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West Hall High School: Vision Statement

Krofton Montgomery

ITEC 7410

Spring 2018

Dr. Beeland
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Vision Statement

West Hall High School’s stated vision statement is: West Hall High

School…Developing lifelong learners for a global society. West Hall offers AP/IB

courses with honors level and dual enrollment offered. Technology is at the forefront of

making sure our students are contributors to a digitally- rich learning environment.

Teachers are encouraged to use the technology provided to them by the Hall County

School System. Collaboration and differentiation are requirements of a daily model of

instruction that West Hall High School abides by and is expected of educators on a daily

basis. The school is close but not yet at the 1:1 device level per student. That is a

priority as well as professional development being technology driven and implemented.

The Future Ready Schools Framework is a tool that Hall County uses as an example for

teacher professional development leading into the future (Future Ready Framework).

Rationale

Research shows that students need to improve their response and collaboration

skills while using technology. West Hall has many classrooms that still have daily

lecturing, and classrooms that are facilitator oriented. Within the same walls you see

many classrooms that use a blended learning environment. That is where West Hall has

created a Blast Team that includes teachers that are experts in a certain technological

field. These teachers compromise part of the solution to have in house experts train

colleagues with many of the technology elements provided by the county. The goal for

teachers is to incorporate ways to engage and energize their students. Collaboration

digitally is the key to a student centered environment. Students working together and

applying what they’ve learned is the collaborating tool that will define tech classrooms in
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the future (Burns, 2018). Just adding technology without changing teaching methods will

not be a solution to a problem (Oblinger & Hawkins, p.15).

Oblinger and Hawkins talk about learning is an active process that allows technology

to ensure a wide range of learning opportunities. Teachers that use technology as a valid

tool keep students from achieving boredom in the classroom (Keengwe, Onchwari, &

Wachira, 2008, p. 81). This research alone shows that continuing on with the status quo

isn’t acceptable. The following survey was created by myself on google forms to gather

information to determine our vision:

1. Do students have access to reliable technological devices in your classroom?

2. In regard to utilizing technology, where do you see our school now?

3. Thinking about what you just answered, where do you see our school going in the

future?

4. Rate the extent to which professional development impacts the effective use of

classroom technology at our school? Rate from 1-5

5. What strategies or initiatives could be used to ensure that all students have equal

access to technology inside and outside of school?

6. What is your vision of effective student use of technology for learning?

7. Do you think teachers could increase their effectiveness with specific technology

based training? Why?

8. What do you believe is the most effective method of evaluating effective

technology use at our school?

9. What tools do you see as necessary for the future of West Hall High School?
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Answers included a mix of what I thought the data was going to say. Some teachers

thought technology was making a bigger difference than others. The survey evaluators

varied on ages from 25-64. Though answers weren’t labeled by age I believe I can draw

hypothesis as to who answered what on questions. Skill sets of different teachers and the

difference in perceived availability of tools effected the answers the most. Most eachers

believed that blended learning and collaboration is needed to achieve greater success.

Finally, the vision is written to support student learning to incorporate DOK levels and

higher level thinking skills. Collaborating online is more than just using a platform.

Invigorating your learning environment, energizing the curriculum with a real-world

relevance and sparking students' desire to explore, investigate, and understand their

world” is something that is achievable (p.1).

Likert Scale 1-5

Question 7: Do you think teachers
could increase their effectiveness
with specific technology based
training? Why?
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5
Series2 5 3 3 3 1
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Technology leaders should be paramount in being the force behind technology utilization

within the school. Using professional development skills and new programs available

teachers would allow their skill set and passion be an example for students to draw upon

with their own education.

Diversity Considerations

Differentiation is a great way to close gaps with instruction practices. Most

inadequacies that exist are gaps due to diversity. There are two groups that are cited most

often when looking at technology usage in schools. These two demographic groups are

females and students with a low socio-economic status. The previous group’s research

shows don’t have the same opportunities in educational settings as their peers. These two

demographic groups are females and students with a low socio-economic status.

Socioeconomic gaps become extremely hard to overcome when the student goes home.

To lessen the gap striving for 1 to 1 at school is imperative for their digital success at all

times. Lack of connectivity is more prevalent than an actual device in 2018. That is
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where the divide is visible. Public places have filled some voids from the past, but wi-fi

connectivity looms largest of the divide amongst lower socioeconomic students. Parents

can only be expected to provide what they can. If it comes down to electric, water, and

groceries the internet will take a back seat inside the home. Solving these inequities

affords technology leaders the opportunity to thing outside the box and try to offer unique

opportunities. Students are provided with take-home I pads and chromebooks if they

financially can’t purchase one. Other handheld devices are able to be checked out for use

at home. Assignments, homework and activities are expected to be completed at the same

rate and with the same rigor as all students regardless of race, gender, or socio-economic

status. That means having a level playing field is extremely important when teachers

decide on digital tasks, and assignments for all students. Allowing for differentiated

assignments in the ways in which a standard is addressed is as important as the tool in

which it is achieved at times. Gender groups at the high school level at West Hall are not

easily seen. It takes a trained veteran eye to see any difference between the two.

