The document outlines plans to transition Benton High School towards a more student-centered and constructivist educational model through the integration of technology. It proposes a multi-year plan to provide all students and teachers with laptops and wireless access, beginning with freshman and expanding each subsequent year. The goal is to level technological equity, improve teaching and learning, and better prepare students for the 21st century by creating an interactive learning community where technology is fully integrated into the educational experience.

1. Moving Benton
High School
towards a student-centered,
constructivist future

4. Continuous Partial Attention

5. Work has changed from...

6. making things...

7. to knowing things

9. What is constructivism?
Examples of programs & curricula
recently adopted by districts
throughout the nation that are
centered around the notion that,
classroom instruction
notwithstanding, students make
their own meaning.

10. What do these have in
common?
process writing, problem or
inquiry-based mathematics,
investigative or inquiry-based
science, & experiential or
problem-based social studies

11. In a constructivist
classroom...
the teacher searches for students’
understandings of concepts, and then
structures opportunities for students to
refine or revise these understandings by
posing contradictions, presenting new
information, asking questions, encouraging
research, and/or engaging students in
inquiries designed to challenge current
concepts. (Brooks & Brooks, 1999)

12. Five
overarching
principles
evident in constructivist
classrooms:

13. Teachers seek
and value
their student’s
points of view.

14. Classroom activities
challenge students’
suppositions.

15. Teachers pose
problems of
emerging
relevance.

16. Teachers build
lessons around
primary concepts
and “big ideas.”

17. Teachers assess
student learning
in the context of
daily teaching.
(Brooks & Brooks, 1999)

19. Developing a World-Class,
Technologically-Literate Staff
2009, Year One - “Beginnings”

20. Our Program Cornerstone:
comprehensive & sustained training
minimal time spent in
large groups learning
basic operations &
applications
quickly move to needs-
based, small group
training
job-embedded training
followed by classroom-
based coaching is crucial

21. Less:
“SPRAY & PRAY”

22. Cohort One
commitments:
one plan period every
other week (job-
embedded training)
completion,
implementation &
observation of incremental
tasks/assignments
reflection of PD will be
publicly weblogged
one-on-one coaching with
IC

23. Not tied to a desk

24. At enlightened, forward-thinking
companies, managers understand the
connection between learning, innovation,
and higher productivity — in fact,
employees at these companies may even
be encouraged to spend time learning and
experimenting with new technologies.
Joe McKendrick, FastForward

25. Next Year’s Mission:
YOU.

26. PCK: pedagogical content knowledge

27. TPACK: technological pedagogical
content knowledge

28. Acquisition & Training
for instructor-side technology:
purchase & train a high-
performing cohort on 15”
MacBook Pro wireless
laptops
purchase minor teacher
peripherals: remote,
digital camera
purchase classroom set of
hi-def, flash drive
camcorders

29. Acquisition & Training
for instructor-side technology (cont.):
bring Cohort One up to
standard with LCD
projectors, etc.
add wireless hubs to
cover building gaps (BHS
becomes 100% wireless)

30. Acquisition & Training
for instructor-side technology (cont.):
Cohort One texts for
study:
In Search of
Understanding: The Case
for Constructivist
Classrooms (Brooks &
Brooks, 2007)
Web 2.0 New Tools, New
Schools (Solomon &
Schrum, 2001)

31. Acquisition & Training
for instructor-side technology (cont.):
Cohort One texts for
study:
In Search of
Understanding: The Case
for Constructivist
Classrooms (Brooks &
Brooks, 2007)
Web 2.0 New Tools, New
Schools (Solomon &
Schrum, 2001)

32. Developing a World-Class,
Technologically-Literate Staff
2010, Year Two - “Expanding”

33. Cohort Two Training:
the remainder of BHS staff
comes online in year two
Cohort Two follows
commitments toward tech
training
Cohort One will not only
implement and assist
Cohort Two, but will also
receive needs-based
training in advanced
techniques

34. Care

35. Our First Student Class
Comes Online:
2011, Year Three - “Empowering our FMP’s”

36. A New Brand of freshman initiation:
In year three, we bring Benton’s incoming freshman class
online. All freshman-pure classes will begin to initiate the
advantages of being connected to an interactive community of
student, teachers, parents and other stakeholders. At
registration, students will be given initial training for the 13”
MacBook wireless laptops they will receive in padded student
backpacks.

37. A natural fit:
Benton’s successful Freshman Mentoring Program (FMP),
modeled after Stevenson High in Illinois, is a logical extension of
the freshman induction. These upper-classmen serve BHS as
hands-on mentors to our freshmen seven days per week in our
Academic lab sessions. It is only logical to take advantage of
the leadership skills of these students -Benton’s best and
brightest- to help our first wireless class adjust.

38. Why start with 25%?
While choosing to bring freshmen online first is a logical choice
in building the future culture & climate of our community... there
are other sound reasons for this choice. A more rapid plan
would skip this staged integration and go directly to all-school
integration. There are too many valuable logistics lessons to be
learned when implementing any program of this scale from the
ground up. A gradual phase-in will teach us the things we need
to learn for all-school integration and will allow another year of
growth and development for our staff prior to full
implementation.

39. Benton High School
Goes 1:1
2012, Year Four - “Moving forward into a
‘flattened world’.”

40. Toward closing our
achievement gap:
Benton’s largest subgroup in terms of student diversity is the
number of students receiving free & reduced lunch. In what
might seem to be an overnight happening to many in the
community, the tipping point of having the technological playing
field leveled for the entirety of Benton’s economically-diverse
population will have become a reality. What appears to be one
fell swoop will in reality be a grounded, phased-in integration
plan that delivers added quality in our school. For these
students and teachers, technology will never again be
“peripheral” in their lives.

41. Further...
In 2012, Benton High School takes its first obvious steps as a
wireless workspace where technological equity and training for
all students and teachers is a reality. The impact of this
implementation will fundamentally change the way students,
teachers and parents interact. Benton will continue its focus on
improvements in teaching, learning and building a collaborative
culture into the future. However, this future will now boast
construction of a technologically-literate community of learners.

42. Community

50. An authentic & wide
audience:

51. Finally...
Also anticipated and perhaps even more powerful, is the
creation of a working model to evaluate and study for future
integration of other SJSD schools. Our focus will not be on
“technology”, but instead on transforming our school toward a
more student-centered, constructivist approach, and to prepare
students to succeed in the 21st century. Benton’s students and
teachers will become a vibrant lab school of learners pushing
the envelope of learning in a high-speed, wireless community.
The added attention to the teaching and learning that takes
place within our building and out- will help to make these
processes public for all who wish to see. This is yet another
accountability piece that will serve to sharpen our learning
community.

52. The world is changing
rapidly.
Our kids can’t wait for us to
figure this out.

53. Fail gloriously (and often)

55. “Web 1.0”

56. Wide range of tools

58. Outta here...

59. Moving Benton High School
towards a student-centered, constructivist future