Action Plan

Action Plan:  Using Blogs to Update Faculty, Stakeholders, and Students

1.  Name of Organization:  D.A. Smith Middle School
2.  Project Title:  Using Blogs to Update Faculty, Stakeholders, and Students
3.  Project Location:  D.A. Smith Middle School
4.  Contact Person:  Michael Hatcher, Assistant Principal, D.A. Smith Middle School, Ozark, Alabama
5.  Address/e-mail:  D.A. Smith Middle School
                              994 Andrews Avenue
                              Ozark, Alabama 36360
                              E-mail:  mhatcher@ocbe.k12.al.us
6.  Timeline:  July 19, 2011 - ongoing
7.  Amount of funding required:  The tools for this project are already in existence.  No additional funds are needed.
8.  Executive Summary:  Within any school, whether it is charged with educating elementary children, middle school children, or high school children, communication between administrator and faculty, as well as students and all interested stakeholders is key.  Sometimes, as you certainly know, those lines of communication are fractured, sometimes momentarily, sometimes permanently, because children are not always the most reliable conduits of information.  Therefore, parents, teachers, and administrators run the risk of becoming alienated from one another; however, when it comes to a child's education, alienation is too big of a risk to take.  The same holds true at times for teachers.  The memo that an administrator spent minutes carefully crafting might get lost in the mountains of paper that a teacher gets in his or her mailbox.  A blog is an easy and cost-effective way to give parents and stakeholders another option in the way they receive information.
9.  Problem Statement:  At D.A. Smith Middle School, there have at times been complaints about a lack of communication between both teachers and stakeholders (parents), administrators and stakeholders (parents), and teachers and administrators.  Paper memos and sometimes even planners do not make it home to help keep parents informed of their child's homework, projects, and other assignments; correspondences between parents and teachers sometimes get lost, intentionally or unintentionally.  With the glut of paper that a teacher sees in a day, it is no wonder that directives from Administration sometimes goes missing.  A blog is an easy way to help prevent miscommuniation.

10.  Project Objectives: 
       a.  to enhance communication between teachers and stakeholders
       b.  to bolster communication between administrators and stakeholders
       c.  to strengthen communication between administrators and teachers
       d.  to firm up communication between administrators, teachers, and students

11.  Project Implementation/Management Plan:  I will use existing Web 2.0 tools to create a blog that will be updated with important information concerning events at school.  Each teacher will be given the opportunity to create his or her own blog, with the express purpose being to improve communication with stakeholders and parents.  For the student, this should result in the acquisition of the skills needed to compete with others on a global level.  I will also create another blog for use in communicating with teachers.  A number of items could be included here such as:  alerting teachers to a called faculty meeting; changes in the day's schedule; asking for volunteers at a school event; or any other pertinent information.

12.  Project Monitoring and Evaluation:  In order to monitor the implementation of the blog(s), I will enable users to leave comments, so as to make it interactive.  I will also check to see that teachers update their blog on a regular basis.

13.  Documentation/Sharing Results:  I will record the times that each blog (incuding mine) is updated to be able to show that it is being used in the way it is intended.  I will also update my principal periodically, (probably monthly) as to how often the blogs are updated and how often parents, students, etc. respond.  Once I can determine whether our implementation has been sccessful, my principal and I will then share our findings with our Central Office.

There's a first time for everything: Michael's channel - 1st phonecast | ipadio | Talk ...

I initially only took this Personal Learning Network Course for the PLU; I wanted to get it over with and get my credit, and if I had to pretend that I cared about blogging and Twittering in the process, well, what was the harm? The funny thing is, the more I got into it, the more I could see the possible benefit. I say "possible" because I am not one of these technological radicals who feel that technology unfettered and unleashed is always a good thing. I, along with the other people who took the on-line course, are all reasonable educators. We realize that the use of technology in the classroom without a plan is, at the very least, aimless, and perhaps dangerous. I don't believe that any of us leave this course as some technological Pollyanna type; we know that there is a great responsibility, as well as opportunity, to reach kids, but it must be done by methodical means and not willy-nilly.

I really have been able to see how podcasts and Twitter with the right plan could be useful to the classroom (I've never sold on Facebook in the classroom - too many exhortations to help people make the best Farmville ever, I suppose.) However, we must not lose sight of the fact that a bad teacher with a world of technology at his or her disposal is still a bad teacher; a good teacher with limited technology is still a good teacher. In other words, technology will only enhance the educational opportunities in a good teacher's classroom; however, it will never mask the deficiencies in a poor teacher's classroom.

The possible danger here, as I see it, is seeing technology as a panacea for those who are methodically and pedagogically unsound. From what I have read from the posts of my fellow classmates, this is one thing that I do not have to fear from them; I am not as sure that is the case with some of the technology "gurus" which we have read during this course. We must never lose sight of the fact that advanced technology may change a mangy mutt into a pedigreed canine and a broken-down old mare into a Kentucky Derby-winning filly. WIthout a strong teacher, however, it's still just a "dog-and-pony show."

Michael's channel - 1st phonecast | ipadio | Talk to your World

Michael's channel - 1st phonecast ipadio Talk to your World

There's a first time for everything

Well, first it was Twitter, now I'm a blogger.  Pretty soon, Bill Gates will be calling me for advice!  LOL!!  I can definitely see where blogging could be a benefit for school systems.  It gets the schools' messages out there quickly; it's interactive; and it's cheaper to boot.  Well, got a pre-Fourth of July party to get to.  Blog you later!