Cover Page

APPLICATION

Federal Funds to Enhance Education Through Technology FY 2007-2009.

Local Competitive – Title II, Part D.

Name of Applicant
District/Agency: / Windham Public Schools
Town Code: / 163
Fiscal Agent (if other than applicant): / Windham Public Schools
Grant Contact: / Dr. Ann Anderberg, Dir. Of Grants & Bilingual Programs
Phone: / (860) 465-2315
Fax: / (860) 465-2576
E-mail: /
Address: / 322 Prospect Street, Willimantic, CT 06226
Name of
Superintendent/Director: / Paul K. Perzanoski, Superintendent of Schools
E-mail: /
Signature of Superintendent/Director: / Date:

Application Preparation Check-off Sheet

The submitted application has the following:

ü  ○ Cover Page

ü  ○ Application Preparation Check-off Sheet

ü  ○ Application Abstract

ü  ○ Grant Elements

ü  ○ Fiscal Information

ü  ○ Appendix A: Statement of Assurances

ü  ○ Appendix B: Certification Regarding Lobbying…

ü  ○ Appendix C: Debarment and Suspension

ü  ○ Appendix D: Affirmative Action Packet is on File

ü  ○ Appendix E: Supplement not Supplant Assurance

ü  ○ Appendix F: Suggested Template for Assured Experiences & Sample Assured Technology Experiences

Grant Preparers: Jane Cook, EASTCONN & Dr. Ann Anderberg, Windham___ Date: _4/3/08

ii

Application Abstract (limit abstract to one page)

Application Abstract explains the proposed project that uses assured experiences (AEs) to integrate the use of technology/21st Century Skills into core subject areas in grades 4-8, and that can be easily replicated by other districts.

Technology Experiences Assured for Middle School (TEAMS)

TEAMS is more than an acronym; TEAMS is a concept that involves working together collaboratively to develop high quality standards-based lesson plans and curriculum units that use technology as a tool and a motivator to engage students in meaningful learning activities and promote student achievement. Windham Middle School, a large school with nearly 1,000 students and 100 teachers, proposes to train teams of teachers who represent grades 5 through 8 and all content areas, to embed technology as a tool for teaching and learning across the curriculum.

Through the TEAMS grant project, teachers will receive intensive professional development during the 2008 TEAMS Summer Institute working with Jane Cook, EASTCONN Staff Development Specialist/Literacy and Educational Technology Coach, and Donna Drasch, EASTCONN Service Learning Coordinator. During the TEAMS Summer Institute participating teachers will receive “hands on” training in using a variety of technology tools including wireless laptops and peripherals, Internet search strategies, MY Access online writing tools and Web 2.0 tools. During the training, teachers will begin writing lesson plans and curriculum units which embed technology as a tool for teaching and learning. During the school year, ongoing coaching support will be provided through sixteen days of on-site EASTCONN staff time to work with individuals and teams of teachers, providing opportunities for planning, demonstration lessons, team teaching and assistance with finalizing lesson plans. An additional support will be created through an online course or Wikispace developed by Jane and Donna that will ensure 24/7 virtual support with electronic resources, materials and threaded discussions and that can serve as a model of effective use of technology to support learning.

Each team of TEAMS teachers will be responsible for developing at least one Assured Technology Experience, a lesson plan or curriculum unit which embeds technology tools to promote student achievement, for a total of at least five completed Assured Technology Experiences. TEAMS teachers will pilot their Assured Technology Experiences with their students during the 2008-2009 school year and will write up their final reflections so that other districts can easily adapt these Assured Technology Experiences for their middle school students. During follow-up training at the 2009 TEAMS Summer Institute, teachers will share their Assured Technology Experiences with each other and plan for how and when to train their colleagues in how to use these Assured Technology Experiences during the 2009-2010 school year. Just-in-Time training will be provided on additional technology tools that support teaching and learning based on the participants’ needs.

Throughout the grant period, data will be collected to inform the grant activities. This grant data will provide the information needed to assess student progress and determine the impact that these technology tools are making on student achievement. Through their participation in TEAMS, teachers will learn how to use and recognize the value of technology tools to enhance teaching and learning. Students will develop their proficiency in applying content area skills and strategies while becoming technologically literate consumers who will know what technology tools can best support their learning.

