Priorities+to+Buy

Please put ideas for spending our end of the year technology money here:


 * document cameras-the six we needed have been delivered. (HOWEVER, currently Art/Music/PE and SPED do not have one, and at least 6 classroom teachers (Gay, Sharon, Claire, Susan, Hope, Maggie) have older, AverVision ones which do not work very well. We need to discuss where the new six will go.)
 * more laptops for checkout
 * cameras for teachers the PTO didn't buy them for

questions we should ask the staff:

1.If you could have 5 iPods in your classroom at all times, would you want them? (no camera/microphone on these, but we could buy microphones for them.)

2. What is the one piece of technology you wish you had in your room? 6 laptops capable of accessing released SOLS for on-line practice tests so we can incorporate test-taking strategies with reading strategies from the very beginning of the year. Working from paper tests, then practicing on the computer the week before the SOLs is inefficient.(Sharon)

3. What does the school need to buy to even out technology opportunities for our students? A cart of laptops or ipads to be shared by RTI in a way similar to the sharing systems now in place in homeroom teams. Other teachers should be surveyed as well to see if we need an additional cart(s) for music/art/PE.(Sharon)

4. Name five pieces of technology you think we need to buy and prioritize them. Items (ex. document cameras, i-pod, i-pad, computers, electronic instruments, Nike+iPod shoe, a device which tracks your miles run and calories burned and stores them on your iPod Nano, and/or smartpens, ) that would support art, PE, and music instruction. Tracy, for instance, teaches the entire school so her needs for technology are probably greater than some other teachers. If the concern is that the technology will be sitting idle when she's at another school then we could 1. agree to share the technology with that school or 2. share it with another teacher at our school when she's out of the building or 3. understand that she's a full-time teacher working 2 sites and needs extra support and include music (or other disciplines) equally in allocations.(Sharon)