Kearney Middle School Website Improvement

Anne C. Oltman October 11th, 2012 https://sites.google.com/site/kearneymiddleschool2/ The website at Kearney Middle School (KMS) is rarely used. Many parents and even staff do not know the website exists. Those who do know about it do not use it because it is not very helpful for them. Information is very out of date, the sports section lists coaches who left years ago, teachers who have left Kearney are still listed, school events are a few years old, and the start and end times of the school day are incorrect. Also, the information is only written in English and many parents speak only Spanish. One last thing is that it is not very aesthetically pleasing, with only a few (outdated) pictures. I have had some short conversations with teachers and administration (I plan on having more next week) about their view of an ideal school website. They have said they would like the website to be a tool they can use to communicate with parents and incoming students and to showcase the amazing work students do. Right now, my school is not taking advantage of this. Parents are often concerned that their children say they are at a school function when they are not, they do not know how to contact teachers, or are confused with the expectations and basic rules of KMS. I used these conversations and my own experiences to develop my intended goals for the outcome and continued success of this project. A well-run website could open communication with parents for them to know what their children are doing. Kearney Middle School is located in Commerce City. The school is mostly Hispanic, with some African American and Caucasian students. This is my fourth year teaching math at KMS.

Goals of the Project

Create positive and informative communication with parents Provide homework help for students and parents Showcase the amazing student work completed at KMS Show updated events and happenings Include information about opportunities students have after school Provide information about services at KMS (gifted and talented, counseling) List school-wide expectations Promote the website and show parents and students how to access it

Planned Intervention
By the end of the semester I plan to have most of the website updated. Since there is a short time frame, this might change. This website will continually be updated to align with goal-tracking and user desires. When it comes to promoting the site to parents, I plan on following the five steps of User oriented instructional development written by Burkman (Surry & Ely, 2001). 1. Identify the potential adopter: Parents and teachers of the students at KMS. 2. Measure relevant potential adopter perceptions- I will survey parents and teachers on their current use of the website, knowledge of its current abilities and usefulness, and ask for desired capabilities. Parents have never had a good website to refer to. Some parents may not have a lot of use with the internet. I will need to be able to specifically convey to them the benefits of using the site. 3. Design and develop a user-friendly product: My design will include several changes to make the website user-friendly. In order for the site to be user-friendly, it must be easily navigated. There must be an option to view the website in Spanish so all parents can use it. It must contain information that parents find useful. 4. Inform the potential adopter: At conferences in February 2013, demonstrations of the website will be given to the parents in person. I believe conferences are the best time to instruct parents of the site but I will have to enlist fellow teachers in order to inform parents of the students I do not teach. I will show students the site so they can show it to their parents. If students have their picture or work they completed on the site, they will be more willing to show their parents. 5. Provide Post Adoption Support: Continually show parents at parent-teacher conferences the positives of the website. I will make sure they have my contact information to email or call if they have a question. Encouraging other teachers to do the same, I will also make sure students are able to navigate the site so they can help their parents. Another teacher will have administration rights so he can also make updates to the site and provide support to the site.

Evaluation Plan
The success of the project will be evaluated in multiple ways. First, I will give teachers a survey about their thoughts of the improved site. The survey will include questions that address my goals of the project and whether the site meets them. Second, I will invite parents in to show them how to navigate the site and ask for input and thoughts on how it will be helpful to them. Starting in January 2013, I plan on communicating a lot with parents regarding the improved site. At conferences in September 2013, I will give a survey on how many parents are aware of the site, its features, and know how to use it. I think the Kearney Middle School Website Improvement Plan can be deemed successful if

at least 40% of parents are using it by September 2013. That would be a significant increase from the current user adoption rate.

Expected Findings
I expect teachers will be very willing to support this site. I believe they will enjoy letting me know of upcoming events, expectations of their classroom, and giving me resources to add to the homework help section. I believe teachers will react this way because in the past they have always been very giving whenever it has come to helping students. Also, I talked with some staff and they said that would be very simple for them to do. After talking with some teachers, I know they will be willing to help with showcasing student work. I think the administration will be very excited about the changes to the website. I believe they will give me ideas on things to add to the site and will help promote the use of the site. The difficult part will be advertising the use of the website. Since there has never been a successful website, parents do not know about it or how to use it.

Ethical/Stakeholder Impacts
There will be no cost to the school for creating this website because I will use a free site. The administration is already on board with this project and is excited about the positive changes it could bring. Parents will be positively impacted because they will know more about what is going on at school. Students will be positively impacted because they have a place to look for homework help and they will be able to see the awesome work done by themselves and their peers. Teachers will be positively impacted because the website will reinforce their expectations of students. Keeping the site updated will require time from the person in charge of it. While I am at KMS, I plan on being in charge of the site. I will update the events on the calendar during the first week of each month. At this time, I will also update the students of the month and anything else that is needed. When I leave KMS, I will make sure to find another teacher to take over. I will give the new teacher administrator rights to the site and will develop a procedure document outlining the tasks necessary to keep the site up to date. I will provide an electronic and hard copy to the teacher and will review these procedures with him/her.

Findings
Once I achieved administration rights to the current website, I was easily able to make changes. I had to Google some how-to videos on creating certain features on the website, but I was overall impressed with how easy it was to work with Google Sites. The main purpose of updating the KMS website was to have it create positive communication with parents. The teachers survey responses indicate I was successful in that respect. They also indicate the site has a clear presentation of upcoming school events, does a great job of conveying the various opportunities students have at school, and lists

basic information all parents should know about KMS. The teachers like the new layout of the site and believe it is much easier to navigate. I was able to show the updated website to two parents and they feel it provides the necessary information a parent needs to know. I still need to get more parent feedback but I was pleased with initial responses to the site. Due to time constraints of this project, I was unable to complete all project goals. The website is not translated to Spanish yet because I have not yet found a suitable person or service to accomplish the translation. Class descriptions and full sports schedules have not been added because they have not been finalized. I have shown the website to some students. They like that they can check it for upcoming events instead of having to ask a teacher. Another popular feature is the direct link to Infinite Campus. This is the grade book KMS uses and each student receives a username so they can check their grades and missing assignments at any time. My higher students really liked this because they want to maintain their honor roll status. Due to the time-consuming nature of maintaining the website, I had to make sure that the changes I made were ones I would actually update once a month. I decided that uploading students work would be too much for me. Instead, I listed the students of the month. I have also begun to create a document that will outline the necessary tasks to keep the website current. This document will always be a work in progress because I anticipate changes to the website as time goes by.

Conclusion
Improving this site has already benefited the school by providing more easily accessible information. Teachers, parents, and students alike are excited about it. My principal has been very positive throughout the process. As I stated in Expected Findings, she is already giving input on things to add to the site. She is hoping by next year each teacher will have a classroom webpage to post on the schools site. Changing this site has also benefited me because I have learned a lot about how to use the tools in Google Sites and create a functional and easy-to-navigate site. I may conduct training for teachers at my school on the creation of a Google Site. -Recommendations To ensure this website is successful over the next couple months, I will continue to ask about getting the pages translated and to post the class descriptions. To ensure this website is successful over the next year or two, I must show parents the benefits of it and instruct them on its use. I must promote this site to parents at conferences and think of other ways to introduce them to the updated site. I will need to make sure I ask for parent input and make changes to fit their needs. I must also make all necessary updates at least once a month. I have already scheduled a time during the first week of each month to make updates. To ensure the success of this website over the next five years and further, I must continue with everything already stated and create an easy-to-follow document outlining the steps needed to keep the site current.

-Next Steps In order to ensure continued success, I plan to: Translate pages to Spanish Add class descriptions when they are finished Update the site at least once a month Get parent feedback on the updated site Advertise to parents at conferences on how to use the site and the benefits of it Encourage other teachers to make a classroom website Show students other than my own how they can access and use the site

-Lessons Learned I learned that creating and maintaining a website is more time-consuming than I anticipated. Since this is an extra duty beyond teaching, I realized I must limit the contents of the site to keep it manageable for myself. I also learned the ease of using Google Sites. By no means have I mastered all the tools within it but I feel capable enough to train other people to create a Google Site.

References
Surry, D.W., & Ely, D.P. (2001). Adoption, diffusion, implementation, and institutionalization of educational innovations. In R. Reiser & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Draft online: http://www.southalabama.edu/coe/bset/surry/papers/adoption/chap.htm