Candidates conduct needs assessments to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs. (PSC 5.1/ISTE 4a)
Reflection: I created a plan for collaborating with grade level teachers, the instructional coach, and administrators to create a hard copy and digital playbook of instructional technology tools and resources for teachers at our school to implement in their classrooms. Our goal for the creation of this playbook is to create a useful and easily accessible resource for every teacher to help appropriately implement as many forms of digital tools and resources as possible throughout classrooms at our school to address the technology improvement section and the school improvement plan. This artifact demonstrates mastery of standard 5.1 because prior to beginning the playbook, the instructional coach and I collaborated to create a Google Forms needs assessment to send to all grade level teachers and connections teachers to determine what each classroom needs based on the current realities. Teachers, grade levels, and subject areas all have different needs for technology integrations. By asking each teacher and determining the needs assessments questions towards the specific needs and current realities of each teacher and their situation, we will be able to generate an overall database of needs to ensure that each teacher, grade level, and subject area in our school are equally represented. From this information, we can determine what digital tools and resources to purchase for each grade level and what professional learning needs to be delivered to train teachers to properly implement the digital tools and resources. The creation of the playbook ensures that all teachers have equal opportunities to access the tools and resources and can become more comfortable with implementing new digital tools. Throughout the process of completing this survey, I learned how important it is to include all teachers. Often times, teachers in lower grades, non-tested subject areas, and connection teachers are overlooked or left out of decision-making processes because their content and grade level is not a Georgia Milestones tested area. All teachers should feel instrumental to student success at their school. By providing them input and a voice in the process of creating this playbook, they are more likely to be invested in implementing various forms of technology of their choosing into their playbook, therefore creating valuable learning experiences for their students. If I were to change anything in the creation of this needs assessment survey, I would provide a list of possible digital tools for teachers to look over before completing the survey. Many teachers at our school are still reluctant to implement new forms of technology, so providing them a list of research-based suggestions to implement might be beneficial and less intimidating to these teachers. The technology skills the students both gained and refined through various forms of digital tools and resources located in our school’s instructional technology playbook directly align to the technology improvement section located within our school’s improvement plan. The impact can be assessed by the student’s products that were created using the digital tools.