The+PLProject

Let the Infection Begin!


 * 21st Century Viral Effect**
 * Fairfield Senior High**

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1. **Professional development**- to share/scale what the team is learning with the rest of the faculty. 2. **Instructional**- to co-develop a cross curricular project (PBL or Inquiry) unit of study that is co-taught by team. Your development of the project will be transparent so others can follow and replicate if desired and so you can get feedback from the network along the way. **We look forward to the oversight and assistance from the PLP leaders**. 1. **The problem or question.** What is the problem (or opportunity) you wish to address with your project? Describe what you wish to change, for example, aspects of content (e.g. test scores), process (e.g. ability to collaborate), climate (e.g. morale), or tech use (e.g. embedded use of technology in instruction). Be as specific as possible in describing what you want to change. 2. **Objectives and Assessment** Develop objectives and authentic assessments for determining what you want learners (adults or students) to be able to know and do after the project and how you will determine they have indeed mastered the objectives your project laid out. 3. **Networked Design** Then think about how you will design your project so participants can share, connect, collaborate, or move to some type of collective action. 4. **Set the Context** What have others done (at your institution or elsewhere) to address this problem? Do some research as a team to see what others have done. Get ideas. Divide up different research roles to individual team members. ** The head of technology for the district has wrestled with the issues of lack of funds and aging technology for a while now. We hope to offer the district a viable alternative with our on-line technologies that students could access from home (and eventually in school by bringing their own technology from home) ** 5. **Proposal** How will you plan to solve the problem or answer the question? **The problem will be "solved" as the numbers of 21st century teachers grow.** Describe what you will do to address the problem/opportunity described earlier. **We hope that whether a levy passes or not our plan could be fluid enough to mutate into an opportunity we are afforded. If we have money and unlimited access-the sky is unlimited. If we are strapped for money, then our plan should help circumvent the problem.** Are you doing anything differently than others have attempted? Why or why not? Why do you propose that your approach will succeed better than prior attempts or will work better with your students or faculty? ** It seems obvious that this is the first time American schools have faced this issue-taxpayer money can not keep up with the rapid advancement of technology. ** 6. **Evaluation** How will you determine the success and effectiveness of your solution and the impact of your project? **This will be determined by 1-success in our own classrooms and 2-imitation by our protege** Do you plan to determine Pre and Post results? **Pre is easy...we are doing nothing to very little in the realm of 21st Century skills. We would like to begin implementation.** How will you know that the behavior of your students/faculty has changed/improved? ** With implementation and sharing with the faculty, the improvement will manifest itself. As change occurs, so will thinking, school policy and the overall actions of the entire staff. **Note: You may not be able to obtain your results by the end of your year. However, you should have a plan in place to evaluate your project and report on the results. The idea is to develop a solid plan to share with others. If you implement this year or next is entirely up to you. When possible make this an action research project. 7. **Timeline** How will your project progress? **By the end of the semester (Spring 2010) the Fairfield 2 PLP teachers will have evidence of on-line in class activity using Wikis, Moodle, Blogspot or other like minded sites.** Indicate the dates of project initiation and completion for each step of your design, implementation, and evaluation. ** Hopefully, the week of Feb 8th will begin to see the design phase of these projects. It would be hoped that the following two weeks would begin to see the evidence on-line of the various modes of 21st Century technology. Finally, in late May it would behoove the group to meet and evaluate the most efficacious of these tools. Furthermore, discussion of the group will highlight the highs and lows of the experiment along with direction for next year. Consequently, the PLP group at this time will consist of the original 5 members and the protege teachers. ** 8. **Documentation** How will you document your progress along the way? **Evidence on line of student work, discussions, and research will manifest itself on the aforementioned tools. Also, the PLP supervisory team will be invited to look in on the on-line tool use**. Will you share in your team group room in NING? **Yes** Will you create a collaborative blog? A wiki? A Google Doc? Choose one and then everyone will use the document to make the process transparent. ** We currently have a wiki...Team Centrality. Documentation and conversation can take place there or on NING-whichever is most convenient for the PLP leaders. **
 * The object of Fairfield Team 2 will be to develop individual class projects in the following courses: English, Science, Math, and Spanish. During the creation and implementation of these projects the teachers will find an apprentice/protege to follow them and also begin to model the practices, techniques, and technologies that are being used by the PLP. Furthermore, the PLP team will report to the Fairfield staff over the course of the next year to inform them of the development of 21st Century teaching strategies. Due to the size of the school and the complete lack of funds due to failed levies, this is the best approach the five Fairfield Team 2 PLP members could design that would work for their individual classrooms. **
 * Not applicable for it would greatly disrupt our current classes though this technique may be in the future. **
 * Documenting Your Project**
 * Steps**
 * Fairfield schools currently have very limited amounts of technology embedded into the classroom. Of our 2400 students, we have two computer labs with 50 desks tops maximum and all pushing 10 years in age. The school is languishing without technology; therefore, we hope to demonstrate how through using on-line resources, current in class technology (Smartboards-where placed), and students access to computers at home to begin to transition to a 21st Century mindset. Most teachers feel technology means computer labs. We feel that computer labs are going to pass away into oblivion as the technology continues to grow and students bring their own tech to school. We are hoping to get our school and teachers to begin to focus on the future and not updating the outdated mode of technology exposure...i.e. Computer labs. **
 * We want students to comfortably be able to post well thought out opinions and problem solving techniques on social networking entities such as wikis, blogs, etc. Furthermore, we hope to exposed students to on-line time management techniques such as Google.docs, Evernote, and other like 21st Century skills. **
 * Teaches will develop on-line social networking sites such a wikis, moodle and blogs allowing open access to the PLP supervising team openly accepting advice in the development of their respected classes. Furthermore, the "protege" teacher will be encourage to begin to imitate the mentor teacher-realizing of course all of this is restricted by the lack of technology available to the staff. **

9. **Timeline** - the team should establish a timeline with benchmarks that would allow the team to determine to progression of the team's project. 1. Each member establishes a PLP Protege for the viral effect. 2. Each member and PLP Protege need to identify the "tool" they wish to implement into their classrooms 3. Each member and PLP Protege through trial and error should master a given tool in the classroom 4. In their respected departments, each PLP member and his/her protege will demonstrate the successfulness of tool implementation into the two classrooms in hopes of recruiting for next year. **April Meeting** 5. The lessons implemented into the classroom by the PLP/Protege team need to use the tools to advance 21st Century Thinking Skills. 6. All documentation of progress shall be logged on the Team Centrality Wiki 7. Team will reflect and share with NING group on **May 6th** PLP face to face session.
 * 2009-2010 Goals**

PLP Member - Corey L Simmins (English) - Protege John Schmitt (English) PLP Member - Chris Trentman (Math) - Protege Carlo Miraldi (Math) PLP Member - Julie Sowers (Spanish) - Protege Brian Compton (Foreign Language) PLP Member - Kyle Jones (Science) - Protege Kelly Royal (Science) []
 * PLP Team Leader - Brad Potter (Asst. Principal) - FHS Staff Professional Development**




 * Above is George Mallory and his protege Sandy Irving as they saddled up and headed up to the top of Mount Everest in 1925. This British team, which attempted to conquer the last frontier of the 20th century, boldly set out on this daring climb together. They were never seen again.**

1. The PLP Protege group hopes to expand from 8 members to 12 during the school year. 2. It is hoped that as numbers increase opportunities for cross-curricular projects would manifest themselves. 3. The groups will continue to implement, improve, and develop 21st skills in class measured by Bloom's Taxonomy and the Technology Integration Matrix.
 * Goals for 2010-2011**