August 9-10, 2001

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Ms. Judy Monroe, our Principal,  has been extremely supportive of our grant from the writing to the implementation.

Diane Bennett, our Technology Coach, and our faculty are ready for the challenge ahead???

On our first day, our faculty was given a completed copy of our grant proposal for their review while at the same time an overview of their part in fulfilling the requirements set forth in the proposal.  Since we have 11 new faculty members, this was the first time they were aware of our participation in the grant writing process.  Diane Bennett, our Technology Coach, explained the impact this grant would have on each teacher as well as the learning climate for Mt. Juliet High School.  Immediately, dialog pursued of the training teachers would be able to receive.  Contact was made with Departmental Mentors and the important role they will play.  Each mentor was introduced and acknowledged for their mentorship role. 

On August 10th, our faculty work day, some faculty mentors and the Technology Coach helped in small group training sessions on establishing e-mail accounts on our district's mail server and setting up and using E-Class, our district gradebook program.  

All teachers will be required to use this program for their gradebook as we will export the grades each grading period to produce report cards.  This fits well into our pilot project goals for TLCF as it involves using basic computer skills involving file directories, saving and retrieving files, and utilizing software to do what many have done with a calculator for some time.  It was apparent some faculty members were anxious about being required to use software to do what they had routinely done by hand for many years but many felt more comfortable when they realized they would be able to use departmental mentors and the technology coach provided by our grant to help them through the initial learning process.  Some teachers took advantage of securing appointments with the Technology Coach and mentors to have one-on-one training.  This helped produce a more definite needs assessment analysis and initiated the idea of after-school workshops on E-Class using stipend money provided by this grant.

Let the new year begin!!

August 13-17
2001

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A make-shift desk is created for the Technology Coach hoping to be able to find a desk somewhere??

Vickie Anderson and Jeff Serbin, Social Studies teachers, seek help with learning E-Grades and our Web-based Outlook E-Mail programs.

Also during this week, individual teachers requested appointments with the Technology Coach for help with e-mail and E-Class which was very briefly introduced last week.  It was discovered early in this week that the file initially prepared for each teacher to use did not have the correct properties (grading scale, grading period bin map, etc.) and, therefore, could not be used until the Technology Department corrected it.  This did cause some frustration as teachers needed to begin importing rosters and recording grades.  We continued, however, to meet one-on-one during planning periods as requested by each teacher to understand how the software could be used with the method the teacher establishes to evaluate students (points possible methods, category weighted values, etc.)  It is probably the most frustrating to teacher's who have not used technology regularly for their gradebook to have to "wait" on the Technology Department to have a correct file in place.  Diane Bennett assured the teachers when the file was in place, they would enjoy some of the automated features of the software and that in the long run, it would save them time.  However, initially they would experience some frustration.

Another aspect of frustration this week were network login problems with a few teachers and setting up logins for student access to the network.  Since all teachers must login and check and send attendance from their classroom, it was discovered several teachers (both new and returning) did not have login access.  As each teacher reported their problem, Diane Bennett and our Technology Department worked with our Novell network administrator software to set the correct login properties.  Once teachers were able to log on and send attendance, they were happy they no longer had to do it by hand and send to the office on foot.  Once student logins were entered, students could begin saving work to their network directory and teacher's in our lab setting did not have to use floppy disks to store student work.  Also, work was done on configuring each teacher's workstation for to use our global e-mail system.  This presented challenges to teach teachers how to use Outlook and will need to be done in more depth in some of our basic training sessions.

Another activity this week included talking with vendors who will be used to purchase equipment and supplies for our pilot project.  It was evident some vendors might not be able to provide products and services as early as we would have liked.  As a result, we discovered our timetable set in our original proposal might have to shift somewhat.  Contacts were also made regarding wiring our training room and outsourcing the necessary LAN drops for the wireless computing lab.  

From a reflective viewpoint, there were some bumps in the road with our technology for the beginning of school, but teachers began to see how the basics of technology can help in our endeavor to communicate (using global e-mail and network attendance checking) even though it did not go as smoothly as we would have liked.  The one thing apparent from this week is that our teachers understand the need for technology training when new technology or technology procedures are introduced and they are grateful this year will provide that. 

August 20-24, 2001

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Some Supplies Arrive

Our Library Conference Room is getting a facelift to be known as our TLCF 2001 Training Room

Electricians add more outlets to take care of additional electrical needs of hardware.  We also added three additional drops to our LAN.

Diane Bennett, the Technology Coach, also met with our Technology Director and our Network Director to discuss and pin down equipment purchases for the implementation of the grant.  One big problem was finding a wireless laptop cart to fit on our elevator and still serve our needs.  The elevator being so small, we found we would have to go with smaller carts but order more of them.  We also discussed the issue of printing and decided because the cost of the laptops had decreased since the time we initially wrote the budget, we would be able to buy networkable printers instead of ink jet and use the money saved in that direction.  This we knew would be a better solution for our faculty and students.  We worked on making the necessary contacts and getting the necessary quotes updated.

