Goals of the Staff Development Plan:

1. Participating teachers (the grant team) will write and implement curricular units as outlined by the academic curriculum.  These units will include academic and technology goals.
2. Participating teachers (the grant team) will receive hands-on training on technology relevant to the curricular units, including the use of productive software in the classroom, locating and utilizing resources on the World Wide Web, effectively using e-mail in the classroom, utilizing the structured curriculum resources available on the World Wide Web, creating web-based curricular activities, designing and maintaining a web site devoted to the curricular units, and using and reviewing curriculum-based software.
3. Participating teachers (the grant team) will receive training related to pedagogical structures and strategies that will enhance student learning, including engaged learning, learning styles, and strategies for reading and math.

Summary of Staff Development Plan:

The purpose the staff development plan is to work closely with the identified teachers who will receive focused, strategic, hands-on mentoring via an educational technology consultant supplied by C.A.S.T.L.E. Technology Consultants, Inc.  The identified teachers will meet, at the start of the staff development program, with the mentor to receive an overview of the total program.  At this time, the identified teachers will complete two surveys:  (1) Identification of Basic Technology Skills, and (2) Identification of Understanding of Technology Integration Concepts.  These surveys will be re-administered at the end of the program to determine growth within the identified teachers.  An additional training day, toward the end of the grant period, will allow teachers to participate in an exit interview to determine what was gained from the staff development program. At this time, they will complete the post-survey.

The rest of the training (10 days) will be divided equally among the five participants. Each participant will receive 2 days (12 hours) of focused, strategic, hands-on staff development.  This training will be done directly with the mentor.  It will consist of observing the mentor deliver an exemplar lesson, technology hands-on training, how to utilize testing data to make assessment-driven decisions concerning instruction, curriculum writing, and support when implementing curricular units. The final curricular units and supported student materials will be collected and collated as part of the evaluation of the entire grant.

Staff Development Plan Timetable:

Month/Date Description September 22, 2000 Initial Workshop Overview of program Completion of surveys Teacher/Mentor Interviews September 27, 2000 Use of Online Generators (Quia.com) October 11, 2000 Use of Online Lesson Generators (Kiko.com)   October 25, 2000 Delivering of Exemplar Unit October 27, 2000 Curriculum Writing   October 30, 2000 Delivering of Exemplar Unit November 3, 2000 Curriculum Writing   November 8, 2000 Strategies and Software for Reading   November 10, 2000 Strategies and Software for Reading   January 10, 2001 Delivering of Curricular Unit   January 12, 2001 Delivering of Curricular Unit   February 5, 2001 Review/Compiling Materials