Research shows that the gender gap does exist though. Teachers often differentiate

assignments that are technology based and sometimes lose the focus of the actual learner

objective. Technology instruction needs to be clear and the intention clear for meaningful

learning to constantly occur.

Programs at West Hall are all inclusive programs. This vision includes improvements

for students with disabilities. Students that need assistive technology or accessibility to a

device are a top priority to have their needs met. Two members of the technology team

will be experts on staff and be experts with assistive technology.

Stakeholders Roles
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West Hall High School has A Parent-Student local council that is designed to

include stakeholders at all levels of the community. West Hall allows the local council

and other public events to be attended by whomever wants to have a voice in the

educational setting. Overall successes of West Hall are determined by administrators,

teachers, students and parents that have a stake in the school.

School leadership almost always begins with administration. The emphasis

administration plays on the schools vison and culture is vital. Communication, Branding,

Public Relations, Development, Student Engagement, Professional Growth, and

Opportunity, and Learning Environment and Spaces are the seven pillars that (Sheninger,

2014) talks about, that are necessary for a shared vision to work. The administration is

responsible for communicating the shared vision through many different channels.

Twitter, Facebook, school websites, flyers, remind 101, and infinite campus are some of

the tools used to communicate. The administration and blast team are responsible for

implementation technology throughout the school. Administration is responsible for

measuring teacher usage in the classroom. TKES has a platform that allows for scoring

to take place for the individual teacher.

West Hall High School uses the learning commons director (chief technology

coach) and the blast team to instruct technology at West Hall. Hall County Schools has a

diverse technology team at the district and cluster level available for hardware, and

professional development. Our director at West Hall prepares professional development

in line with the blast team for PLC’s to utilize as well as professional learning days. For

example just recently we concluded a blast team training of all teachers in a station of 8
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locations within the learning commons. The training was about Nearpod and its many

uses. Research-based practices are redelivered to teachers after our director goes to

district level training. Our director then gets with the blast team and sets days for

professional development to take place school wide. The director is ultimately the tracker

of data and she provides teachers modeled assignments and assistance.

Blast team members are critical for the school wide buy in to take place. Teachers

are paramount for a shared vision to be successful (Sheninger, 2014). For the school to

achieve the 1 to 1 initiative fully it will require outside investment into the district.

Teacher buy-in is a priority for students to feel that there class is using the most

recent technological tools. Professional development allows for teachers to see the

benefits. Having a blast team from every subject is one of the keys of getting

departments compartmentalized where technology is something that is used for student

success. Teachers are ultimately the last line of technology implementation and students

should be using and feel comfortable with digital literacy and LMS systems the county

uses.

Parents need to understand there importance in the shared vision. Parents can

allow for the blossoming to continue with the proper channels of communication and

accessibility to technology. Parents have parent portal that tracks their students’ grade

and provides a messenger system to communicate with teachers immediately. The school

website provides all the links and plans that are prescribed to students throughout the

academic year. Clear and concise communication is key for students at all levels and

technology allows for this goal to become accessible to all parties involved.
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Students are the actors that complete the shared vision. The vision is created and

put into place by the above aforementioned and now the actual factors it was planned for

are able to take part in the vision. Students are the party responsible there teachers’

assignments, homework, and daily activities. There digital literacy and usage ultimately

comes down to how does the teachers role engage the student to comply and participate.

References

Burns, Monica (2018). Edutopia, Putting Learning First With New Tech Tools

Five areas you can focus on to ensure that the digital tools transforming education serve

your learning objectives. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/putting-

learning-first-new-tech-tools March 8, 2018.

Future ready framework - future ready schools. Retrieved March 8, 2018, from

http://futureready.org/about-the-effort/framework/

ISTE standards for students. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2018, from

http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-students

Keengwe, J., & Onchwari, G. (2008). Constructivism, technology, and meaningful

learning. In T. Kidd & H. Song (Eds.), Handbook of research on instructional systems

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and technology (pp. 51–64). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

Oblinger, D. G., & Hawkins, B. L. (2006). The myth about no significant difference.

Educause review, November/December. Retrieved from

https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0667.pdf

Sheninger, Eric (2014). Pillars of Digital Leadership Retreived from

http://www.leadered.com/pdf/LeadingintheDigitalAge_11.14.pdf
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Appendix A:
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