2009 SMART Classroom Technology Grant

Please complete this application along with the budget worksheet, which will help you to estimate the total cost of your grant request. After you submit your request, a representative of The Riordan Foundation may call you to request additional information or setup a visit to your school. Applications submitted without a budget worksheet or one that has been incorrectly filled out will be considered incomplete and declined. Please note that cost totals are automatically calculated on the budget worksheet.

General Information

School: John Muir Middle School District: District 7

Address: 5929 S. Vermont Avenue

City: Los Angeles Zip Code: 90044 Website: http://muirmiddle.org

Telephone: (323) 565-2200 Fax: (323) 778-9824

Are you a year-round school? NO – single track

How did you hear about the grant? Title I office

Person applying for grant: Herman Padilla

Title: Micro-computer technician

E-mail: hlp1878@lausd.net

Principal: Dr. Norma Baker

E-mail: norma.baker@lausd.net

Classroom Technology Request

If your request cannot be sufficiently captured in the box above, please describe your desired request in the space provided below:

Our English/Language Arts Department lacks all manner of technology, there are no Smart Boards, no digital projectors, no document readers and no printers. The teachers share our only general use resources of one set of speakers, two older macintosh laptop carts (36) total working units and two digital projectors. These resources are for all 79 teachers to use throughout the school. This grant would help our English/Language Arts department develop their own set of resources and not have to compete with the limited resources current being used by the entire school.

I. School Description

A. Overview of school’s academic program, past accomplishments considered noteworthy. School’s API score and any progress seen in recent years:

John Muir Middle School has just moved to a traditional calendar school year. We serve over 2000 students with a staff of approximately 120 teachers, administrators, and support staff. We have a 92% attendance rate, our Language Arts Department has 15 certificated assigned teachers and our Bilingual Department (ESL) has 5 certificated teachers. Our school’s API has increased each year starting in 1999 with a score of 399; in 2000 our score decreased to 394, but since then our school has increased its score every year – 428 in 2001; 480 in 2002; 489 in 2003; 531 in 2004; 541 in 2005; 545 in 2006; and finally in 2007 we achieved a score of 552. Our target goal for 2008 is 564.

B. Economic, ethnic, and demographic characteristics of the community served:

We serve a socioeconomically disadvantaged community that is presently approximately 1570 Hispanic and 470 African American and one percent “other”. 79.5% of our student body qualifies or participates in the free- or reduced-lunch program.

C. Percentage of students who are English Language Learners:

Roughly 41 % according to our STAR testing report, 891 students tested as English Language Learners with a rough breakdown of nearly 300 students per grade level

29% are ESL students and 12% are recently reclassified.

II. Faculty Overview

A. Profile of the faculty and administration; teachers’ average number of years of experience and brief biographies of individuals who will be using the equipment:

Administrators – Principal

Dr. Norma Baker received her B.A in Science and Education from Memphis state university an M.B.A. from Cal State Dominguez Hills, and a Dr. of Education from the University of LaVerne. She was director of Elementary Programs for LAUSD prior to becoming principal of John Muir Middle School in February 2009

Ms. Gwendolyn Lockhart began as a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Teacher and then became Dean of Attendance at Bancroft Middle School. She was promoted to Assistant Principal in Charge of Attendance and was moved to Bret Hart Middle School where she remained for one year. She then promoted to Assistant Principal (Generic) at Horace Mann Middle School and served there one year before being moved to John Muir Middle School where she has been for 5 years.

Willie Richardson is Assistant Principal of attendance and technology B.A. Southern University in Education and M.A. from the University of San Francisco in Education administration, Assistant Principal at Fremont HS and for the past 4 years Assistant Principal of attendance and technology John Muir MS.

Ms. Blanca Esquivel has twelve years teaching experience working directly with English learners in the area of Language acquisition she has work as an administrator for Markham Middle School and is entering her 2^nd year as Assistant Principal over operations plant and student discipline here at John Muir MS.

Staff

Cheryl Wallower Thorne is Department Head of English/Language Arts Department, has 9 years of teaching experience, with 8 years at Muir. She recently attained her National Board Certification

Kassandra Fitz has 10 years of teaching Special Education.

Analisa Areyan completed her BA in English and her Masters in Education will be completed this June

Jennifer Woods is a second-year teacher at Muir, and received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and also holds an English Teaching Credential from CSUDH

Tamara J. Beene is the English/Language Arts Teacher and has 4 years at John Muir Middle School.

Bridgette Dutton, Third year, grade 6 English/History teacher. Earned B.A. from CSUDH and Masters for Education from UCLA. AVID Coordinator and grade 7 AVID Elective teacher. Holds clear California State Teaching Credential.

Ehzra Cue received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from the University of California, Irvine. And a Masters of Education Degree from the University of California, Los Angeles is the co-coordinator of the Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) program at Muir. Where she has been a teacher for the past 3 years.

