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Name: Sweetmore J. Marufu
Workshop Title: District Technology Training Plan
Subject(s) of the day’s workshop:
5th Grade Math Curriculum Skills
Prerequisite Knowledge: Effectively integrate Smart notebook in the teaching and
learning 5th Math skills.
Introduction:
Smart Notebooks have many advantages towards effectively teaching in the classroom.
According to Smart Notebook 21csymposium (2012) Smart notebook technology tools support
pedagogy and the curriculum in a variety of ways which include identifying and designing
teacher lessons which involve students in groups and independently. Smart technology provides
collaborative software with tools and content to help teachers teach dynamic and motivating
lessons. The Smart Notebook is best used with the interactive whiteboards. (Promethean board)
The paper discusses the five day District Technology Training Plan workshop organized for
twenty experienced teachers in the district of Montgomery County Public Schools. The mission
of the DTTP is to introduce the different ways the Smart notebook technology can be effectively
utilized in the teaching and learning of students. Objectives, workshop details and evaluation
strategies will be discussed.
Content (Describe in a paragraph)
It will be a five days’ workshop made up of twenty, “Experienced 5th Grade Elementary
teachers” in the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). I will narrow down the District
Technology Training Plan topic; to facilitate a workshop of experienced teachers learning the
new skills of the Smart notebook software technology in the classroom. They will acquire the
skills of using the Smart Notebook on the Promethean board to teach Math curriculum skills for
the 5th grade level. The mission of the Department of Instructional Technology in the
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is to make sure there is collaborative learning and
professional growth concerning any new technologies in the county schools and offices. (MCPS,
2011) Many of the technologies in the district have recently been acquired especially in the new
renovated schools and need to be fully utilized. The District Technology Training Plan takes into
account all the ideas and contributions from teachers, local business people, community
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members and educators. Their technological expertise will be appreciated to make the workshop
successful towards improving the curricula for the students.
Objectives for the lesson:
By the end of the five days the District Technology Training Workshop of the Elementary school
teachers should be able to:
1. Enhance instructional applications of the smart notebook.
2. Listen to the smart notebook tutorials.
4. To effectively apply Smart notebook technology in the inclusionary Math curriculum context
in the classroom.
5. Suggest ways of getting funds needed to purchase Smart Notebook 11 software for the schools
in the District.
6. Download the Smart Notebook 11 software and practice how to use it the classroom.
Source: /www.google.com/search
How will you teach the lesson? Details help.
I would put the list of the workshop procedures in order to make the plan successful considering
the inputs of all the members involved.
1. Listing the Objectives/goals of Training Workshops.
The plan for integrating technology into the school is based on the school or district's educational
vision made up of short and long term goals and is part of an overall school-improvement plan.
2. Defining the problem
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This covers the reason for the District Technology Training Plan. What is the problem I need to
solve?
3. Prioritizing Needs
All the steps of the workshop have to be listed in order of priorities and be followed as the
workshop proceeds. It involves planning and implementing the technology.
4. Audience Analysis-
The District of Montgomery County Public School will have representations from all segments.
In this case, only experienced teachers who have expertise in technology and
telecommunications will make up the committee. The committee has to choose a team leader
who has the leadership qualities of organization and keep the members on task.
5. Developing training workshops
The planning process of the workshop involves asking appropriate questions concerning
technology in education examples could be: How can technology be evenly distributed among
students? What new skills should be taught? How can teachers include technology in their
lessons? Meetings with the committee will be scheduled to collaborate on ways to go about with
the DTTP.
6. Communicating progress with the client.
I will discuss with the committee on any development in progress.
7. Evaluating the overall effectiveness of the training by incorporating recommendations from
the members into the technology plan.
8. Needs assessment looks at the assessment using the technology to see whether the objectives
of the plan were achieved.
9. Developing a budget -we will develop a technology plan budget, which includes professional
development of school staff to keep the teachers updated with the latest technology. We have to
find ways of sourcing funds or getting donations from the county, community or local business
people of any electronics we need in order to get everything ready. Teachers who attend the
workshop will be paid five hundred dollars each to cover for travelling costs and as an incentive.
10. Evaluating whether attendees have learned what they were supposed to learn Integrate
appropriate technology into curricular areas and make follow ups to see whether the attendees
are implementing the technology skills taught.
Once the procedures are in order, then the District Technology Training Plan workshop begins at
a selected center for the county. This has to be one of the new renovated schools with all the
equipment we need such as computers, laptops, promethean boards, Elmo set up information,
multi-function printers, boosting microphones, all the software and hardware in use.
