contacts with the county in order to obtain the boards and possibly getting support to purchase a rolling cart of laptops. I am responsible for making sure the budget is in order prior to alerting staff that they will be receiving the boards.

Resource Manager--As the resource mgr. I will be making note of what materials are needed, looking into the space available in each classroom for installation (boards must be within 6 feet of the teacher computer), making sure school is available for installation date, and will make sure check is physically filled out and mailed correctly. Also, I will be keeping track of how much funding is coming from PTA via continuous communication with the PTA president, coming from after school funding, as well as any possible self-supported fund raisers that may be needed to fill the gaps. I will keep accurate records by tracking funds using Microsoft Excel.

Delivery system mgr.--For this aspect of managing I will make sure all computers have activstudio installed correctly as well as any updates that need to be in place prior to installation. After installation I will begin tutoring teachers on how to use their boards and give hands-on experiences to them so they begin feeling comfortable with the technology. Also, once installed I will make sure all parts are included.

Information mgt.

As a leader I am putting together a team with the initiative to give lessons throughout the school year to the entire staff on ways to improve their + classrooms and include inquiry through technology. I plan on demonstrating how to record your lessons and place them on your web page so students may go back and review what was taught in class.
 * Module 5

Financial and Budget Information ** The total tentative budget for my intervention strategy is $22,254.30. This includes $21654.30 for hardware purchase and $600.00 for instillation services. Additional support is provided free through Dell as well as support via PrometheanPlanet.com Staff training is going to be done on site with a team of teachers who have previously went through the training module themselves. http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:EKRr_ZMS3dkJ:www.peppm.org/Products/promethean/price.pdf+promethean+board+price&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjBr41D3BOBmE6BQncBBqM5AU9eCEwNrqQ4BCVd78RyIol-03JsxUOBrYFh7ynCFrHYmRyG8khZYrJ2FpaMFj0zaidv7orQ2stFj7g0GMPKpck0P5-_F-QCE0qojRIKWKjEbe-q&sig=AHIEtbQOZVhgfkV4lCsHHYQR-yLi418f5A With the purchase of the Promethean Boards we are getting the board, orange LCD projector, two pens, Activstudio and ActivInspire software. Also needed (already on school site) USB cables, monitor cables, RCA cables for DVD player hookup. Classrooms that actively use the interactive boards have shown a steady increase in student performance. A survey was given to 61 fourth grade students on what they thought of the Promethean boards and 100% said they thought the boards helped them learn, felt that sharing project information was easier, and would suggest that other classes have one in their room. Your intervention strategy must be assessed for its effectiveness. While you will not be implementing your proposal during this course, you should have a formative and summative evaluation plan in place. Consider the following: The project objectives will be evaluated by both the students and the faculty. The state test scores can be tracked to the classrooms that use the interactive boards and results can show improvements in students after a year of learning with the activboards. Also, surveys will be administered to both students and faculty asking what they liked and what could be improved. For formative evaluation I suggest frequent question/answer sessions with the staff members about the implementation of the activboards. For the students I suggest frequent usage of the board so that they are not only visually seeing the boards, but are truly interacting with the various flipcharts. Teachers can model board usage for the students and check for understanding by allowing students to demonstrate what they have learned. Summative evaluations for teachers can be a “bring your bag of tricks” workshop. Where teachers build flipcharts and bring them to share with the rest of the staff. For students, they can easily take a test via the board for understanding in all subjects. Also, the boards can be utilized by creating a Jeopardy game where students are placed into teams and answer problems stated on the board. Overall, the boards bring a much higher degree in interactivity to the classroom and students take a much higher interest in what they are learning when technology is incorporated into lessons. I have used my board for numerous activities and interactive projects given by my students.
 * Active board 387Pro Orange $3609.05 **
 * Installation from Dell $100 per classroom **
 * Order form website: **
 * Technical Information **
 * Project Assessment/Evaluation **