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Matt, some additional ideas and thoughts for utilizing the under-utilized
Mac lab:

1) Establish a team of four or five teachers on the campus who receive
Macintosh training. The principal should release them from their
professional duties during instructional time--not expect them to train on
their own time. If there is no one available to train them, let them have
time to read manuals, watch video tapes (MacAcademy) and practice,
practice, practice. The librarian should be among this group. Once their
level of expertise is heightened, they can teach skills to the other
faculty members either after school, during conference times, or on staff
development days. (I helped establish a district-wide initiative of
training the trainers--we call it TechTeam and I am one of the district
trainers.) This team can serve in many capacities: Training teachers,
managing and scheduling the lab, technical support, and curriculum
integration consulting.

2) After the teachers gain some expertise, allow them time to plan with
their teams ways they can integrate ClarisWorks and Kid Pix into their
curriculum. Devising a form for their use (a sort of lesson plan format)
may be beneficial. It should have places for the curriculum objective,
materials including software program, component(s) of the program to be
introduced or used (for example using the thesaurus in ClarisWorks to
replace the verb "to be" or "say" or finding a tool in Kid Pix to
illustrate symmetry). Also included should be  classroom discussion and
preparation, lab demo or instruction, follow-up--you get the idea.

3) Make two notebooks accessible in the lab:

  a) Curriculum integration ideas that teachers have used
successfully--they provide expamples that their students have done and any
other pertinent information. sometime offering incentives for including
ideas in the notebook inspires some very imaginative uses of the Mac!

  b) Keystroked lessons on particular ClarisWorks and Kid Pix
skills--sequences of instruction. If a teacher doesn't remember how to
create a graph (chart) in ClarisWorks, she finds the instructions in the
manual. I have both manuals if you are interested in seeing example pages.

4) Uses of the modem with no Internet access: local bulletin boards (check
with you local Mac user group, America On-Line,  and Classroom Prodigy. I
realize funds may be limited.

**5)** The principal should set the instructional pace and
require/encourage teachers to use the lab by:
  a) modeling computer use in her own communications;
  b) making frequent visits to the lab to praise integration in action;
  c) support staff development for trainers by providing release time,
then provide release time for the trainers to train the rest of the faculty;
  d) provide time for planning--integrating the Mac into the curriculum;
  e) funding or lobbying for funds for staff development and additional
hardware and software;
  f) allowing some open blocks in the schedule (if it is not flexible) for
teachers to use the lab at point of need in their curriculum; and
  g) encourage teachers to use it in every step of the writing process.

I believe that successful integration of technology into the curriculum is
based upon two tenets:

1) Teachers must have adequate staff development and release time for
training and learning.

2) The computer is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Like the library
media program, it does not have its own content, but consists of process
skills. The curriculum supplies the content. It remediates, supports, and
enriches the students' course of study.

these are fa few of the many ideas I have, which may give you some help
when you discuss this with the principal next week. Please keep making a
difference in connecting the computer with the curriculum. This principal
sounds like she wants to make that difference. Please let me know if I can
be of further assistance in areas of training or curriculum integration.

Barbara A. Jansen
Live Oak Elementary, Round Rock ISD
8607 Anderson Mill Road
Austin, TX  78729
512/331-0996
bjansen@tenet.edu


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