September+meeting+minutes

**// Some 1:1 initiatives fail because there was no PD and cultural/climate change. The Friday Institute is offering several opportunities for PD that will help our program be successful. //**
==== 1. The Friday Institute will provide training at the PDC for selected teachers on managing the 1:1 classroom. These are two day sessions and training will begin the last week of October. Once trained, teachers will become trainers for their departments. ==== ==== 2. There are also online classes from the Friday Institute beginning September 22 targeted for teachers learning how to teach and manage a 1:1 classroom. There is a 15 participant minimum. **All MTAC members are required to participate in at least one of these online classes**. You will become trainers for your department. Please explain these PD options to your departments, and assist any interested parties in signing up for a course. ==== ==== 3. INTEL – 2 faculty members from NAMS would like to provide 48 hours of training to 20 people in the AHS faculty. This is also about integrating technology into the classroom. MTAC members are strongly encouraged to attend to become trainers for their departments. These meetings will probably be held in 2 hours increments after school throughout the semester. Interested teachers need to email Tina by Friday, September 17. ====

4. Please poll your departments and return a prioritized list of PD needs to Tina.
==== 5. There will be a Friday Institute site visit on Thursday, September 23 and MTAC members are strongly encouraged to attend – they need your input. The meetings are usually @10:00 am and last @30 minutes. If the time is different, we will let you know. ====

MTAC team needs to provide back up and explanation to faculty whenever they have questions about the direction we are heading with our 1:1 initiative.
==== MOODLE is a dashboard, an interface, an entry way for instruction. Moodle changes regularly, daily, and should be perceived as a place to start instruction. Moodle is a work in progress and everyone will not feel comfortable with in by January. Take your time with it and don’t let it frustrate you. ==== ==== NCFALCON is a DPI derived formative assessment tool to provide quick assessment to direct your instruction. We need to frequently assess our students so they don’t fall through the cracks. We are walking through these 5 modules so that we can become better at formative assessment and therefore better instructors as we meet the needs of our students. NCFALCON is actually a Moodle, so remember this while you are in it. Study their organizational ideas and structure. ==== ==== We will begin differentiating PD instruction Tuesday, September 14th using videos and online tutorials during scheduled weekly department meetings. Help will be provided in room 520 during periods 1-3 and in room 403 during 4th period for anyone that needs it. This is where the MTAC team members begin providing guidance, explanations and instruction to their department members. ==== ==== MTAC is to be our eyes and ears throughout the school and community – our ambassadors. Members need to speak positively of our initiatives, the 1:1 process and implementation and provide explanations when teachers, students or community members have questions.”We will help you get through this” might be a phrase that you could use for struggling faculty members. If we all work and grow together and help one another, we have more chances for success in all that we do. ==== ==== We have a unique opportunity to succeed with this 1:1 implementation. ACS is investing a huge amount of money, along with the grant money, to make this 1:1 vision become a reality. To succeed, this requires a cultural shift to online instruction which will be facilitated by Moodle and NCFALCON. It requires all of us working together to make this successful. ====

We know that the math department feels left out because of their training during our technology conference last summer. We will all work together to help them not feel overwhelmed.
==== The RFP (request for proposal) for a laptop or tablet should be out by Monday, September 13. The process should end with students getting devices during the first full week of second semester. He will see about borrowing the tablets for MTAC team to try. ==== ==== We will have a faculty meeting on Tuesday where he will hook the WHY into what we are try to do. Share the whole 1:1 vision…. Working with moodle, wikis and google docs. Where and how does it all fit together? Moodle is the big thing – an electronic exchange between you and your students. Wikis is a link for projects. Google docs are for students to submit work. Open office is for students to submit work. ====

Network issues
==== N is the new network from Xirrus that we will all use eventually, but you cannot connect to it manually at this time. If your laptop finds it and holds it, wonderful, but to manually connect you need ACSMOBILE or *. We know that there have been many problems this year, and hope that the worst is behind us. However, please remember to let us know when wireless is not working and we will notify CO. **Tina is not a network administrator**, **but she is the school contact for them.** Please do not notify CO personnel yourselves and ask your departments to follow the same protocol. Funnel the information to Tina through an email or her office clipboard and she will get the information to CO. ==== ==== Please ask your department members to watch video tutorials from our technology department to answer their questions and help solve their problems. As we transition to online instruction for students, teachers will need to transition to online instruction as well. Encourage your teachers to have a Plan B for when technology is not working. As we continue implementing more technology changes, there will be more bumps in the road and Plan B might be needed more than once. ====

Cathy Wray
Members Present: Mary Ann Church Penny Crooks Lynn Fisher Kemper Fitch Jen Hoover Faith Lowery Chandra Manning Julie Pack Larry Rice Carla Shinn Tina Webster Cathy Wray