Introduction:
César Chavez Elementary School is a new
accelerated school in the San Diego Unified School District.
This school will service 600 K-6 students in a lower
socio-economic neighborhood. The school administration
approached the College of Education at SDSU for assistance
in developing programs and working with their staff of 23
teachers and 20 student teachers. The school will have
available to it's teachers computers in classrooms and a
computer lab. There is a need for the teachers at Ceaser
Chavez to be trained in using the technology within their
classroom environments and in the computer lab because the
teachers have limited experience with computers. This
project would allow one professor from SDSU, who is a
Technology Instructional Fellow, and a Doctoral student with
a technology and teaching background, to assist the teachers
at Ceaser Chavez School in developing computer skills and
implementing technology across the curriculum. The SDSU
Professor, Ruben Espinosa, will serve as the Principal
Investigator and the Doctoral student, Karen Cadiero-Kaplan
will serve as the Service Coordinator.
Purpose Statement:
To assist teachers and student teachers in all grade
levels at César Chavez Elementary School, and the
staff in developing technology skills and infusing
technology across all content areas.
Rationale:
Through the development of computer technology skills,
teachers and student teachers, along with support staff will
gain expertise in infusing technology across all curriculum
areas such as math, science and language arts. The reason
for this type of training is that the computer is a tool
that has potential for use in all curriculum areas, for
example in developing research skills in the sciences and
writing skills in the language arts curriculum. Students
will gain expertise more rapidly when they have the
opportunity to utilize technology to complete tasks directly
related to their curriculum. Further, teachers will learn
skills of facilitating student learning in the computer lab
and classroom environment.
Services:
The proposed services provided by the Principal
Investigator and Service Coordinator, through this project
include:
- The development of curriculum projects which
integrate existing technology.
- Working with support staff, teachers, and student
teachers to develop technology expertise.
- Classroom observations and coaching provided to
assist in the transfer of key skills.
- Recommend appropriate software and curriculum
materials to match technology with curriculum needs.
Teacher and support staff training will focus on
developing expertise and general knowledge of available
software through curriculum projects developed by the
Service Coordinator. The strategies utilized in the training
will be a model of how the software and curriculum should be
integrated in the classroom and computer lab settings.
CPB & Outside Support Benefits:
The CPB grant will help make this project possible and
will provide an opportunity for teachers, staff and student
teachers to focus on the use and processes of technology
within their classrooms. Additionally, this grant will
promote collaboration between members of the public school
and the university in a project that has lasting effects.
The College of Education at SDSU has agreed to support the
CPB Next Step project by providing matching funds upon
approval of the grant. These matching funds will allow for
more teacher training and curriculum development as outlined
above.