Tiffany+Thompson

EDUC 7103/8843 Lead & Manage Ed Tech

__**Performance Improvement Intervention**__ Brookwood Elementary 501 Central Avenue Dalton, GA 30721

Brookwood Elementary was built in 1964 within the Dalton Public School System in Georgia's northwest region, Dalton, GA. Currently, it is a Title 1 PK-5 school that serves approximately 620 students with 60 "educator" staff members. About 65% of the population is non-white and the majority is on free or reduced lunch. Brookwood has landed in the top percentile of all elementary schools in Georgia while making the steady climb for the past seven years. There are a lot of great things happening at Brookwood, but there is always room for improvement.

Recently, we have undergone a website overhaul. Our previous assistant principal, now principal, personally built and maintains ALL the website material. Dr. Celeste Martin is very tech savvy and appreciates new ideas and ways to implement technology. Check it out here [] The following beliefs, vision, and mission statements were taken from the website.

As a school in the Dalton Public Schools district, Brookwood Elementary shares the following **//beliefs//** with our friends and colleagues:
 * Each student is unique and can learn more at higher levels.
 * Students give their attention and commitment when provided engaging experiences.
 * Literacy is fundamental for success in all pursuits and necessary for lifelong learning.
 * Together, we achieve more. Each individual is a learner, teacher, designer, and leader.
 * Education is essential to the well-being of each individual, the economy, and our democratic way of life.

All of us in our district aspire to a **//vision//** where each student engages in interesting, challenging, satisfying experiences that result in profound learning in academic disciplines, synthesis, creativity, respect and ethics so that each student is a contributing citizen of the world.

Therefore, it is our **//mission//** at Brookwood to know our students, to work together, and to assure learning.

Since the district has adopted the Literacy Collaborative framework about six years ago, it was decided that three hours everyday would be devoted to literacy instruction; reading, writing, and word work/grammar. When all the other time segments are configured the other subject areas (math, science, and social studies) are left with limited time segments. Integration is an easy fix to help with the science and social studies curriculum and subject matter. However, hands on math time is crucial in students understanding concretely the foundational principles that lie under all intermediate skills that lie ahead. This is why the notion of //**"flipping the classroom"**// seems to have a logical answer to help with students maximizing their hands on time in class. Flipped classrooms were granted that name since that is what happens. The teacher flips the traditional way of lesson delivery by taping themselves going step by step with the instruction. The students view the video at home as their homework the night before and come to class the next day prepared to asks questions and share any comments or strategies that worked for them. This allows the teacher to dive right into guided practice with individual student needs in mind within small groups, centers/stations, and/or using manipulatives.

The stake holders and decisions makers most definitely need to consist of the principal or assistant principal, each grade level representative and any other willing teachers, challenge teacher, special education teacher, and our PTA board parent volunteers. It is going to be critical to get parents on board with this new idea and way of approaching "homework."

Actual Current Performance Teachers seem to be frustrated with the amount of distractions plaguing the classroom today. Students seem uninterested, unable to hold their attention, and unaware of their responsibilities for their own learning! Teachers spend countless hours planning lectures, activities, and homework for students to complete to just find one week later their summative assessments are not where the teacher suspected they would be. Students are not held accountable at home to further explore their learning through homework and often come back the next day confused what the lesson was yesterday. Chevalier (2007) discusses the need for having measurable goals. Only after surveying parents and students for an actual current level of physical performance and using the student's formative pre tests for the nine work courses will we be able to draw on our current level of performance.

Desired Performance We desire to be within a facility that embodies learning 24/7. That means the administration feels the need to be open minded to allow teachers to implement new ideas or methods to engage the students that they currently have and support them in whatever endeavors they believe they need in order to move forward. That means the teachers design and model lessons that allow students to draw from and carry on their learning no matter the context or location. That means students feel the responsibility to meet their content knowledge full circle with readings, practice, application, teaching others and sharing life experiences in order to make the learning more relatable for others. One step towards that goal is the idea of flipping our traditional classrooms. The desired performance will be one that sees an increase in student's physical attempts at home to focus their attention to new learning via watching the new video podcasts. Also, the desired performance is an increase in students' formative semester post tests for each nine week term.

