One Small Schools Story: Collaboration, Training and Technology

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One Small Schools StoryCollaboration, Training
and Technology

• Shelee King George
• Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and
  Technology

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Dedicated To

• Bill Ellis
• Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
• Seattle School District
• Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and
  Technology

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Table of Contents

• TISS Grant
• Transforming High Schools
• Cleveland High School
• Clevelands Journey
• Lessons Learned
• The Road Ahead

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Chapter OneThe TISS Grant
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Technology Infusion in Small Schools

• a.k.a. TISS
• Grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
• Acknowledges the labor intensive tasks
  transitioning to small schools

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How can technology be applied to enhance teacher
productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness in
the adoption of engaging instructional practices?
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The TISS Wish

• Greater student engagement and personalization of
  learning
• More project based learning
• Increased use of technology to enhance teacher
  productivity, communication and effectiveness

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Chapter Two Transforming High Schools
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Small Schools Advocate

• Learning strategies that are
• More personal
• Relevant
• Challenging

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Size Matters

• Too many classes
• Not enough rigor
• Lack teacher/mentor relationships
• Tend to be rigid
• Tend to be schedule driven

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Small Schools

• Emphasis on personalized learning
• Rigorous achievement
• Engaged communities of learning
• Professional growth for teachers
• Equity

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Size Alone Does Not Make A Good School
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Good Schools

• Have a common focus
• Have high expectations
• Are personalized
• Value mutual respect

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Teachers in Good Schools

• Have time to collaborate
• Have time to strengthen their skills
• Integrate technology into the teaching and
  learning environment
• Value student exhibitions, performances, and
  portfolios

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Chapter Three Welcome to Cleveland High School
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Cleveland High School

• Seattle School District
• 110 schools
• 46,416 students
• Part of the Gates Foundation High School
  Transformation and the Achievers Scholarships
  Programs

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Small School Transition

• 2003 Small Schools Planning
• 2004 Small School Implementation
• 2004 TISS grant begins

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Meet the Students
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735 Students

• 59 graduate
• 59 free/reduced lunch
• Culturally diverse
• 48 African American
• 28 Asian
• 11 Latino
• 11 Caucasian
• 2 American Indian

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Cleveland Staff

• Of 44 certificated staff members
• 50 are new to Cleveland
• Current staff 40 have less than 4 years teaching
  experience
• 75 Caucasian
• 14 Asian
• 11 African American

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Theme-based Learning Communities

• InfoTech Academy
• Global Studies Academy
• Health Environment and Life Academy
• Arts Conservatory Satellite

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Student Advisory

• 20 students per advisory
• Intent
• Build relationships
• Personalize learning
• Culminating project
• Reality

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Achievement

• 2nd year program improvement in Math and Reading
• Lowest test scores in the district and state
• Minimal progress

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Resources

• Gates Foundation
• Paul Allen Family Foundation
• Social Venture Partners
• Global Visionaries
• One World Now
• Stuart Foundation
• Many OUTSIDE resources

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If Good Schools Have

• Time for collaboration
• Time to strengthen skills
• Integration of technology into teaching and
  learning
• Student exhibitions, presentations and portfolios

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TISS can provide this opportunity
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Chapter Four Clevelands Journey
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TISS Journey Year 1

• Grant focused
• Advisory formed
• Gathered information
• Selected tools
• Established training model

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TISS Focus

• Personalize and improve learning
• Strengthen Web based communication among staff,
  students and parents
• Facilitate collaboration
• Provide meaningful professional development

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TISS Advisory

• Interested business community members
• Fiscal manager Alliance4Education
• Project manager Puget Sound Center
• District technology representative
• Principal
• One teacher per academy

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Gathering Information

• Parent Info Meeting
• Student Info Meeting
• Teacher Info Meeting
• Spring Survey 2004

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Teachers

• What makes your job so labor intensive?
• What is the most difficult part of personalizing
  learning for your students?

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Keeping track of kids in my advisory their
attendance, their grades in all classes and to
keep parents informed
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Personalization

• Need student information
• Need shared responsibility
• Connect the fragments

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Parents

• Communication with teachers
• Student progress and attendance
• School information

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Students

• Working technology
• Ability to share files with group members
• Grades

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What do we need to meet the needs of parents,
students and staff?
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• Tools
• Equipment
• Training
• Collaboration

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SharePoint

• Collaboration tool
• Portals of communication
• Shared resources
• Widely used in business
• Educational application?

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Online Progress Report

• Biweekly progress reports
• Paper nightmare
• Labor intensive

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Scheduling Tools

• District Student Information System (SIS)
• District transition
• Building tool

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Equipment

• TISS Mini Grants
• Tied to learning unit
• Collaborative
• Mid year journal reflection
• Year end presentation to Advisory

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Training

• New tools
• Ongoing training
• Onsite support
• Monthly by academy

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Peer Coaches

• Build capacity
• Opportunity to increase collaboration
• Reflect on teacher practice
• 8 Session Training

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Development Team

• Meet the needs of staff, students and parents
• Honor the teaching and learning process
• Build tools

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Summer Slam

• Development team
• Attendance and progress report tool
• Scheduling tool
• Set up SharePoint
• Peer Coaching Training
• Coaching skills
• Engaging teaching practices

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Conclusion of year 1

• TISS identity
• Focus
• Tools
• PD plan
• Ready, set, rollout!

