How Can I Increase Students’ Access to Technology in Connections Classes at Pepperell

Middle?

Charles Jones

Kennesaw State University

August 28

Julia Fuller, Ph.D.

Fall 2017
Running head: Technology and Increasing Literacy Proficiency

1
Setting and Context

The setting for my capstone experience will be will be my Art classroom at Pepperell

Middle School in Lindale, GA during the school year of 2017-2018. Pepperell Middle is a public

middle school located in Floyd County school district. We currently serve 699 students from

sixth grade to eighth grade. Pepperell currently has 49 full time teachers and 9

paraprofessionals. Many of the students we serve come from low income economic

backgrounds. The demographics of Pepperell are as follows: White/Caucasian- 80.5%,

Hispanic- 7.6%, Asian-%, Black- 8.3%, Multi-racial- 2.9%, and American Indian & Hawaiian

Pacific- 0.4% (Floyd County Schools, 2017). The school’s population is also made up of 70%

economically disadvantaged, 3% are English Language Learners (ELL), around 5.5% are

(ESOL), 11.2% are in the gifted Advanced Learning Program (ALP), and 18.8% are in Special

Education (Floyd County Schools, 2017). Because of the number of low income families that we

serve, Pepperell Middle also qualified to offer 100% free lunches to all students.

Pepperell Middle opened in 1973, and was named after the Pepperell Manufacturing

Company which was once located in the area. The mill expressed great interest in the local

school system and often played a role in funding and coming up with ideas to promote the

Pepperell schools and the community. The current administration staff consists of one principal

Becky McCoy and two assistant principals, Mike House and Brandon Parker. The stakeholders

in the Pepperell are represented by a committee comprised of teachers, administrators, parents,

and business owners.

Pepperell Middle has only recently fully adopted the need for technology to be integrated

in each class. This past year, we received enough Chromebooks to create a 1-to-1 student to

Chromebook ratio. Though we now have enough Chromebooks, our forty-four year old school

struggles to keep up with the bandwidth required to have close to seven hundred students

online at the same time. The media center also keeps a classroom set of Chromebooks on hand
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for classrooms such as Art, Music, and PE to use as needed. Around 80% of our classrooms

have a Smartboard installed. Floyd County has one technology specialist, Emily Stallings, who

spends one day a week at each of the schools within the county. On Mondays, Emily spends

the day at Pepperell Middle to help us integrate technology such as Google Classroom into our

lessons. At the moment, the school’s improvement plan focuses mainly on improving our

College and Career Ready Performance Index(CCRPI), increasing literacy levels, and

improving the graduation rate within the county through the Destination Graduation program. I

would like to see our school adopt Technology standards such as the International Society for

Technology in Education for students (ISTE-S).

Statement of Problem, Need and Rationale

The problem or need that prompted this intervention/project proposal is the lack of

technology integration into connections classes here at Pepperell Middle School. The school

recently received a grant that allowed us to purchase enough Chromebooks for all of the core

subjects. This grant did not include enough money to provide the connection classes such as

Art, Physical Education, and Music. These three classes must share a classroom set of

Chromebooks kept in the media center. Because of this, the connections classes often do not

integrate any technology into their lessons. Often, when technology is included, it is used only to

present students with video examples of their task or used as a productivity tool to take notes or

write papers. Just like any other academic class, students in art, music, and physical education

can benefit from lessons rich in technology.

David W. Chapman and Lars O. Mahlck (2000) discuss the benefits of technology and

its inclusion in primary and secondary classroom settings in their study “Adapting Technology

for School Improvement”. Their purpose for writing this study was to show that the presence

and integration of technology would improve the access, quality, and efficiency of basic

education. The problem they address is that, while schools are starting to integrate technology
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into their classrooms, not all schools and programs will have equal access, creating an

unevenness which will lead to inequality in school quality and student learning. This unevenness

is present in my school district, as the needs of other core areas are prioritized over others.

Students at Pepperell Middle School do not have equal access to technology in all classes. The

main flaw addressed in this study was the lack of funds available to purchase technology for

every classroom. There were several solutions offered to counter this need, including

government grants as well as private donations and community fundraising. The strength of the

research was its scope. The research was focused on a global scale, showing how technology

impacted students’ learning not only here in America, but also in countries such as Germany

and the Czech Republic. In all cases, students who were exposed to technology equally showed

improved cognitive ability and were more engaged in their learning.

