| Technology will be used effectively to promote community and parental
involvement and increase communication with parents, including a description
of how parents will be informed about the technology and its proper use. |
|
| A. Community Involvement in the Technology
Planning Process |
| The planning process involves gathering input on technology
use through surveys, parent meetings, staff meetings, and Technology Advisory
Committee meetings, and making decisions about next steps based
on this data. |
| Input on current use and perceptions of current use
of technology are gathered by the following methods |
| In Place: |
Planned: |
- Technology Advisory Committee meetings which includes
parents and community members,
teachers, administrators, students, and technology staff (See
Appendix A for a current list of members)
- Parent surveys (Appendix
E) and invited input via email to all parents
- Input from teachers (Appendix
F) - surveys on technology integration and team interviews
- Student surveys
- Input from technology staff
- Leadership team meetings
|
|
| Communication back to stakeholders is
accomplished through the following means: |
- The above described meetings
- The school web site - Technology
- Documents in process
- Completed documents
- Survey results
- Monthly newsletters to the school board - also linked to weekly parent email
- Ongoing email communications
|
|
| |
| B. Technology's Use to Promote Community
and Parental Involvement |
| The Falmouth web site http://www.falmouthschools.org serves
as a major communication tool between the schools and
the community including: |
| Current: |
Planned: |
- Principals' Notes, Daily Bulletins (high school and
middle school)
- Weekly email from student information system: Lunt, Plummer-Motz, Middle School, High School
- Calendar
- Links to all staff email addresses
- Classroom sites (homework posting, news on current
studies, related Internet links, student work,
sharing of ideas on electronic bulletin boards) (e.g. Middle School)
- District documents
- School board agenda, minutes, and documents
- Leadership team monthly newsletters to the school board
- Falmouth Local Assessment System
- Links to resources
- Athletics and Extra-Curricular activities
- P.T.O minutes, announcements and information
- Scholarship information
- Program of studies information (high school) including course objectives
- Database capabilities to allow for surveys and sharing information (see Community Resources Database)
- Community Resources Database - interactive site that can be used by community members to offer their services/expertise to support teaching and learning in Falmouth; by teachers to share information and resources acquired at out-of-district professional development; by teachers to search for all resources entered into the directory.
|
- Continue expansion of number of teachers using the web site to share information
|
| Use of email |
|
| Current |
Planned |
- Email is used extensively by for communication with
parents
- Weekly email sent out to parents that includes principal's notes, leadership team monthly board reports, special announcements, and links to other sections of the web site
- Many teachers (including all 6th and 7th grade teachers) send a weekly email to parents that provides classroom news and previews the upcoming week.
- Parent email requested in yearly information update forms and at time of registration
- Student email addresses provided to all 7th through 12th grade students
|
|
| |
| C. Technology to support communication
of student progress |
| Current |
Planned |
- PowerSchool is our student information system.
This system has the potential for parent access to student
grades, comments, attendance
records, and student demographic information.
- All progress/grade reporting is accomplished through PowerSchool as of the 05-06 school year.
- Common assessment data is reported into PowerSchool by teachers and student reports on common assessment performance are available both to teachers and administrators.
- Turnitin.com is being piloted at the high school for the 05-06 school year. Besides plagiarism monitoring, tools for feedback on student work that students can access via the web are included.
|
- Work with district leadership to make all reporting
of student progress standards-based and accessible through
the web which involves the following steps (building based - timelines may vary per school)
- Revise grading and reporting system and professional development both in revision and implementation processes
- Ensure that teachers are comfortable with the process
- Open parent access to PowerSchool
|
| |
| D. Informing parents about technology
and its proper use |
| Current |
Planned |
- Student Acceptable Use Policy is sent out yearly for
parents and students to sign (See Appendix B)
- The technology section of the web site includes:
- Technology plan and supporting documents
- Technology related announcements
- Information from the Technology Director
- Curriculum resources for use by teachers, parents,
and students
- "How-to" information about software
the district is using (Microsoft Office, Dreamweaver,
Adobe Acrobat)
- Student Acceptable Use Policies
- Information for accessing school file servers
from home.
- Class web sites showcase technology-based student work
- Presentations at parent laptop meetings and PTO meetings
- Monthly school board reports linked to parent email
|
|