Performance Gap Currently, the amount of time students have with the teacher is miniscule, therefore no time to clear up misconceptions, ask questions, and/or practice what they learned in a variety of venues. The performance gap is huge in retrospect, however, any amount of improvement show signs of changing the mindset of adminstration, teachers, and students to embody this notion of learning 24/7. We don't want to just improve student's weekly test averages, or term post test scores, or responsibility efforts. The performance gap is alarming because it deals with raising the level of expectation for all stakeholders. We need to limit the amount of lecture time to short, concise, snippets of instruction that allow students to dwell on a new concept, free from distractions, and come prepared with questions to ask to deepen their understanding.

Cause Analysis There is a disconnect between home, school, community, and the work place. Teachers (myself included) find difficulty in connecting all new learning to relatable circumstances that students can understand. Math is, for the most part, easy to show students why and how they will use it in real life. However, writing skills when we are living in a tech savvy world is harder to explain why it is important. Students see their role in schools as a MUST DO because my parents will go to jail. Solving any performance gap is going to take students "buy in." When we can get the students on board with an idea to show room for improvement we will have engaged them enough to teach them anything. Making more time for teachers to be hands on, more physical contact and personal conversations about students' learning will entice students more to feel a partnership in their learning. Students will feel the need to come prepared to class by viewing the new lesson via online videos.

Three Intervention Strategies Low-End Strategy In order to implement this notion of flipping the classroom, the teachers will need to be equipped with a device to video themselves teaching a lesson and upload it to the Internet. Therefore, the most important, first step is to purchase a standard iPad or similar device for each intermediate teacher (grades 3-5) that feel willing to take on this new approach. With iPad's initial device costing approximately $500, the suggested $5,000 low cost strategy would allow us to purchase at least nine iPads plus nine different codes for the iMovie ap to edit their taped sessions and upload directly to YouTube. However, this strategy would require students to either have Internet access at home or come in early or stay late at school to view the videos.
 * (9) iPads wifi($499) = $4,500
 * (9) iMovie codes ($4.99) = $45

Medium-End Strategy In order to implement this notion of flipping the classroom with a medium cost budget of $25,000, each intermediate teacher (thirteen for grades 3-5) would be issued a standard iPad and iMovie code to upload their videos to YouTube. There would also be approximately 80 iPod Touches purchased for students that do not have Internet access at home. The videos would be uploaded directly to the device and would not need Internet access. These iPods could also be used in the classroom within small groups. 80 within thirteen classrooms means about six devicecs per classroom, that is an awesome resource to have on hand at all times.
 * (13) iPads wifi ($499) = $6,500
 * (13) iMovie codes ($4.99) = $65
 * (80) iPod Touches ($199) = $16,000

High-End Strategy In order to implement this notion of flippling the classroom with a high cost budget of $50,000, each intermediate teacher (thirteen for grades 3-5) would be issued a standard iPad and iMovie code to upload their videos to YouTube. Fifty iPads with wifi cellular access could be purchased to issue one to each student that does not have Internet access at home. This would save from having to upload the videos to each device along with the Internet. This would also allow students to access the Internet for other projects that require getting online. However, along with the wifi cellular it requires a monthly access fee of $15, which I suspect would need to be accessible for nine months. With the remaining balance, filtering software would need to be purchased and uploaded on the students' iPads with wifi cellular access to ensure safety while students have these devices at home and possibly unsupervised.
 * (13) iPads wifi ($499) = $6,500
 * (13) iMovie codes ($4.99) = $65
 * (50) iPads wifi cellular ($629) = $31,500
 * (50) monthly cellular fees ($15 per month for 9 months) = $6,750
 * Security Filtering Software = $ unknown