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TISS Journey Year 2
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TISS Progress Report Tool

• Easy Grade Pro
• Sync with the SIS
• Class lists import
• Accessible by all via password
• Student driven vs teacher driven
• Attendance

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Progress Report Sample
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Staff Rollout

• August training
• Leadership support
• Expectation to use Easy Grade Pro for attendance
  and progress reports

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Student Rollout

• A new focus for advisory
• A new emphasis for teacher training
• Students ask good questions

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Parent Rollout

• Online viewing of Progress Reports
• Student network accounts
• Parent orientation
• Community access locations
• Word spreads

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Big Win

• At the end of the first month
• 18,193 hits
• 242 of 735 students (or parents) access their
  progress reports
• 43 of 45 teachers look at the online version of
  progress reports at least once

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Beyond the Tool

• Teachers reflect on grading and teaching
  practices
• Academies begin to compare student progress
  across classes
• Coaches provide just in time support

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Internalizing

• Students begin to ask questions
• Advisory focus moves from the tool to student
  reflection and goal setting
• Personalizing learning

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Journey Roadblock

• Momentum halts
• Change in leadership
• Change in district support
• Only a detour New leadership support

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SharePoint for Communication

• Public Web site
• Maintained by each academy
• Communication to community
• Emphasis on public communication

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Coaching Collaborations

• Migrating to the Northwest Should We Stay or
  Should We Go? Students decide what to leave
  behind when migrating to a new home.
• Getting Down with Langston How does the art and
  music of the Harlem Renaissance reflect the time
  period?

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Mini Grant Implementation

• Video editing project
• Using Inspiration and Posters to present Arrival
  Stories
• Document cameras for writing prompts and
  presentations
• On line staff handbook
• Video portfolios for Arts Conservatory

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Mini Grant Reflections

• The collaboration experience was a rewarding one
  for me because I worked on my coaching skills.  I
  also learned a lot about how my collaborating
  teachers thought about technology.  It was
  challenging to bring technology into the picture
  without my collaborating teachers seeing this as
  more work.

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Mini Grant Reflections

• Working with my two collaborating teachers has
  been wonderful.  They have been very excited
  about adding another dimension to their
  teaching.

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Mini Grant Reflection

• One student that has become quite experienced
  using Photoshop will be entering several of his
  Photoshop works in an exhibition later this
  month. He is now assisting other students in the
  use of this program.

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Mini Grant Reflection

• The collaboration is the part that has moved us
  forward.  This collaboration between teachers has
  given the students an example of how we want them
  to connect with others and connect in a different
  way with materials.

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Mini Grant Reflection

• I was amazed that students who show little
  interest in class work and are failing most other
  classes, really got into the video editing and
  know more about it than I do at this point!

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Peer Coaching Triads

• Deliberate collaboration
• 5 coaches with 2 collaborating teachers each
  affects 15 staff members
• Deepen our understanding about student work
• Increase engaging instructional practices
• District equipment incentives

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Chapter Five Lessons Learned
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Evaluation

• Administered a self-report skill and practice
  survey (Pre and Post)
• Year One 19 responded
• Year Two 28 responded
• In Year Two included questions related to
  technology tools
• Easy Grade Pro
• Online Student Progress Reports

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Communication with Parents

• I have been delighted when I have been able to
  email a progress report to a parent, to clarify a
  point or simply update a parent about a students
  work.
• 23 out of 28 teachers reported using online
  student progress reports to communicate progress
  to parents.

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Impact on Advisory Classes

• 26 out of 28 teachers reported using online
  student progress reports to review student
  progress in other classes
• Easy Grade Pro has made it possible for me to
  get a total academic picture of my students.

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Impact on Teacher Practices

• 22 of 28 reported using EGP to record grades
• 25 of 28 reported using EGP on a daily or weekly
  basis
• Almost every student knows how to access their
  grades on line and they do so frequently. I post
  grades almost every day for this reason.

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I can monitor student progress more quickly
thus allowing me more time for lesson planning
and delivery.
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• 20 of 28 reported monitoring student progress in
  other classes on a daily, weekly or monthly basis
  
• 22 of 28 report using online student progress
  reports with students
• Students can now track what their grades are and
  dont wait until the end of the quarter.

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• I know my students really pay attention when the
  grades are updated which inspires me to stay on
  top of it.

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Good Schools Value

• Time for collaboration
• Time to strengthen skills
• Integration of technology into teaching and
  learning
• Student exhibitions, presentations and portfolios
• TISS provides this opportunity

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Other Lessons

• Honor teacher needs
• Build district relationships
• Align resources
• Maximize Peer Coaching
• Strengthen collaboration
• Build capacity for sustainability

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Chapter SixThe Road Ahead
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The Road Ahead

• Advisory curriculum
• Academy Integrated Units
• Transition to district tools
• Expand the use of SharePoints collaboration
  feature
• Implement Coaching Triads
• Sustainability emphasis

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When we reach the end of the road
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we need to have empowered students.
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They show up every day
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believing we will teach them.
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As educators, we owe them the very best
opportunity to learn.
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May we collaborate to make a difference.
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We are the Faces of Cleveland
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Contact Information

• Project Management and Evaluation
• Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and
  Technology www.pugetsoundcenter.org
• Shelee King George skgeorge_at_pugetsoundcenter.org
• TISS Tool Development
• Clif Swigget clif_at_mindsai.com
• Small Schools Initiative in Seattle Schools
• Alliance4Education
• Emily Carlson emily_at_alliance4ed.org