Technology budget

There are many similarities between public schools and charter schools. Charter schools are still considered public schools. My charter school is part of the Adams 12 Five Star School District. Many things that the district has also applies to us in charter schools, but not budget. Charter schools receive the same amount of money as public schools. We get money from the state per student. Charters actually receive a bit less money because we have to pay for our own building unlike the public schools. Here is the main difference between charter and public: we have complete say over how we spend our money.

There is not only one person to decide this. That could be a very unbalanced system. The principal, assistant principal, business manager, technology director, and the technology team are in charge of making technology budget decisions. They also include all stakeholders: students, parents, and teachers, when making these decisions. It is a very collaborative process. We also have a school board that is very active in assisting with these school decisions. My charter school is only two years old, so we have had to make a lot of decisions about the direction our school will go in regards to technology resources. We began the school with a three-year technology roll out plan. It would have been unrealistic of us to think we could start the school with every technology we could possibly need.

As a charter school we have a business manager. This is a necessity for our school that public schools do not need because we are considered a not-for profit corporation. Our business manager is in charge of all paychecks, grade level funds, and budgets for the whole school. Anything having to do with money at our school goes through him. We have a lot of subcommittees that teachers, parents, administrators, and board members sit upon. Our business manager is in charge of the financial subcommittee.

As a charter school, we have decided that we do not want to follow the procedures of our school district. We want to do things our own way in the best interest of our students and as written in our charter. If the school district were like the parents of a family, a charter school would be like the teenager setting out on their own with no help from mom and dad. This means that we do not have access to any of the databases that the school district has purchased for all of their schools. This is a good and bad thing. It is good because we get to decide what databases are going to be most beneficial for our students and not buy databases that we do not view as helpful. It is bad because he do have to spend our own building budget money on those databases that other schools would get for free. We subscribe to a lot of really awesome databases at our school. Our school’s most expensive database is Discovery Education licenses. Every teacher in our school uses this database on a daily basis, so we think it is well worth the price.

Also, because we are a charter school, some of our district restrictions around things like blogs, wikis, webpages, social networking sites, video done by students, and video done by teachers are not the same. The teachers do not just run around and do whatever they want and teach whatever they want. We do need consent from our principal and from our grade level team before we implement any new teaching strategies such as teaching with videos. There are some best practices by the district that we have decided to follow as well, such as not using students’ last names or personal information anywhere on the Internet. We do put student photos and student videos on the Internet with the parents’ consent. As per our school administration, every teacher must keep a website with up-to-date information about what's going on in the classroom. We are not allowed to put pictures of students or information about students on personal websites or personal social networking sites. Our administration encourages school social networking sites, such as Edline or Edmoto.

Our school district purchases both Mac and PC computers and technologies. However, our school is strictly a Mac device school. We use iMac desktop computers, MacBook Pro laptop computers, Apple TV, iTouches, and iPads. We made the decision to go all Mac as a school because we thought it would be easier to have a more cohesive technology environment if all our devices were of one brand and could easily speak with one another. The technology provided by Mac, and especially the iPads, was just too good to beat and had to many excellent educational applications.

We do not have an instructional technology specialist on staff at our school. However, we do have a technology director full-time on staff. She comes from and IT background and not an educational background. She does not have a teaching license. She has many years working in the business world and in big corporations with different technologies, softwares, hardwares, and operating systems. Once we decide as a school on what technologies need to be purchased, she is the one that does all of the ordering. She also teaches professional development classes on how to operate all of our different technologies that we have available at our school. Because she does not come from an education background, she enlists teachers, such as myself, to help her teach professional development classes and apply how the technologies could be used in the classroom. We are also currently in the process of hiring another part-time technology assistant. With a school as technology focused as ours, and with as many technology resources as our school has, it is a very big job to maintain all of that technology. When I finish my instructional technology degree I do not wish to be a technology teacher or a technology director like we have in our school. I want to stay in the mainstream classroom and be a resource for other teachers to come to with questions about how to integrate technology into their curriculum.