B. Who is currently responsible for the school’s technology program? who will be ultimately responsible for implementing this grant (presumably lead applicant):

John Muir Middle School’s Micro-computer technician is Herman Padilla. He has an A+ certification, Apple Certification, Avid video editor certification, along with 15 years of experience working as a computer technician..

C. who will be ultimately responsible for implementing this grant (presumably lead applicant)?

Mr. Padilla along with English/Language Art Department head Cheryl Wallower Thorne will be the responsible parties for this grant’s implementation . Mr Padilla has years of computer experience has worked in Hollywood as a nonlinear video editing technician he is very knowledgeable graphic artist and has had smartboard training as part of IMaST grant funding.

III A. Current Technology

Quality and Quantity of school’s current technology (i.e., specify number of computers and projectors school-wide, etc.). Computer lab? Teachers have access to laptops for teacher use versus student use?

John Muir has 670 computers -- 410 of those are desktops and 260 are laptops. 36 laptops are currently available for teachers to checkout for their students’ use on a per day basis. These laptops are Macintosh ibooks (1.43 Mhz 512 mgs ram). Six (6) IBM Thinkpads R40 have been given permanently to the English department for accelerated reader testing. The rest of the laptops are assigned to the Math/Science department as part of an IMaST grant. Eight (8) Macbook carts are spread across various classrooms and one additional cart has been given to Math/Science teachers for private use. There is one older ibook 30-cart that is also permanently assigned to the Math Department.

There are two full-time computer labs. The one that Mr. Padilla is in charge of has 36 Dell 2350's and our computer teacher Mr. Friedman has a Macintosh lab with 41 older Emacs. Only Mr. Padilla's lab is available for teacher/classroom usage. The Math/Science Departments have their own digital projectors and Smart boards - 22 sets. No other department in the school has either a Smart board or digital projector. There are a total of three projectors available for checkout from Mr. Padilla's lab on a first-come first-serve basis. All teachers have one computer on their desk for their use, and a few classrooms have an extra student station as well.

B. Current protocol for using the school’s technology such as projectors, laptops, computer, etc. Who monitors use of equipment:

Teachers use the school website (http://muirmiddle.org) - The protocol is to go to this website, select the “computer lab calendar” and are able to view the calendar of slots available to use the computer lab. They select an open date and email Mr. Padilla using the provided link to request the use of the computer lab and/or use of a digital projector, or one of the two laptop carts available for checkout. The exact link that teachers use is http://muirmiddle.org/comp_lab_cal.jsp?rn=1873134

Mr. Padilla is in charge of the equipment and maintains the school inventory.

C. Specific activities and plans teachers have for using the technology provided by the SMART Technology Grant – these plans and activities should be broken down by teacher, grade level and content area.

Cheryl Wallower Thorne “Smart boards and digital projectors can be used by teachers to present information in such a way that students are interested in and familiar with. Taking notes is so much easier for the students when they are looking at a power point versus handwriting on a whiteboard. This also allows students to create projects that share what they know and can do it in unique and interesting ways. This appeals to a variety of different learning styles. The California standards are quite specific for all 3 grade levels (6 – 8) about making oral presentations of varying types. Technical tools will help us to assist students in meeting those standards.”

Bridgette Dutton “Our English/ESL departments lacks the ability to utilize school’s limited technology. English and ELS staff members currently operate without Smart Boards, digital projectors, or document readers. The average number of computers in each classroom within the department is two; none with compatible and or operational printers. The English /ESL teachers must rely on our general use resources: one set of speakers, two older Maintosh laptop carts with only 36 working units, and three digital projectors. These resources are available for the entire teaching staff and usage is based on a “first come/first served” basis. English/ESL teachers’ classrooms are not within close proximity of each other or general use resources, resulting in minimal technology incorporated into instructional planning. In addition, the antiquated architectural design of some of the school’s building (no ramps, elevators, secure storage) prevents some of the English/ESL teachers from using the computer carts. This grant would allow the English/ESL department to increase level of content specific rigor through the use of technology and establish a technological resource base, independent of other departments and the general use resources.

Kassandra Fitz “Technology would be used to enhance the learning experiences of students who typically have a history of academic failure. The use of audio technology increases access to grade level content. Because of well-below grade reading levels, the students I teach struggle with reading and understanding grade level textbooks.”

“The use of projectors allows concepts to come alive for them. They can view videos that make exploring the past engaging. Power point presentations with visuals enhance the learning experience of abstract concepts which allow students to actively participate in activities using different modalities.”