My proposal is to work with my school administrators and connection teachers to

increase access to technology in our art, physical education, and music classes. To do this, with

the help of my administration, I will first research ways to fund the purchase of more

Chromebooks so the connections classes have equal access to them. I will focus on one

connection class and work with its teacher to create a framework for how the technology will be

used and how it will improve students’ learning experience. This framework will also serve as

proof that technology is needed beyond the core content areas. The people involved in this

project will be my assistant administrator Brandon Parker, our physical education teacher Brian

Henderson, and myself.

This intervention is important, because we cannot claim to stress technology here at Pepperell
Middle School while also failing to provide equal access to technology in several classrooms.

Objectives and Deliverables

My overall goal is to increase technology use in Art in my school and within my county. I will
be using my art room as an example to demonstrate the success students can achieve when
they are offered equal access to technology in all their classes, not just in their core classes. I
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will work cooperatively with the two other art teachers in my county, Mrs. Yandell and Mrs. Nix. I
will help these teachers understand how to utilize technology in their classroom as well. The
goal of my project will be based on the following objectives and deliverables and achieved by
the end of the school year (May 2017):

Project Objective: By November 24th 2017, teacher’s confidence of utilizing technology for
their students by 25%.

Deliverables:
1. I will create a needs assessment using Google Forms for my art teacher in the county
regarding their confidence level of utilizing technology for their students.

2. I will provide teachers with a list of research-based technology tools that will enhance
students’ learning environment using Google Classroom and Google Apps such as Google
Sheets and Google Forms.

3. I will provide teachers with pictures and videos of my art students being engaged in their
learning process. The pictures will show students working on a standard using Google Sheets
and Google Classroom as a means for Digital Portfolios and communication.

Project Objective: By December 15, 2017, I will increase the amount of technology used my
classroom and those of my peer art teachers by 25%

Deliverables:

1. I will create a template in Google Classroom for my fellow art teachers to use and also set up
a Google Classroom for us to use to open communication and share data.

2. I will organize a professional development workshop teaching the county art teachers how
technology can be used in the classroom to increase student engagement, responsibility, and
communication.

Project Objective: By May 18, 2018, one-hundred percent of the art teachers in Floyd County
will have at least four lesson plans showing how technology can be used in their art class.

Deliverables:
1. On the Google Classroom I created to open communications with Mrs. Yandell and Mrs. Nix,
we will share at least four lesson plan templates that include technology.

2. I will construct example lessons to share with my peers that will include Google Sheets,
Google Forms, and Google Classroom discussions.
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3. Develop a questionnaire for the teachers addressing the impact that including technology in
their classrooms have had on the students and their engagement, responsibility, and
communication.

PSC Standards
The goals and objectives listed adhere to the Georgia Performance Standards for Fine
Art and the Visual Arts. The inclusion of technology can enhance many of these standards, but
its main application can be seen in the need for students to assess and reflect upon their work.
This includes keeping an art journal, portfolio, and using art terminology and understanding to
constructively critique their own works of art as well as those of their classmates. Using Google
Sheets, a student can create a Digital Art Portfolio which allows students to view and comment
each student’s work.

● VA(6,7,&8)AR.1 Develops and maintains an individual portfolio of artworks.

● VA(6,7,8)AR.2 Critiques personal artworks as well as artwork of others using

visual and verbal approaches.

● VA(6,7,8)PR.4 Plans and participates in appropriate exhibition(s) of artworks.

Project Description
With the first project, I will focus on encouraging Mrs. Yandell and Mrs. Nix to adopt and
integrate technology in their classrooms. I hope to increase their acceptance and confidence
utilizing this technology by 25% by November 27, 2017. To begin this project, I will create a
technology needs assessment for both teachers to fill out so I can gain a sense on their
receptiveness to using technology in their classroom, as well as what access they have to
technology. Once I have a sense of their receptiveness to technology, I will provide each
teacher will a list of research-based technology tools that will enhance students’ learning
environment using Google Classroom and Google Apps such as Google Sheets and Google
Forms. I will also provide teachers with pictures and videos of my art students being engaged in
their learning process. The pictures will show students working on a standard using Google
Sheets and Google Classroom. Hopefully the visual examples will encourage both Mrs. Yandell
and Mrs. Nix to adopt some technology into their lesson plans.

Second Project Activity

My second project objective is to increase the amount of technology used in my
classroom as well as the classrooms of both of my peers’ classrooms. The goal is to have the
amount of technology used in each room by 25% by December 15, 2017. I will create a
template in Google Classroom for my fellow art teachers to use and also set up a Google
Classroom for us to use to open communication and share data. This should ease the inclusion
of technology in each classroom by lessening the workload of my peers. I will also organize a
professional development workshop teaching the county art teachers how technology can be
used in the classroom to increase student engagement, responsibility, and communication.
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Since it is hard for all three of us to meet in one location, we will utilize Google Hangouts or
communicate via Google Classroom.