EETT TEAMS Grant Proposal from Windham Middle School, April 2008 – Page 23

Grant Elements

Project Description

Technology Experiences Assured for Middle School (TEAMS)

Grant Objective:

To develop a project at Windham Middle School that uses assured experiences (AEs) to integrate technology/21st Century Skills into core subject areas in grades five through eight that can be easily replicated by other districts.

Windham Middle School is a large middle school in a small urban city in northeastern Connecticut with 100 certified staff and approximately 1,000 students. Windham Middle School is the only middle school in Windham, one of the “top 12” priority districts in the State of Connecticut. In their 4th year of not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Windham Middle School is under the state’s microscope. Staff are working hard to implement research-based strategies to enhance student motivation, engagement and performance. Thus the idea for the Technology Experiences Assured for Middle School (TEAMS) project was born.

TEAMS is not just an acronym; it’s a concept of working together collaboratively to promote student achievement using technology as a tool and a motivator. The current issue of the Association of Curriculum and Development’s journal, Educational Leadership, is entitled “Reaching the Reluctant Learner”. It focuses on finding ways to engage and motivate students who are living in a very different world than their teachers grew up in. Marc Prensky, internationally known “speaker, writer, consultant and game designer in the areas of education and learning” who coined the terms “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” states in his article Turning On the Lights:

“To make education relevant to students' lives and truly prepare kids for the future, we need to bring these after-school attractions into our schools. Four important practices can help.

·  Give students the opportunity to use technology in school.

·  Find out how students want to be taught.

·  Connect students to the world.

·  Understand where kids are going—that is, into the future—and help them get there.

By engaging in these four practices, schools have a shot at being part of the ‘creatively preparing students for the future’ process rather than just giving it up to after-school programs. To participate meaningfully in our kids' futures, schools must be willing, finally, to turn on the lights.” (Educational Leadership, Turning on the Lights, March 2008, Volume 65, Number 6, p. 45)

The TEAMS grant project is designed to “turn on the lights” for Windham Middle School students by providing them with tech-savvy teachers who can design and deliver integrated technology units that assure students success across the curriculum and who can serve as role models for their colleagues, helping “turn on the lights” throughout the school building.

The project must develop a series of assured technology rich grades five through eight experiences that:
o  Are keyed both to local curriculum, as well as state standards.

During the past three years, Windham Public Schools has been revising their curriculum guides in all content areas. Art, English/Language Arts, Math, Music, Physical Education and Science are completed for Windham Middle School and are available on the Windham Public Schools Web site at http://www.windham.k12.ct.us/co/curriculum.htm. Others are in process. Jane Cook, TEAMS Project Coordinator facilitated the revision of the English/Language Arts Curriculum Guide and knows that during the curriculum revision process, teams of Windham teachers have worked to align the newly revised Windham Curriculum Guides with the Connecticut Frameworks, the standards that all students are expected to meet across the State of Connecticut. All Assured Technology Experiences that are developed under the TEAMS grant project will be aligned with the school’s curriculum and the State of Connecticut’s content area curriculum standards.

During the TEAMS Summer Institute, the process of designing the assured technology experiences will begin with the Windham Curriculum Guides and the CT State Curriculum Frameworks. Teachers will be encouraged to develop assured technology experiences based on what they are currently teaching under the curriculum. By learning how to use the technology tools that are being provided through the TEAMS grant project, teachers can then incorporate technology tools to support student learning. Though final assured technology experiences have not been determined and will be chosen during the TEAMS Summer Institute, ideas for possible project include:

·  Choose your own adventure writing using PowerPoint - each button will go to a different story line, may be interactive with SmartBoard and can include animations, etc. (Aligned with Windham English/Language Arts Curriculum and English/LA Standard 2.2: Students explore multiple responses to literature)

·  Create brochures to present student learning from their research on the Internet in Social Studies (Aligned with Windham Social Studies Curriculum and CT Social Studies Standard 1) Historical Thinking Students will develop historical thinking skills, including chronological thinking and recognizing change over time; contextualizing, comprehending and analyzing historical literature; researching historical sources; understanding the concept of historical causation; understanding competing narratives and interpretation; and constructing narratives and interpretation.)