Tamara J. Beene, “ In order for any student to successfully navigate in the 21^st century academic and professional world, they must be able to comfortably use a variety of technology. At Muir, funding for this technology is severely lacking, and the English Department suffers from this deficit more than any other department on campus. As English teachers, we need to be able to teach our students how to research, publish research papers and reports, prepare power point presentations, keep spreadsheets, and use literacy programs like Accelerated Reader. We also need to offer a variety of media such as video clips, audio lessons, etc., to assist our visual/auditory learners. Laptops, Elmos, Smart boards, digital projectors, and newer desktop computers are all much-needed items in our English classrooms. With the assistance of such technology, Muir’s English teachers would be much more able to effectively equip and prepare our students for professional success in the new century.”

Ehzra Cue, “The use of multimedia technology for instruction, such as digital projectors and a SMART board, would benefit students and educators immeasurably here at John Muir. I currently use digital projectors regularly to effectively and expediently chart students’ notes, answers, and assignments. This use of technology allows students to view information more clearly as well as through a medium that draws their attention. However, this current application of mere projection is only two-dimensional and does not yet incorporate students’ interaction. With the use of SMART boards, students would be able to interact with text, images, and other media that could help to make literature and other text come alive for students. The ability to use multimedia technology would allow students to associate images, videos, and sounds to text, vocabulary, and other abstract concepts, thus accommodating students’ multiple intelligences. For example, students with auditory processing learning disabilities struggle with solely oral instruction. A print- and image-rich lesson that not only utilizes images, sounds, and videos, but also allows students to interact with the information, could further solidify the concepts taught in the lesson for struggling students.

IV Technology Goals

A. The goals (learning outcomes) you are trying to meet through this grant. Include an explanation of your anticipated results in specific and measurable terms.

At John Muir, we have 592 students who are English Learners, 29% of our student body. With an additional 12% recently reclassified so while their basic interpersonal communication skills are adequate, they struggle to read and write at grade level. Even those who speak English as their primary language struggle with academic English. As a result, our average scores are at the below basic level. In two years’ time, we hope to have 90% of our students at the basic, proficient, or advanced level.

Technology allows the English learner to connect images and sounds to the sentence structure and vocabulary of the English language. It can also provide real-world applications and contexts for the learning. Most importantly. It keeps the learning fresh and engages the students. Technology allows the teacher to use images, music, and other realia that is culturally relevant, which keeps students connected to what they are learning while validating where they come from and what they bring to the classroom. Many students spend most of their school day listening, but not truly interacting with the language. The technology gets and keeps the attention of the kids, and prompts them to use the language to make the technology “work”. In two years’ time, we hope to increase our graduation rate to 90% and reduce the overall number of failing grades in language arts to no more than 10% of students per grade level.

While technological advances and inventions can never take the place of real classroom instruction, when you mix technology with the expertise of a teacher and the social context of a classroom-learning environment, you have a powerful combination. Our ultimate goal is to meet our yearly API growth of 564. This is a 12-point jump. We feel that this is a doable. In the past, we have achieved this level of growth easily, in part because those were the years we had mass implementation of technology due to grants.

We expect that the technology in question will also assist our students in periodic assessment performance. While our most current results show that, as in our CST tests, the majority of our students score at the below basic level. In two years’ time, we hope to increase our basic, proficient, and advanced students to a level of 80%.

Another simple learning objective for which this technology would be useful is in developing academic vocabulary. Students currently define words using dictionaries to complete a worksheet similar the Frayer Model. Students often copy definitions from the dictionaries without thinking about its meaning as well as copy synonyms from the thesaurus, the meanings for which they are not familiar. With the SMART board and projector, students may take turns looking up words from an online dictionary, then discuss the meaning as a class. Next, another students may perform a Google image search for the word to find images they could use as symbols to associate with the word. Lastly, students could use an online thesaurus and decide as a class on a synonym they all understand and can relate to the vocabulary word. Students’ progress in developing academic vocabulary can be measured on a regular basis through quizzes that utilize not only definitions but also context-based questions based on the activities described above.

If technology can enhance simple instruction, such as vocabulary enrichment, its impact on more complex instruction such as literary analysis, expository writing, and persuasive projects, is immeasurable.

V. Professional Development

A. Describe the professional development planned for the teachers targeted for this grant outside of the initial training that the Riordan Foundation Provides.

Most of our training will be in-house and done during weekly staff development time. We have teachers that have classroom experience using smartboards and our computer technician has a great deal of arts and multimedia experience and can go into greater detail about the use of support programs such as quicktime, imovie, google earth, graphic converter, flash professional, Inspiration and photoshop. So that teachers can explorer a full range of tools for creating their own multi-media projects and lessons.

B. Who will provide the ongoing in-house SMARTBoard training for the staff and what previous experience does he or she have using SMART Technology? When will training take place?