At this time, the low-end strategy is the best method of action. The performance gap targets the loss of instruction time due to lecturing and teaching while distractions occur for our students. The low-end strategy meets this very need, but without the added cost of providing extra devices. A trial period of training, implementation, and staff/student feedback is necessary to test the results. Training would consist of teaching through clear and concise language, using the iPad, uploading to YouTube, and making the best use of the time the next day providing excellent guided practice activities to apply from the video lesson. This would allow nine teachers from third to fifth grades and approximately 190+ students to experience the flipped classroom. After speaking with an early morning paraprofessional she is more than willing to allow students to come in early to view videos that do not have the capability at home. Our ASP director (After School Program) also extended an invitation for ASP students to view videos under their care. The middle-end strategy sounds good on paper, but the actuality of uploading videos to the devices daily does not seem realistic of our teachers. After feedback is received from the staff on the roll out of the low-end strategy, perhaps some may see the benefit of providing this resource and commit to uploading such videos daily to particular devices. The high-end strategy is just too much to take on right now considering the state of our current budget restrictions. Dr. Martin feels confident in the idea of moving our students and parents into this 21st century approach to redesign the way we instruct students. However, perhaps after a trial period of the low-end strategy, it will be easier to convince the board to allocate enough funds to do so.
 * Justification Strategy**

As project manager, I am very confident in making this approach as clear as possible for the staff. Just as Januszewski and Molenda (p. 178, 2008) state, the project manager must be able to manage “people, processes, physical infrastructure, and financial resources” in order to see our goal produce more focused students and precise teaching. The project manager could easily show the staff an example of a typical class’ lesson under the current method. Then, they could show the same lesson via a prerecorded video viewed by students at home and how much time this frees up for the teacher to have guided practice. The project manager is able to show the staff the pedagogical reasoning behind flipping their class. The project manager must be aware of financial constrictions and budget concerns while purchasing iPads and iMovie codes. Although there are other means of videoing lessons and uploading them online, in order to make the delivery and support of the idea consistent, the project manager will work to issue the same hardware and training to all given appropriate financial means. After finances allow purchases to be delivered, the project manager will be responsible for supplying teachers with the hardware to video such lessons, step-by-step processes to upload their videos in a kid-friendly easy way to be located at home online, and be available to staff at any time. Availability is crucial in order to answer questions or concerns to not allow a break in students’ expectations of opening a new lesson at home. Supporting teachers with technology is a critical component and seems like a never ending responsibility. There are always confused staff members, trouble with accessing technology, and keeping the idea going long term. However, with an effective and organized project manager, staff members will “buy in” to the idea of flipping their classroom and will be supported the whole way through. Follow up surveys from students and parents and round table conversations with staff will allow the project manager to evaluate the performance gap and ensure the idea is still moving forward.
 * Project Manager**

Since quoting the first low-end strategy the cost of the iPad2 has dropped one hundred dollars. Therefore, we were able to purchase two more devices plus two more iMovie app codes. Twelve intermediate teachers in grades third through fifth will be issued the new devices upon delivery. I will provide training for uploading and taking eginning steps for iMovie. I will also old training for videoing lessons and uploading to YouTube.
 * Financial and Budget Information**
 * **__Purchase__** ||  **__Unit Price__**  ||  **__Price__**  ||
 * **(12) Apple iPads** || **(12) @ $399** || **$4,788**  ||
 * **(12) iMovie app codes** || **(12) @ $4.95** || **$59.40**  ||
 * **TOTAL** ||   || **$4,847.40** ||
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Each teacher will have my cell phone so that they can contact me immediately to resolve any issue(s). Since students will be expecting to see the videos at night and ready for application activities the next day in class, teachers will need to get questions answered right away. Teachers will issue student and parent surveys to track the engagement levels and participation attitudes towards schoolwork under the new flipped model by visiting []
 * Project Assessment**