Our technology director maintains all hardware devices in our school. She runs software updates on all computers, maintains and inventories all of our Apple devices. She troubleshoots and fixes many technology problems we have. When we have an issue she cannot fix, she is the one to speak with Apple or any of our other vendors to get the problem resolved. She has also trained several teachers, myself included, to be able to assist others with minor computer and technology issues when she is not available. I have teachers coming to me daily when they have questions about their classroom technology or when things go wrong with their classroom technology. When we have troubles with our technology that we cannot solve, we email our technology director. The administration has first priority in solving technology problems. After that, it is on a first-come first-served basis. Repairs come out of the school technology budget or the general school budget and not the grade level/department budget.

Our school district has every individual school building create their own technology plans. These need to be continually updated every few years. Even if our district did not require it, I’m sure our school would have its own detailed technology plan. My school has only been open for two years, so our technology plan is fairly recent. We have also been continually updating it based on the needs of our students. Everything we do in our charter school is very dynamic and flexible. It is all based on the needs of our students and how we can best accommodate them. Technology is no exception to this.

I am on our school technology committee and I am also continually in close contact with our school technology director. I am very aware of everything going on in our building in regards to technology. Nothing in our school technology plan was a surprise to me. I tried to be very cognizant of all our school technology because I think it is so important for our school and also because I find all of our technology as a topic of great interest.

We completely cut out the middleman when it comes to ordering technology. We do not need district approval to spend our money on different technologies, so the process is much easier and very streamlined for our technology director. If a classroom teacher or the technology team wanted to put a purchase in for ordering, they would have to get it cleared with administration and the technology director. The technology director then puts in an order directly to the vendor we are buying from. We do need to keep track of the money in our budget, so the receipt from the purchase needs to be given to our business manager. Other than that, there are no forms or other hoops to jump through when we order technology. 

Teacher Databases

Database	Database Features
Discovery Education	This is a subscription site, but well worth it. The main thing I use it for is educational videos on pretty much any topic you want. You can also create quizzes and lesson plans right on the site. You can input rosters of your classes and manage them online. There are also professional development trainings and curriculum resources.
Reading A-Z	This is a subscription site. It lets you print short books at different reading levels in a variety of topics. There are also lesson plans to go with some of the books. It lets you print the same book at 3 different levels to accommodate differentiation. There are leveled books designed to be projected for shared reading. There are also assessments and teacher resources.
Follett Shelf	This is a subscription site. It is a virtual library. Our school did not have a library until this year, so we relied on iPads and virtual books. There are lesson plans and resources for teachers. There are even lesson plans on how to use e-books in the classroom.
Brain Pop	This is a subscription site with a few freebies available. It is a library of short and engaging but very informative videos about many different subjects including math, science, social studies, language arts, art, health, and technology. The videos also come with quizzes to check for understanding.
Enchanted Learning	This is a subscription site. You can search by keyword and it will bring up information to read. You can print the information as well. It also has maps and pictures to go with the topics. You can also search for specific information by category, for example: explorers.
Library of Congress	This is a free website. They have a lot of online collections. There are books, but also newspapers, photographs, sheet music, and many other forms of media. You can contact librarians from the Library of Congress if you have a question. It also comes with teacher resources on how to use the collections. And you can even search by standard.
Thinkfinity	This is a free site. You can search for lesson plans by grade, subject, state standards, and common core standards. It is a database pulling lessons from many other sites.
Pinterest	This is a free site. And while people do “pin” the latest diet trend or how to decorate their living room, it is also a cornucopia of teaching resources. You can search by topic and organize by board, or just browse based on a keyword. A lot of things pinned come from really great teacher blogs.
Scholastic	This is a free site, but you have to pay for some of the items. Scholastic is known for their books, but they also have lesson plans and lots of printable lesson ideas. You can print crossword puzzles, or clip art, or writing prompts.
Teaching Books	This is a subscription site. I had never heard of it before. As soon as I logged in I spent an hour looking at everything that was available. I’m starting a unit on Roald Dahl with my students and I pulled up interviews with Roald Dahl, videos of famous people reading the works of Dahl, lesson plans based on specific books, craft ideas, and tons more. I definitely want to look into getting this for my school.

