Professional Development

(Response to question seven)

The purpose of tenet five of the STAR application is to define and describe a vision-based school improvement process through professional development planning that will be the focal point for successful implementation of the STAR project. The professional development process will be developed around Enid Public School’s school improvement model. This model puts leadership principles at the forefront of integrating the use of new technologies into the classroom when making data driven decisions based upon real-time student assessment. The Enid Board of Education recognized the importance of professional development in the area of technology when it approved the implementation of the Information Technology Training Center at the onset of the 2005-2006 school year.

Through EPS Board approval, the Information Technology Department is now fully committed to developing and enhancing ITT (Informational Technology Training) throughout the educational community and its operational support staff. To that end, the ITTC will continue to create a series of professional development resources designed to assist teachers and school support personnel with the necessary resources to integrate technology throughout the Enid learning community.

It is the department’s intent to transform “unused equipment” into active and powerful learning tools and to provide support training for the business operations of the Enid Public Schools. Professional development resources will be designed to address the obstacles that keep teachers and support personnel from using technology within the work environment.

EPS ITTC resources will include:

• Classes that focus on integrating hyper-linking technology
• Online access to best practices
• TIPS (Technology Instructional Projects Standards) for Teachers Program
• A mentoring program designed to build the capacity for professional development within each school site
• Vendor-based training/certification in topics such as: MAS Inc., Student Information Systems, Microsoft Office, Publisher, Photoshop, PowerPoint, DreamWeaver, XP Tools, Outlook Express, Access, Excel, Student Achievement Data Warehouse and other software programs owned and operated by the district.

The overall goal of the Enid Public Schools ITTC Program will be to provide the Enid district with quality professional development opportunities, including ongoing support in the application of technology in the classroom. The goals of the ITTC plan will include:

 

• Improvement of student learning through the utilization of technology in the classroom such as: redesigning existing content area curriculum to include appropriate technology; creating hyper-linked, web-based class materials; integrating web resources into the curriculum; using multimedia in the classroom; assessing technology, and conducting distance education, and
• Professional development opportunities such as: designing and implementing mentoring programs, collaborative learning teams, and developing "train-the-trainer" type programs for teachers.

The goals of the ITTC will be to foster the systematic integration of technology into classrooms at every school within Enid Public Schools, training up to 50 teachers by the 2006 spring semester. These instructors will become coaches for training teachers at the respective school sites.

Elements of the ITTC Project will include:

• Hands-on creation of curricular projects and evaluation tools that address state and district-curricular and technology standards and develop technology skills.
• Development of coaching skills and strategies through hands-on activities.
• On-going support through the use of a series of powerful online tools designed to assist coaches and participating teachers.