IMPACT for Administrators

Mrs. Leigh Allen, principal at Innovation Elementary, arrives early to begin her day.  She has a busy schedule today which begins with an MTAC meeting in forty-five minutes.  She sits at her desk, checks her email, and responds to several--some from the central office, some from parents, one from a 5th grader who wants to talk with Mrs. Allen about a “Talent Show.”  She lists the essential information from the central office and a few announcements and reminders and emails it to her staff.  She posts several events on the Parent Information Blog including a reminder that next Tuesday is an “Early Release Day” for students so that teachers can participate in a professional development activity.

Mrs. Allen walks down the hall to the media center where Mr. Stallings, the technology facilitator, and Ms. Hamilton, the media coordinator, are already preparing for the meeting.  The technology facilitator and media coordinator are co-chairs of the MTAC. As an IMPACT model school, the MTAC committee also serves as the School Improvement Team.  Several other teachers arrive, one representative from each grade level.  In addition, Mrs. Boone, a respected community member and frequent volunteer, and Mr. Jefferies, a parent with children in the 1st and 4th grades, arrive.  Mr. Huskins, representing, art, music, and PE, is also present.  The MTAC meeting goes well, and details of the professional development activities for next Tuesday are worked out.  Mr. Stallings and Ms. Hamilton lead the discussion about the new writing program adopted by the system and its implementation within the IMPACT model.  Mrs. Boone wishes to discuss Internet safety for students and faculty in light of a recent news report on television, and Mr. Jefferies concurs.  A discussion of the policy and procedures currently in place is followed by a decision to add an Internet safety training session to next Tuesday’s professional development activities.  Mr. Stallings also agrees to integrate Internet safety into all of his collaborative units for this nine weeks grading period.  Mr. Stallings states that he will also post a list of Internet safety tips on the parent information blog.  Ms. Hamilton will add Internet safety tips to the school’s news program.

Shortly after the MTAC meeting, students begin to arrive at school, and Mrs. Allen is out making her morning rounds, talking with parents, students, and teachers.  She has a few minutes before she is scheduled for one of her three snapshot observations.  The first one is with Mrs. Bell’s third grade class.  Mrs. Bell is a veteran teacher who has welcomed the change that the IMPACT model has brought to her instructional practices.  Before going into the classroom, Mrs. Allen quickly reviews Mrs. Bell’s lesson plans which are posted on her classroom Web site.  As Mrs. Allen arrives with her laptop, she notes that Mrs. Bell’s class is buzzing with activity.  Mrs. Allen is able to document in the observation notes that there are several students working at a laptop center answering geography questions using an interactive worksheet developed in collaboration with Mr. Stallings.  The worksheet consists of questions with hyperlinked Web sites which students use for research.  Mr. Stallings is in the room working with students who are labeling the parts of a flower that they have drawn using Kidspiration software.  Mrs. Bell has a small group on the floor in front of the room using a document camera to identify parts of flowers.  Mrs. Allen knows from Ms. Bell’s lesson plan that part of the class is in the media center reading Miss Rumphius with Ms. Hamilton.  Mrs. Allen also takes notes on Mr. Stallings’ contribution to the lesson for later use with the TFPAI instrument for evaluating technology facilitators.

Lunch:
Mrs. Allen makes her usual visit to the cafeteria during 5th grade lunchtime.  She speaks with the student who sent her the email regarding a talent show.  A teacher assistant tells Mrs. Allen that Angela, a student, is not feeling well, and they need to contact her parents.  Mrs. Allen pulls out her PDA, accesses Angela’s basic information, and gives the emergency number to the teacher assistant.  While walking up the hall to drop in on a collaborative meeting, Mrs. Allen is stopped by a 2nd grade teacher who needs bus information for her new student.  Mrs. Allen checks her PDA and locates the bus number for the new student.

Mrs. Allen drops into the collaborative meeting for 3rd grade.  The meeting has just started.  All 3rd grade teachers are present along with the technology facilitator and media coordinator.  The 3rd grade chair opens the meeting with a discussion of upcoming units.  Classroom teachers share ideas and lesson plans for the units of study.  The technology facilitator and media coordinator explain how their resources can enhance the lesson.  One of the activities discussed is multimedia presentations as a final student product.  The media coordinator states that this would be an appropriate time for explaining copyright.  The technology facilitator states that he would be able to show the students how to import tables, graphs, and spreadsheets into the presentation.  Mrs. Allen makes a couple of notes on her PDA to document the effective collaboration to the teachers’ TPAI, the media coordinator’s MCPAI, and the technology facilitator’s TFPAI.  Mrs. Allen shares her appreciation for the collaborative efforts that are going on.  She states that she has just seen the benefits of this collaboration on students in an earlier observation.  As she leaves the meeting, the art teacher enters to join the collaborative discussion.

Mrs. Allen sees the buses off, checks on the car riders, and returns to the office for an interview with a prospective new teacher.  The interview committee consists of Mrs. Jones, a classroom teacher, the media coordinator and the technology facilitator.  Mrs. Allen introduces everyone at the table and begins the conversation with the statement, “Innovation Elementary is an IMPACT school, and this is how we do it here.”  Each committee member asks a series of questions, developed by them, to the interviewee.  All the questions relate to the IMPACT model and relate to collaboration skills, flexibility, teaching style, comfort level with integration of technology, and skills in developing project-based learning activities.  After concluding the interview and follow-up discussion with the committee, Mrs. Allen returns to her office to check email, post information on the blog site, return phone calls, and transfer PDA notes to the appropriate file.  Then she checks the doors and parking area and heads home.

Mrs. Allen returns to the school around 7 p.m. for the Technology Fair sponsored by the PTO.

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