Classroom Management

I am reflecting upon the classrooms on this website:
http://www.netc.org/classrooms@work/index.html

I teach third grade, so I was focusing on the classroom of Jane Krauss. To keep students working well in groups she has every student keep a Daily Effort Diary. They record how well they participated and group accomplishments. I really like this idea because it keeps them accountable and makes them aware of their own actions. In my room we have a lot of discussions of accountability and good character, but nothing quite so tangible. I also put a lot of thought into groupings of my students. Sometimes they are mixed groups and sometimes ability groups. I always take behavior issues students have into account when I place them in groups as well. I think having a good combination of students in a group sets it up to be successful. Students do need to eventually learn how to work well with all their peers, but I am still scaffolding that skill.

In Ms. Krauss’ classroom she divides her class in half and schedules computer time simultaneously with classroom work time. This way, only half the number of students will be working in each room. She also has computer software that alerts her if students get off task while researching. Halfway through the period her students switch. She always allows them time to switch and get settled and figure out what they are doing. This is a very efficient use of time and space on her part. She wouldn’t have room otherwise to get her entire class in the computer lab at once. The only time my students get to use the computer lab is when they are in technology special every Tuesday. When we need to do research we use iPads in our mainstream classroom. Because of iPad availability we usually do this research in small groups.

Some disadvantages in this school include tables instead of desks so students do not have their supplies with them at their work space. Another is that the computer lab is small and only has 9 computers and it is several rooms away. The teacher is unable to monitor both sets of students. The advantages include that having smaller spaces means forcing the class to split, and therefore be less distractions for students and easier to manage.  Because our school was just built we have a lot of building advantages. We have two full computer labs in addition to our classroom iPads. 

	What strategies does this teacher use to keep students organized and managing their group work?	How are computers and non-computer activities scheduled in this classroom?  How do students rotate or move from activity to activity?	What are the advantages and disadvantages of the workspace arrangements in this classroom and school?	In what ways do these teachers optimize available technology, time, and space?	In what ways do these strategies offer learning that is interactive and productive?
Animal Research Report	-Checklists of all required steps in the project -Research folders -Color coding -Differentiation for ability level	-Daily 90 minute literacy centers -Time in the computer lab -Printing websites for research	-Must schedule computer lab time around standardized testing + Gives the students an opportunity to use printed resources	-Literacy centers to see as many students in small group setting as possible -Having students print internet articles when the lab is not available	-Students can find info immediately      -Lesson in value of technology               -The product is easy to view and easy to preserve
Travel USA	-Daily effort diary to self monitor behavior -Group jobs like paper clip person	-Simultaneous scheduling of classroom work and computer lab work with a switch in the middle	-Small student lab with not enough computer for a whole class + Allows for centers and smaller groups	-Splitting the class in half -Scheduling blocks of time to work	-Teaches using the Internet with a specific purpose
It’s a Wild Ride	-Step by step directions -Red books of tasks -Group progress reports	-Everyone starts in their assigned room and moves according to what they are working on	-Confusing continually changing schedules -Technology in many different places + Lots of tech resources	-Daily schedules posted for students to see -Utilizing lots of different technology resources	-Technology helps the students explore new concepts on their own
Global Challenge	-Small groups -Rotation through activities -Graphic organizers	-Classroom contains both work space and computer space -Project split into three phases -Rotate through different work environments	-Cannot monitor both sides of the room at once + Have computers in the room + Students don’t get as distracted because of divider wall	-Great use of space, divided in two work areas -Divide project into three phases -Rotate through centers	-Build trust with technology in the classroom -Work on life skills like working in groups
My classroom	-Keep centers short -Explicit written directions for each center -Discussions of good character and responsibility	-Rotate through centers every 15 minutes when my timer goes off -Bring iPads into the classroom, half the students on iPads and half not. Then switch -Technology specific time incorporated into content areas when needed	-Never enough technology for every student + Don’t have to share facilities with other classes	-Schedules posted -Centers for teacher to work with small groups daily -Borrows technology from other teachers when needed	-Centers puts responsibility on the students to be accountable for their own learning -Can accomplish many small tasks in one class period