The Plan A Trinity At Work: A One Year Plan

Teachers Working Together: The Starting Point. Collaboration is the key term in this game – At the end of the current academic year, teachers will meet with the supervisor to review their successes, difficulties and need for improvement. Note that the CAPA team had a recent visit to the school and recommended some changes regarding the use of technology. – Course specific teams will be created to work during the summer. The teams will review the curriculum and support it with additional framework, resources and activities. – A team of technologically committed teachers will be created to compile a set of activities to support the curriculum. (at least 3 technology based activities per chapter.)

The Curriculum Writing: The End of Curriculum Chaos A concise curriculum identifying what do the teachers expect the students to know by the end of each unit (UBD model) would be created. In addition, a clear reasonable and agreeable pacing will be developed for each course. A set of technological activities developed by the technology team will be incorporated into each unit of the revised curriculum. A source of projects aligned to the curriculum can be found at _list.do?cid=us _list.do?cid=us Hands on projects involving the use of Graphing Calculators and Computer Aided Design will be developed to be used as formative assessments to test the students’ mastery of the identified skills. A set of resources that help with this goal can be found at ub_connections_supplemental.html ub_connections_supplemental.html

Hand in Hand: Teachers and Supervisor Training and PDs The T. Team (Teachers) After reviewing the curriculum and supporting it with the framework and tech. activities, the teachers will create teacher specific PD plans that target their weaknesses. Teachers will meet on a biweekly basis in course specific teams to review the improvement process and discuss any challenges that face them. One of the trainers should be available in each meeting in order to assist in resolving any potential problem or challenge. The S Team (Supervisor and Administration) The supervisor would compile the PD plans and arrange for on site PDs in cooperation with AMTNJ outreach program. Having 25 teachers in the department, it is easy to host an AMTNJ and/or a TI set of workshops through their outreach department l/sites/US/nonProductSingle/pd_outrea ch.html The supervisor will assign 2 teachers to be trained by TI to become trainers. These teachers will have only tech duties during the year.

Suggested Technology PDs Other Training and PDs Training in Lesson Studies AMTNJ Conference Online courses in using TI Nspire for different courses : al/sites/US/sectionHome/pd_onlinetin spire_free.html al/sites/US/sectionHome/pd_onlinetin spire_free.html (The online courses can be scheduled for each individual team during in- service sessions or during the summer training program.) TI Conference for Math Teachers: al/sites/US/sectionHome/pd_conferen ces.html al/sites/US/sectionHome/pd_conferen ces.html Teachers Teaching Teachers: al/sites/US/sectionHome/pd_aboutt3. html al/sites/US/sectionHome/pd_aboutt3. html NCTM e Workshops:

Hand in Hand: Teachers and Supervisor In Class Support Teachers are teamed up based on courses. Professional Learning Communities are created. Teachers meet on a semimonthly basis to follow up on the concise set of essential curricular standards that they reviewed earlier, coordinate the technology use and activities. In addition to the common planning meetings, the use of technology will be emphasized through team teaching sessions. The supervisor will schedule teachers in a way to allow them common planning time and team teaching time. The supervisor will release any teacher from his/her duty when they need to seek help from the trainer. The supervisor will go on regular walk through in order to break the “Buffer”. The supervisor will be part of the training and the team teaching. He will make sure that the teachers see him involved the :scut work” as identified by Reeve. (When teachers see the supervisor modeling lessons with technology they will take the change more seriously.)

Hand in Hand: Teachers and Supervisor Team Work and Observations By the mid of the first year, teachers in specific courses will join in a lesson study team to work on the “Quadratic Equation” (this is a subject covered in algebra 1,2 precalc, and calc.) The lesson study team will compile a set of graphing calculator activities and analyze students performance and level of understanding with the help of technology Formal observation and evaluation will consider the use of technology as a main point. Supervisor will adopt the pacing created by the teachers and create school based chapter tests to insure that every one is on the same pace. School based tests are graded by a team created in cooperation with the supervisor and the results are used to track the improvement

Continuous Evaluation: 2 Main Stops At the end of the second marking period and after the midterms, every course team will evaluate test results, student projects and work in order to evaluate the progress. The team will review the common planning and the PLC’s reports and recommendations and adopt or reject any major changes to the plan. By the end of the year, all teams will meet and evaluate the plan, suggest and adopt alterations and design a new set of PDs based on the year long activities.

A Cultural Reform: Every One Is Involved – What Is Happening In the Process Teachers Review the curriculum with learning at the core of their plans. Reflect on the teaching and learning. Learn how to use the technology and change the misconception of dependency. Get engaged in hands on and real applications. Enjoy the feeling of success as students understand better and achieve higher. Exit the comfort zone of the Buffer and collaborate with others. Share best practices and learn from each other. Teachers are students for life. A lifelong learning process Students Get engaged in hands on and real life applications. Experience success in math like never before. Increase self confidence through successes and better understanding. Visualize complicated mathematical concepts. Feel in control of the math environment through the control of the graphing calculator. (Students will be able to see what happen to the function or graph as THEY change the parameters or dimensions.) Every student has a graphing calculator with him throughout the year. NO SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUE.