Collaborative Team Discussion: Integrating Technology
Integrating Technology Collaborative Team Formative Check
Next Steps for Your Team
Conclusion
About the Authors
Mark Weichel, EdD, is assistant superintendent for teaching and learning at Westside Community Schools in Omaha, Nebraska. The district has received local and national attention for its commitment to collaboration, innovation, technology integration, and personalized learning. Mark and his team developed collaborative systems that have been written about in various journals, and they host visiting districts and attend state and national conferences.
Previously, Mark was director of secondary curriculum, high school building administrator, and junior high school social studies teacher at Papillion La Vista Community Schools in Nebraska. He and staff implemented Professional Learning Communities at Work™ strategies and failure rates plummeted while standardized testing measures such as ACT, PLAN, and state writing assessments confirmed high levels of student learning. Mark and his leadership team at Papillion La Vista South High School presented at conferences nationwide, and their work was featured on AllThingsPLC.info and in Principal Leadership magazine. They received the 2008 Ethel Percy Andrus Legacy Award for Innovation from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Mark also taught in the graduate schools for Peru State College and the University of Nebraska Omaha.
He earned a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Nebraska Omaha. To learn more about Mark’s work, follow @westsideweichel on Twitter.
Blane McCann, PhD, is superintendent of Westside Community Schools in Omaha, Nebraska, and former superintendent of Shorewood School District in Wisconsin. In both districts, Blane led cost-effective strategic planning efforts and initiatives around personalized learning, professional learning, and integration of technology, which allowed each district to close achievement gaps while maintaining excellence.
Previously, Blane served as a teacher, coach, assistant principal, and elementary and middle school principal, as well as executive director for K–8 instruction. He has taught leadership courses at Cardinal Stritch University and is a member of Phi Delta Kappa, Learning Forward, the American Association of School Administrators, and the Nebraska Council of School Administrators. He serves on the boards for Methodist College, Wellness Committee of the Midlands, and Nebraska Council on Teacher Education.
Blane’s honors and awards include Outstanding Educational Leader by Phi Delta Kappa chapter #0116 at the University of Nebraska Omaha (2017), Lexington Education Leadership Award Fellowship (2015), U.S. Department of Education’s ConnectED Summit Future Ready White House participant (2014), and Kenosha Unified School District Administrator of the Year (2001).
Blane earned a bachelor of science in secondary education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio; a master’s in administration and supervision from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and a doctorate in educational policy and leadership from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To learn more about Blane’s work, visit Blane McCann’s Blog (www2.westside66.org/wcsblog) or follow @BlaneMcCann on Twitter.
Tami Williams, EdD, is an assistant professor in the educational leadership department at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Tami has been a teacher, behavior interventionist, assistant principal, and district administrator. She is former director of assessment, research, and evaluation at Millard Public Schools in Nebraska, where she supervised buildings and led assessment innovations, program evaluations, data storage and reporting, and data professional development.
Tami is a member of Phi Delta Kappa. She was selected for the PDK Emerging Leaders class in 2012 and received the 2010 Linda Gehrig Educational Leadership Award from the Metropolitan Reading Council. Tami has presented on social justice, program evaluation, and school improvement at several local and national conferences.
Tami received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a teacher endorsement in secondary education from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She earned a master’s degree in educational leadership, a principal certificate, a doctorate in education, and a superintendent certificate from the University of Nebraska Omaha.
To learn more about Tami’s work, follow @tamijwilliams on Twitter.
To book Mark Weichel, Blane McCann, or Tami Williams for professional development, contact [email protected].
Introduction
What would schools look like if educators invested energy and time into thinking about what they do for students who already know the material and content when they walk in the door? Concurrently, what would it look like if educators’ ideas of who these students are were flexible and evolving? What if teachers deliberately and intentionally thought about lessons, units, and activities that could make learning experiences personal for the students who would benefit from extension and challenge by staying engaged and continuing to learn more? We authors believe that teams in such schools would be privileged to work in a culture that valued supporting the needs and talents of every student, where the norm was highly engaging and effective learning. In this book, we aim to offer a framework and resources toward creating such a culture, consistently addressing the needs of students who are of high ability and high potential, thinking flexibly when determining which students fit these criteria, and encouraging collaborative teamwork to meet these goals.
The results of this type of system would be a sight to behold. Imagine walking through various classrooms in a school district where students, particularly those who already know the material, are engaged, enthusiastic, and energetic as they work together with their teachers. A first-grade team develops centers with student choice, writing workshops, and performance assessments based on the achievement levels of the students. Another first-grade teacher uses gradual release of responsibility as students work in strategy groups based on their understanding of the content from the previous day. A third-grade teacher uses digital tools to help students work at their own pace in mathematics. Another elementary teacher works with students to choose their own learning pathways and assessments in mathematics based on their understanding on a pretest. Two sixth-grade teachers have their dividing wall torn down so they can team teach, continually pretest, and then set up stations where students have choices in their learning paths, based on where they are in the learning process. A middle school English teacher who knows her students well uses data to push
