Week 4 Assignment - Action Plan for Improved Professional Development

Assignment 1 - Organizational Chart
Central Office Personnel

Superintendent – the ultimate decision maker for the campus.
Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction – oversees and is responsible for all aspects of the district’s curriculum and instruction.
Deputy Superintendent of Finance – “the money woman”. She is responsible for the district’s funding; allocates and controls the budget.
Director of Technology – constantly seeks new forms of technology that will enhance and improve district operations. Oversees all technology operations.
Instructional Technology Specialist – responsible for technology professional development opportunities within the district. Also responisble for implementation into the curriculum.
Network Technicians – can be the most popular people in the district, “Mr. Fix-It’s”. Install hardware and software, which allows for classroom integration.

The Central Office Staff is an integral part of the education process, especially as it relates to technology. The CO staff works closely together to acquire, install and integrate technology so that each school within the district can be technologically successful. And as we have learned in this class, we must have exceptional technology tolls accesible to teachers if we want to reach today’s youth.

Campus Personnel
Campus Principal – The Principal serves as the “go between” between Central Office and the classroom teacher. The Principal must ensure that the mandated use of technology is being used on his/her campus. The Principal informs teachers of available technologies, provides appropriate training, and monitors that technology is being effectively used on campus.
Classroom Teacher – Obviously the most important person in this flow chart. Teachers are responsible for daily use of technology in the classroom to enhance a student’s education. Teachers must attend professional development so that they feel comfortable with all available technologies. Teachers must effectively integrate all new technologies into their current curriculum.

Assignment 2 Professional Development Planning-


My week three report illustrated the need to differentiate the technology training based on the learner’s current technology proficiency. I have noticed over the years that our current technology professional development sessions are either way too basic for many teachers or possibly even too advanced for other teachers. My suggestion would be to offer training sessions based on experience (i.e. Novice, Intermediate, or Advanced sessions). I feel like by offering the different levels of training you will be preventing “boring” sessions for the staff. By having teachers of similar levels in the training sessions, they will be more apt to ask essential questions that they might not ask if they are intimidated by their surroundings.

Assignment 3 Evaluating Planning for Action Plan

Just as I don’t think our professional development sessions are effectively reaching the entire staff, I believe that the way we currently evaluate the sessions our district provides is not adequate. The current process asks teachers to rate the session by answering five questions on a “1 to 5 scale”. This process tends to lead to teachers simply giving an arbitrary grade to the session but not giving genuine feedback. The district must create a new evaluation system that allows for a more honest feedback, which will lead to better professional development sessions. My suggestion is to ask “open-ended” questions, as well as surveys and personal interviews. There should be a separate form for each training session offered, and the questions should relate directly to the PDAS evaluation system.
The Central Office staff must then evaluate and analyze the data and create the most effective sessions possible.