Another significant event this week was the Technology Coach meeting with our Departmental Mentors in an after-school session to discuss our faculty's basic skill ranking and planning training groups for the year.  The Departmental Mentors also spent time working on writing the rough draft benchmarks due for our state evaluators.  This was a difficult process and we decided to focus on using Word Processing and PowerPoint for our basic training focus as these areas were direct needs of our faculty since we received this software last year but had not utilized it to its fullest potential.  We also discussed this would have the most impact on integrating technology into the classroom along with the Internet.  As these needs were determined, it gave direction to finding professional development materials to assist in the training process.

The process of dealing with requisitions and purchase orders through our school systems accounting department also was a focus of this week.  By phone, contact was made as to procedures and forms and the process of completing the necessary paperwork to order supplies, materials, and equipment was initiated.  Calls were made to some vendors for inquiries.  Our local maintenance crew worked on the wiring this week to handle the carts for the wireless laptop computers.  We are still waiting for the network drops to be completed.

August 27-31, 2001

Latin teacher, Grace deMajewski, helps one of her students find the Web page she created from Word which identifies research links for Latin I.

Judy Eastman demonstrates how using a PowerPoint slide show set to display review questions on a timed basis keeps students on task and allows her to monitor students while they work.

Technology Infusion Efforts
This week was by far the best week in our school year with regards to technology infusion.  The goal for this week was to meet with all 76 of our teachers to be sure the E-grades file they are working with had the correct file attributes and was set up properly for network access.  Realizing this needed to be done quickly as we were approaching the fourth week of school and our first set of progress reports are due at 4 1/2 weeks, teachers were motivated to dig in and become familiar with entering assignments and posting grades.  Each teacher came to our computer lab during their planning time.  Specific directions were given as to importing rosters and setting file attributes.  By the end of the week, it was apparent much progress had been made in the comfort level of some teachers who do not frequently use the computer.  This helped me to realize great strides had been made in training with regards to basic skills although it also made me realize much more needs to be done.   As teachers made it clear they wanted more training and to be able to practice what they learned, it was evident we would need to offer two after school sessions during the month of September on using E-grades and E-Mail.  By the end of the week, I needed only to see a handful of teachers I had not yet touched base with and many of those were due to login technical problems which first had to be handled by our Technology Department.

More and more teachers also are beginning to use e-mail to communicate with me and solve problems although more training needs to be emphasized in the management process of using e-mail.  Several teachers were able to describe their problems clearly and a solution by e-mail was sufficient.  However, some required me visiting them in their classroom for a "just-in-time" approach to technology training.  In any case, the technology infusion efforts of this week created a clear picture of our need to emphasize basic computer skills as is the focus of our pilot project.  

Teacher Coaching Progress Indicators, Attitudinal Shifts, and Celebrations of Accomplishment
Several indicators of progress were apparent from teacher/coach conversations.  Many commented they did not understand how other schools who did not have a full-time technology coach would survive the new and on-going technology requirements of teachers.  This helped me to realize they were not only appreciative of the one-on-one help but they felt it was a necessity.   Many continued to request appointments with me to help them with issues which brought them closer to understanding the E-grades program.  I was so busy, I began to take my Sony 99-message voice recorder (more useful technology) in the hall with me to help remember who to get back to and when.  In some cases, several teachers would gather around me at the same time to listen to the explanations of their colleagues questions.  It is evident the coaching process gives teachers the security they need to know someone is dedicating their work day to helping them in "real time" professional development opportunities.

Regarding attitudinal shifts, I felt I had struck gold when our principal, Ms. Judy Monroe, told me she was having lunch with one of our faculty members who had expressed genuine concern over having to use the computer for grades this year.  He said to her, "This computer thing isn't going to be so bad after all."  Another person who had expressed an interest last year in being able to turn a computer on said to me, "this can become addicting."  It was from these two comments I knew we were on our way to seeing an attitude change in our teachers.  Grace deMajewski created a Latin reference Web page for her students, e-mailed it to me and it was posted in a matter of a few minutes.  It was encouraging to see the excitement from teachers as they begin to see how using technology can create an excitement for learning for both students and teachers.  Most of all, I see a genuine desire among teachers to want to learn technology; however, they don't want technology requirements without the genuine one-on-one help to support them as they learn it.

Management Challenges
The biggest management challenge we have experienced this week continues to be the frequent need for technical assistance from our Technology Department, especially in the beginning of a new year.  We have only one technician for 11 schools resulting in a much longer than desired wait time.  Problems range from machine configurations to assisting with new teachers' login problems and beyond.  Many times during the week, I would tell teachers to log their problem  in the book for our technician and you could see the disgust.  Budget woes do not give much hope for changing that picture although I was told there is a plan to hire more technicians if our county commission provides more financial resources.  From a coaches standpoint, I know you can't play the game if you don't have the equipment you need.  Our technicians are very dedicated to their job and are very qualified.  There just aren't enough of them.  In addition, our county is bringing a new middle school and a new high school online this year and many technology issues relating to startup for them has had us on the waiting list.

Other management issues involved purchasing.  As last week I began to understand the process I must go through to order equipment and supplies, this week I was able to follow through and placed the order for our equipment, teacher training materials, and some software.  I spent half a day at our central office securing purchase orders and matching with requisitions.  Even with technology, there is still a lot of paperwork to the process.