My Action Plan (if I were in charge...)

Well folks,  I created my Action Plan for integrating Web 2.0 tools into my school district.  I hope that it becomes a success in our district (we're doing some of this stuff already but I didn't wanna spill the beans just yet!).



GENERAL INFORMATION
1. Name of Organization: Pell City High School
2. Project Title: Panther News & Notes
3. Project Location: Pell City High School
4. Contact Person: Mr. Shawn E. Schofield
5. Contact Information:
1300 Cogswell Avenue Pell City , AL 35125
Phone: (205) 338-2250
shawn.schofield@pellcityschools.net

6. Project Timeline: Commence in August 2011 School Year and be continuous.
7. Amount Required: N/A
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Our campus community is disparate, diverse, and vast in terms of size. It is also unique because of the vast number of teachers & students who live outside of the city limits but attend our school district area. Our campus also has many extracurricular activities which have a tendency to spread our teachers & students all around the metro Birmingham area. Panther News & Notes will provide insight to our staff on important reminders, expectations, and logistical decisions and how they must be implemented to achieve success at our campus.
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
As stated previously, our unique considerations for our campus community have made it a requisite that we try many tools to keep our school community informed on the latest events. While doing this, we must take into consideration that financial costs to this project must be minimal but yield excellent returns. Parents are increasingly becoming more interactive using Web 2.0 tools such as text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs. This has brought on many challenges, including quashing rumors, innuendos, while projecting our successes, etc. Our problem can be solved best by providing an avenue towards keeping our stakeholders informed with accurate information, while at the same time, keeping media reporting accurate, fair, & balanced.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
• Provide insight on logistical decisions that building leaders have made for the upcoming day, week, grading period, etc.
• Provide advice on how to improve best practices in teaching and learning in small daily portions / chunks with research-based best practices provided to us via our teacher in-services, workshops, etc.
• Inspire more feedback, collaboration while instilling collegiality
• Evaluate and showcase educators’ best practices while implementing ISTE NET-T standards
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN:
• School leaders, department heads, and teachers will participate in an in-service about blogging & podcasting. They will learn how to design blog accounts & podcasting accounts. (1 CEU hour max.) To be held on August 3, 2011.
• Show administrative leadership by implementing a daily podcast of Panther News & Notes that will be sent to faculty email accounts via attachment. Current events, extracurricular activities, ideas of best practices instruction, and community interaction will be the key highlights.
• A Blog created by the Principal will be used as a “virtual hardcopy” of the Panther News & Notes. Each teacher is provided the opportunity to provide a comment to provide feedback. The blog will also promote teachers towards being professional while also being collaborative in their feedback.
• Each department will have their monthly department meetings as normal & recorded via podcast. The podcast will be sent via email attachment to the administration.
• The department heads will create blogs that highlight what faculty members of the departments are working on in their classes on a weekly basis. Members of the department will submit their weekly contributions to the department head at least 2 days prior to the next school week. These blogs will be linked to our school’s website. Examples of student work & examples of effective differentiated instruction are encouraged to be posted on the blogs as proof positive towards our colleagues about best practices. Samples will be posted on the school’s website & on Twitter.
• ***NOTE*** HIGHLIGHTS OF ALL BLOGS WILL ALSO BE AVAILABLE ON TWITTER & GOOGLE READER; ALL BLOG ACCOUNTS WILL BE CREATED & MONITORED BY BUILDING TECHNOLOGY COORDINATOR & PRINCIPAL
PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION:
The monitoring will take place via the documentation listed in the above section. The Building Technology Coordinator will create a survey with “Survey Monkey” with a 5 point Likert Scale that addresses how effective the project is towards keeping the public informed. Additionally, I will be able to evaluate how effective the Panther News & Notes is through informal assessments (private conversations- oral, instant message) with the teachers and community (parents/stakeholders). I will also read comments posted online to the blogs, as well as share some of those thoughts at faculty meetings for further feedback. The amount of positive or negative feedback will allow the school leadership & faculty to make adjustments as time progresses. The blogs and podcasts are implemented to provide insight and to keep everyone informed as soon as possible. The hit-meter (# of site visits on blogs) and also the amount of comments will be used to determine how effective the project truly is.
DOCUMENTATION AND SHARING RESULTS :
The project will be documented via Google Reader & Twitter by the Building Technology Coordinator. Results will be shared via the Principal’s blog, Google Reader, & Twitter. The Survey Monkey results will be posted online via the Principal’s blog, Google Reader, & Twitter too.
PROJECT BUDGET:
Panther News & Notes will be using Blogger, Twitter, Google Reader and Internet access.
ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Enjoy!