Cocalico+School+District

Our team members for Cocalico are: Jill Lutz - Fourth Grade Teacher - Schoeneck Elementary School @Jilllutz Nicole Horst - First Grade Teacher - Reamstown Elementary School @ ndhorst Janice Lorah - Fourth Grade Teacher - Adamstown Elementary School @jllorah Kelly Martin - Fourth Grade Teacher - Denver Elementary School @klmartin30 Timothy Butz - Principal - Schoeneck Elementary School @tpbutz

The Cocalico School District serves about 3400 students in Pre K to 12th grade. We are having building technology users participate from each of our elementary schools in the hopes of infusing the learned information throughout the district at the elementary level. We have had wireless mobile labs in our buildings for the past 5 years with several teachers having projectors in their rooms. All teachers have laptop computers. This year we have installed interactive white boards in our elementary libraries. We are looking forward to growing in our knowledge so that we can help our students grow to their fullest potential.

Action Research Project
**Team Name-** Cocalico Peeps

Tim Butz, Principal
Jill Lutz, Fourth Grade Teacher Nicole Horst, First Grade Teacher Kelly Martin, Fourth Grade Teacher Jan Lorah, Fourth Grade Teacher

** Abstract **
We created an on-line community where Cocalico students and teachers meet to exchange ideas with the help of technology. There are many ways to use the PLP site, but we recommend that classrooms check in as a whole group to this website once a week or as often as possible to:
 * keep up with what is happening in current events (locally and globally)
 * stretch your mind with a math brain teaser
 * read the joke of the week
 * see what other Cocalico classrooms are doing in the Class Spotlight
 * find out who has earned a Sweet Tweet from a teacher
 * post your own ideas, comments, or stories in Read and Feed(back)
 * recommend or learn about great sites on the internet


 * Problem, Issue, or Possibility **

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We found that our district's elementary students use school computers in a restrictive manner that focuses mostly on basic skill reinforcement. The purpose of our PLP site is to expand student awareness and usage of technology to include utilizing it as a tool to connect, share and learn from other students and teachers throughout the district. =====

Objective/ Goal 1: Introduce Cocalico elementary students to various types of current technology available to enhance learning.

Objective/Goal 2: Create a network in which Cocalico students can extend learning, expand their perspectives, and share knowledge with other students.

Objective/ Goal 3: Increase the network literacy of other Cocalico Educators. Network Literacy being defined as “the ability to create, navigate and grow personal learning networks in safe, effective and ethical ways.”

Steps: 1. Each PLP teacher will acquire student accounts from the technology department by March 1. 2. Team leader will set up PLP google site and create survey by March 1. 3. PLP team will collaborate on PLP site and make a list of activities to be accomplished - March 2-11. 4. Conduct student survey - March 2 - 11. 5. Activities to accomplish from March 14 to April 22. a. Critical Friends Evaluation will occur each week while a class is in the SPOTLIGHT. Teachers will give the spotlight teacher an evaluation. PLP flip camera will be available during each class’s spotlight week. Spotlight activities may include but are not limited to iMovies, Powerpoints, Videos, Storyboarding, etc. i. Jill – March 14 ii. Kelly – March 21 iii. Jan – March 28 iv. Nikki – April 4 b. Each week activities: i. Responding to an on-line article (Team Leader post link) ii. Responding to a grade level Brain Teaser (Tim Butz post) iii. Class spotlight Activity (see schedule above) iv. Information Graph/poll(Team Leader post) v. Read and Feedback (optional) vi. Teachers share too! Links, ideas etc. (optional) vii. D.N.A.A. -Daily Number All-around activity(i.e. 23 is… and the number of days we’ve been in school this year!) (optional) viii. A Sweet “Tweet” Award – Teachers may “tweet” an acknowledgement to a student who deserves district recognition. (optional) 6. PLP team will evaluate the effectiveness of the site and invite other Cocalico teachers and classes to join the site. Encourage peers to post a link on their eboards or class sites. - Week of April 11 7. Conduct student post-survey and have educators give feedback - Week of April 25 8. Team meets to create project for the May 10th event, evaluate site, and create a list of next steps to continue the growing of our network. - Week of May 2