Team+1

Inquiry Question: How can teachers use a variety of technologies to access models, resources and information to plan and implement their instruction in all areas of the curriculum?
Background: Our team consists of the curriculum supervisor, two instructional coaches, and a technology developer for the Wachusett Regional School District, a very large regionalized district in central Massachusetts. We have eight elementary schools, five middle schools, and one high school. The district launched a comprehensive Literacy Initiative a few years ago implementing the Readers' and Writers' Workshop model of instruction. We are also currently in the beginning stages of an initiative in mathematics as well. In order to facilitate this curricular movement, extensive professional development has been occurring and many resources have been acquired. We especially focus on the teachers new to our district as they tackle the challenges that face them during their first year in our district. The problem now becomes providing the teachers in the district a variety of ways to access the numerous resources we have put together to assist them in their instruction. We have attempted to solve this problem by constructing some interfaces (utilizing several of the new technologies and cool tools discussed at the New Literacies Institute) for teachers to use to find the supports that are most beneficial to them.

Interfaces For Teacher Support: Rationale: This website, which has been in existence since 2009, is currently the storehouse for lessons, materials and resources teachers may need as they move forward in Readers' and Writers' Workshops. The site is continually updated with new lessons and other materials, but is not particularly interactive in nature.
 * [|Existing Literacy Website]

Rationale: This new interface, is currently under construction. When it is complete, it will enable teachers to access and navigate through the Curriculum Toolkit in order to find helpful curriculum materials, with varying degrees of complexity.
 * New Curriculum Toolkit

Rationale: This tutorial, divided into three sections and constructed using Jing and Screencast, walks teachers through the process and accessing and utilizing the new Curriculum Toolkit with varying degrees of complexity.
 * Tutorial for Using Curriculum Toolkit
 * Part 1: Introduction
 * Part 2: Editing Features
 * Part 3: Advanced Features

Rationale: This blog, currently under construction, will enable new teachers to communicate with one another, their mentors, and the instructional coaches about their own particular questions and concerns.
 * [|New Teacher Blog]

Rationale: This tool, created through Voicethread and currently under construction, demonstrates to teachers how to administer and analyze the Developmental Reading Assessment, a key assessment component conducted in the fall.
 * Demonstration of DRA2 Assessment