Third Project Activity

The third and final activity is to have all three middle school art teachers in Floyd County
have at least four lesson plans that correctly include technology in the classroom. This objective
should be completed by May 18, 2017. These lesson plans will be uploaded and shared via a
Google Classroom page I created for us to cooperate and communicate. I will construct
example lessons to share with my peers that will include Google Sheets, Google Forms, and
Google Classroom discussions. Finally, I will develop a questionnaire for the teachers
addressing the impact that including technology in their classrooms have had on the students
and their engagement, responsibility, and communication.

Project Item/ Activity Project Objectives Deliverables

Create a needs assessment Increase teachers’ 1. Create needs

and provide references for confidence in technology assessment
Google Apps and tools 2. List of technology
tools, Google Apps,
Google Sheets,
Google Forms
3. Provide visual
examples and
artifacts from my
classroom.

Create templates for peers to Increase the amount of 1. Create Google

use in the classroom
technology used in each art Classroom Template
room. 2. Create Google Forms
Template
3. Create Google Sheet
Template (for digital
portfolio)
4. Organize a PLC with
my peers.

Share 4 lesson plans utilizing
technology correctly in the
classroom.
Table 1- Project Activities Alignment
Have all three art teachers 1. Use Google
using technology before the Classroom to share
end of the school year. lesson plans
2. Construct example
lessons for peers
3. Develop a
questionnaire for my
peers to complete at
the conclusion of the
project.
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Project Timeline
This project will take place over the 2017-2018 school year. It will begin with the
development of a needs assessment survey. The results gathered will help me determine each
teacher’s openness to including technology in their classroom. The hours needed for each
project are listed in Table 2. The final part to my project will be the sharing of four lesson plans
from each of the art teachers as well as completing a final questionnaire addressing the impact
of the inclusion of technology in each individual classroom. This part of the project will take
around 6 hours to complete, administer, and analyze the data. The entire project should take
around 112 hours to complete over the next eight months. The resources necessary to carry out
my project are displayed in Table 3.

Month Project Item/Activity, or Hours

Evaluation Item

October ● Create needs 16 hours

assessment and
develop a list of
Google Apps and tech
tools
● Share the assessment
with my peers and
allow them to
complete it.
● Start compiling
artifacts of how I use
technology to share
with my peers

November ● Continue compiling 16 hours

artifacts to share.
● Meet with my peers
via Google Classroom
and share artifacts.
● Start sharing
templates of:
○ Google Sheets
○ Google Forms
○ Google
Classroom

December ● Make sure that all 16 hours

templates have been
shared and
communicate with
peers to make sure
they are using tech.
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● Set up a time that we
can meet to do a PLC
for technology in the
art room.

January ● Continue creating and 16 hours

sharing assessments,
templates for lesson
plans.
● Keep communication
open about lesson
plans and concerns
using technology.

February ● Continue creating and 16 hours

sharing assessments,
templates for lesson
plans.
● Keep communication
open about lesson
plans and concerns
using technology.

March ● Continue creating and 16 hours

sharing assessments,
templates for lesson
plans.
● Keep communication
open about lesson
plans and concerns
using technology.

April ● Continue creating and 16 hours

sharing assessments,
templates for lesson
plans.
● Keep communication
open about lesson
plans and concerns
using technology.

May ● Complete final 16 hours

questionnaire about
how the teachers feel
about their
classrooms and the
tech used.
● Share at least 4
lesson plans that were
used between
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December and May.
Table 2- Project Timeline Total Hours: 112 hours

Proposed Resources Specifications

Virtual Space ● Google Classroom

● Floyd County Bandwidth
● Google Forms, Google Sheets, and Google Docs
(sharing lesson plans, assessments, and activities)
● Google Hangouts (for meetings)

Physical Space ● Art room at Pepperell Middle (Charles Jones)

● Art room at Coosa Middle (Mrs.
Yandell)
● Art room at Model Middle/Armuchee Middle (Mrs. Nix)

Technology Tools ● Google Chromebooks

● SMART Boards
● Projectors
● Desktop Computer (teacher)

Human Resources ● Technology Specialist for Floyd County (Emily Stallings)

● Support from Administration
Table 3- Proposed Resources

References - Statement of Problem/Rationale

Chapman.D . (2000). Adapting technology for school improvement: A

global perspective. Technology,

Pedagogy and Education, 14(3),

429-438. doi:10.1080/14759390500200237