Mr. Padilla with assistance from experienced Teachers from our

Math/Science department will conduct the staff training as part of our

Regular Tuesday afternoon professional staff development time. Our Math/Science department has been using smartboards for over two years and are both knowledgeable and creative in how to use the technology. We will look at

Partnering up experience teachers with teachers who are new to the technology in a in-house teacher mentoring program.

C. What technology training does your school currently offer?

Professional development time is Tuesday afternoons from 1pm till 4pm where we meet by departments and go over strategies, issues, and training.

VI. Budget

A. Include a copy of your school’s budget for the prior year and projected budget for this year. Due to changes in LAUSD accounting software it’s no longer easily available to pull up prior budgets but this year budget is as follows. With the circled item being the general technology fund.

						SMART Classroom Technology Grant
School Name: John Muir Middle School							Grade:
Teacher's Name: Cheryl Wallower and Herman Padilla							Classroom #:
		Part No.			Description		Qty		Unit Price	Total
SMART Board:
	SB680		77"-diagonal SMART Board with electronic pen tray, 16' USB Cable, Wall Mount Hardware, SMART Board Driver, SMART Notebook software V 10, RGBB writing styluses and eraser. Also includes a 5-year warranty with user registration.				6	1139.00		6834
	Sb680i2		SMART Board 680i2 Interactive Whiteboard System- 77" - diaganol Interactive Whiteboard with integrated, short-throw (XGA 1024x768, 2000 lumens) DLP Brilliant Color Unifi 45 Projector, USB cable, wall mount hardware, SMART Board Driver, Notebook Software v10, electronic pen tray, RGBB writing styluses, eraser, and manual. Access to four multi-media devices through Extended Connection Panel.				2	2959.00		5918
SMART Audio:
	SBA-NA		SMART Audio System with AMP and USB ports				3	279.00		837
	USB-XT		16 ft. USB Extension from SMART Board to Computer.				8	20.00		160
Video Projector
	NEC NP400		2,600 lumens, XGA 1024 x 768 Native Resolution. Also includes: automatic keystone correction. Remote control and carrying case. 4th year parts and 3rd year parts and labor warranty with end user registration online at www.necstarstudent.com.				6	739.00		4434
Please select if you would like the projector mounted and the board mounted or on a stand.
Projector Mounts (items needed if mounting boards):
	PBL-UMS			Universal Projector Mount with all points adjustment			2	139.00		278
	APL-2647			Adjustrable-height (26" to 47") suspension			2	89.00		178
	PP-17			"Hard ceiling mount for universal projector mount"			2	68.00		136
	Video/ Audio Cabling
	26-533-05			50ft VGA 15-pin HD Male to BNC Mini High Resolution Cable				79.00		0
	26-383-05			50 ft Composite Video Cable with RCA Connectors			2	59.00		118
	USBFAA 6 ST			6 ft. Fully Rated USB Cable A-A, Male to Male			6	10.00		60
	2PP-2PP-25ST			25 ft Stereo Audio Cable with two gold RCA connectors at each end.			6	19.00		114
	Connectivity Face Plates
	60-776-21			Wall Plate with computer video/ audio and USB A connectors			2	70.00		140
	60-789-21			Wall Plate with composite video and stereo audio connectors						0
Hardware:
	NM2044			Extra-deep junction box.				9.00		0
	CRW-08			1 1/4" Video Cable Raceway with Corners and Couplers			2	35.00		70
	Installation - SB680, ceiling-mounted Projector.			Mount Speakers to SMART Board. Wall-mount SMART Board System. Ceiling-mount Video Projector. Install all conduit and cabling. Load SMART Board and 'Notebook' software to customer's computer			1	550.00
	Installation - SB680i2			Mount Speakers to SMART Board. Wall mount SMART Board, Unifi 45 Projection system and Connection Panel. Install conduit and cables. Perform system's test.			1	$450.00		450
Floor Stand:
	FS670			Adjustable height moble floor stand for SB680 SMART Board				349.00		0
	USB-XT			16 ft. USB Extension from SMART Board to Computer.			2	20.00		40
	Installation			Set up Floor Stand. Mount Speakers to SMART Board. Set up SMART Board and Speakers on floor stand. Set up video projector. Run all cabling. Load SMART Board and 'notebook' software to teacher's computer.			2	125.00		250
Training Charges
				One combined, 3 to 4- hour SMART Board and 'notebook' software orientation and training session for as many teachers as required at a single school site in use of SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard and 'notebook' software to create, edit, present and share lessons.			1	250.00		250
Senteo Student Response System
	SNT-24			SMART Senteo System with receiver, 24 remotes and software CD				1399.00		0
	SNT-32			SMART Senteo system with receiver, 32 remotes and software CD				1699.00		0
TOTAL										20267
* Please note that charges for installation may vary. Exact quote will be given upon approval of application and a scheduled visit by Oliver Worldclass Labs. The School will be responsible for ensuring that electric power outlefts are available where required.