The overall goal of the Dodge City Middle School Professional Development Program is to provide certified staff with quality professional development opportunities, including ongoing support in the application of technology in the classroom. The goals of the DCMS instructional technology professional development plan will include: Improvement of student learning through the utilization of technology in the classroom such as: redesigning existing content area curriculum to include appropriate technology; creating hyper-linked, web 2.0 based class materials; integrating Web 2.0 resources into the curriculum; using multimedia in the classroom; assessing technology, and develop opportunities such as: designing and implementing mentoring programs, collaborative learning teams, and developing "train-the-trainer" type programs for teachers. These goals will be to foster the systematic integration of technology into classrooms.

SMART Board and Technology Integration Training
SMART Boards and Web 2.0 open source software applications and their integration into the curriculum will be one focus of this year’s professional development plan. USD443 has aligned its curriculum K-12 and have successfully created benchmark, assessments. The next step in the process will be to integrate the aligned essential outcomes to instructional strategies that appeal to the interest level of our students by addressing 21st Century learning.  Student technology use has primarily been computer lab based experiences that centered primarily on application software packages such as typing, spreadsheet development and PowerPoint. This year we are expanding our range-of-use technology use to support differentiated learning, the development of 21st Century Learning, and learning modalities to create high engaging classrooms by providing training and support for teacher and student exploration of new digital tools. Two strands will be developed within this plan to support the use of SMART Boards in the classroom and the integration of technology to support the needs of a diverse student population:

Goal 1: Students will increase their use of technology and information resources as learning tools to improve their academic achievement within a learning environment where the USD443 Academic Standards for Information and Technology Literacy are aligned with and embedded into the content area curriculum.

•  Objective 1.1: By May 2011, 80% of students in participating classrooms will demonstrate proficiency in grade-level benchmarks as measured by the Kansas State assessments in reading math and science. 
• Objective 1.2: By May 2011, 80% of students in participating classrooms will demonstrate an increased ability to effectively use SMART Boards and/or Web 2.0 digital tools within the context of a thematic unit.
   

Goal 2: Teachers will demonstrate growth in the ability to use a SMART Board and at least one Web 2.0 open software tool for teaching and learning, demonstrated by the integration of that tool to support district essential indicators and academic achievement in the classroom curriculum.

• Objective 2.1: By May 2011 all teachers who have a SMART Board in their classroom will demonstrate a level one certification (See In service timeline)
• Objective 2.2: By May 2011, teachers will demonstrate increased understanding of the effective use of a selected Web 2.0 tool and of its integration into content-area curriculum.
• Objective 2.3: By May 2011, teachers will demonstrate the use of a variety of instructional modalities (auditory, kinesthetic and visual) that meets, the differentiated learning needs of students. 

SMART Board Training Timeline

Notebook collaborative learning software for SMART Boards helps teachers add a creative touch to lesson material, organize their work and teach interactive lessons. In this series of in-services a certified master trainer will demonstrate how teachers can use the notebook software to develop lessons that are course specific the district approved essential indicators.