·  Create Science experiments to test hypotheses (Aligned with Windham Science Curriculum and Science Core Scientific Inquiry, Literacy and Numeracy Standards)

·  Gather and analyze data and represent it through an appropriate type of chart or graph (Aligned with Windham Math Curriculum and CT Math Standard 4.1: Collect, organize and display data using appropriate statistical and graphical methods.)

·  Build Wikispaces or online courses to share resources and materials and to design virtual learning environments (Aligned with Windham content area curriculum and CT Teacher Technology Competencies Standard II. Creating Learning Environments and Experiences)

·  Develop and post school Web pages (Aligned with Windham English/Language Arts Curriculum and English/LA Standard 3.2: Students prepare, publish and/or present work appropriate to audience, purpose and task):

o  To represent student learning

o  To post Joy of Reading lesson plans developed by students

o  To post student projects

o  Address the needs of all students.

Windham Middle School staff have received extensive training in differentiating instruction (DI) to meet the needs of all students. The DI training was developed by Jane Cook, TEAMS Project Coordinator, and Donna Drasch, EASTCONN Service Learning Coordinator, the two EASTCONN staff members who will be presenting the TEAMS Summer Institutes in 2008 and 2009. During the DI training, teachers were introduced to Carol Ann Tomlinson’s research and writing on DI and they learned that teachers can differentiate “content, process or product according to student interest, readiness and learning profile through a variety of effective instructional and management strategies” (The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, by Carol Ann Tomlinson, page 15). Therefore, during the Summer Institute, Jane and Donna will guide the TEAMS teachers to develop Assured Technology Experiences that will incorporate the philosophy and concepts of DI to meet the needs of all students.

Once the Assured Technology Experiences are created, the TEAMS teachers will pilot them with their students during the 2008-09 school year. During the Summer Institute, the teachers will develop a schedule for using the technology tools that are being purchased to support the implementation of their Assured Technology Experiences to ensure equitable access for all participating students. It’s important to note that equitable does not necessarily mean equal. Depending on what type of different Assured Technology Experiences are developed, this may mean that one team will have the wireless laptop cart and peripherals for an entire month during the same class periods every day so that their students will have access to the technology tools they need to complete their interdisciplinary projects while another team may not use them during that month but will have access later in the school year to implement their Assured Technology Experiences with their students. The goal is to have the technology tools being used all day every day by the TEAMS teachers and their students so that the technology can be used to support the needs of all students.

o  Add value to existing curriculum and instructional practice.

For the past two years, Windham Middle School has had a grant project under the Enhancing Education Through Technology – Title II, Part D federal funding that is competitively awarded through the CT State Department of Education. That project is entitled The Wonderful World of Writing on the Web (WWWOW). Through the WWWOW grant, Windham Middle School has learned much about how technology tools can engage and motivate struggling learners. The WWWOW Pilot Team of teachers received training and support in using technology tools, including the MY Access online writing tools, to support the literacy development of the participating students. Preliminary research results from the WWWOW grant are showing that students are writing longer pieces and are doing multiple revisions which is resulting in higher quality writing. They are writing for a real purpose and for an authentic audience.

Windham Middle School plans to use the knowledge gained through the WWWOW grant to develop a successful TEAMS project. Final projects will be decided on during the training in the summer of 2008. However, TEAMS teachers have brainstormed the following possible types of Assured Technology Experience Projects that can be developed during the grant project:

·  Choose your own adventure writing using PowerPoint - each button will go to a different story line (may be able to make them interactive with SmartBoard and can include animations, etc.) for English/Language Arts/Reading

·  Create brochures to present student learning from their research on the Internet in Science and Social Studies

·  Design student and teacher-built formative assessments using PowerPoint as a “Jeopardy board”

·  Participate in student threaded discussion boards to learn content area skills and concepts, e.g., literature circle discussions on the Nutmeg Books