The first day of the workshop, I will start with introductions and talk about the advantages of
technology use in the classroom then move on to download the Smart notebook tutorial and talk
about what the Smart notebook is and what it is capable of. I will elaborate the Smart notebook
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advantages keeping students focused, help students stay on task, motivation, enabling group
collaboration, teacher-student network connection, teacher’s direct monitoring and support. They
will listen to tutorials on You Tube: Introduction to Smart boards (YouTube) Good place to start.
Introduction to the Smart Notebook (YouTube) this is the program that comes with the Smart
Board.
Smart Notebook Collaborative Learning Software Download it for your own system as a trial
version. You will have use of it for 30
Then explore whole group, small group and individual learning tutorials on:
http://vault.smarttech.com/videos/classroomtour/index.html
Following the tutorials, I will have to make a demonstration to the attendees on how to use the
Smart notebook technology to make presentations. The Gallery Essentials is one of the most
important sections of the Smart notebook. Click on Gallery Essentials and select the subject you
want. In this case Mathematics then proceed to pick the topic for example Shapes, Space and
Measure or any topic for your lesson. Under each of those topics there are more subtopics drop
down such as Angles, Area, Maps & plans, Shapes, Temperatures, Time and Trigonometry.
Your selection will take you to pictures, interactive and multimedia sections, tools are available.
So, I will demonstrate step by step to the teachers and asking questions/answering questions as
we go. The attendees present will work in four groups of five members each practicing ways of
using the tools in the classroom and make reports and collaborate to the whole class.
Smart Notebook Math Tools:
Images from https://www.google.com/search
Smart Notebook 3D Tools:
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The entire Smart notebook tools such as the Smart Product Drivers, Pen, Smart Ink, Screen
Shade, Spotlight, Magnifier and Pointer. (Smart Notebook11, 2012) are connected to the
computer and help to enable performing normal computer operations. Any work done can be
saved or exported to web pages, pdf or PowerPoint. The digital pen tool can be used for drawing
on the board.
All images from https://www.google.com/search
Additional Materials you will use and how will you use them:
My demostrations to the whole class include navigating on the Interactive whiteboard which
consists of the following components:
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The Action bar/ Menu panel
The panel consists of commands to follow and these are undo, create new slide, delete, save,
tools, go back etc The commands help and guide you as you practice the skills.
Lesson Activity Tool kit provides many tools such as pointers, pull tabs, buttons etc to help you
make changes.
The Gallery Essentials has many tabs with all the subjects across the curriculum. As you follow
the dropdowns more options and pictures are available.
Online Resources connect you to more training, tutorials on line. These also include support you
might need when you get stuck and Smart notebook is connected to Twitter, Facebook,
EdCompass blog and You Tube channel. There are so many tutorials within the Smart notebook
to guide you as you open any page.
Action bar/panel
All images from https://www.google.com/search
Evaluation Strategies:
After demonstrations, presentations and group collaborations then it will be time for evaluations.
Each group will report different ways of presenting Smart notebook tools to the whole class.
After, their reports, the class may ask them questions which they will respond to.
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From that, attendees will respond to a survey about the workshop. Here is the survey link I made
from: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TXTXLFV
The teachers who attended the workshop will complete a rubric individually on this link.
file:///C:/Users/Aaron's/Downloads/DISTRICT%20TECHNOLOGY%20TRAINING%20PLAN
%20rubric.htm
Conclusion:
From the evaluation strategies, I will be able to determine how the District Technology Training
Plan went. The surveys and the rubric will show me the parts which were insufficiently done and
need attention in future and the parts which had an impact on the teachers as they go back to
implement new technology to their schools. I will have to make follow ups to see whether the
attendees are implementing the technology skills taught. To conclude, the paper discusses ways
of incorporating the Smart Notebook on the Promethean board to teach Math curriculum skills
for the 5th grade level at an organized District Technology Training Plan for five days.
Demonstrations, tutorials, presentations, objectives and strategies have been discussed in the
paper. Here is a video to watch: http://www.youtube.com/user/SmartClassrooms
References:
Images from /www.google.com/search
Montgomery County Public Schools (1995–2013) Department of Instructional
Technology MCPS, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850
Introduction to Smart boards (YouTube) Good place to start.
Introduction to the Smart Notebook (YouTube) This program comes with the SMART Board.
Smart Notebook Collaborative Learning Software Download
http://vault.smarttech.com/videos/classroomtour/index.html
Smart Notebook (2012) Smart Technologies ULC. Windows operating systems. All rights
reserved. http://www.21csymposium.org/
https://www.surveymonkey.com/MyCollector_Detail.aspx?sm
file:///C:/Users/Aaron's/Downloads/DISTRICT%20TECHNOLOGY%20TRAINING%20PLAN
%20rubric.htm
http://www.youtube.com/user/SMARTClassrooms