Overview
Education reform in Massachusetts and throughout the country has placed a great
challenge in the hands of schools
such as the Benjamin
Franklin Classical Charter Public School (BFCCPS). Rapid changes in both the
educational
front, and in society at large, require technology
to be an integral part of the school curriculum and our everyday lives.
It becomes our challenge to create a vision of technological growth within our
school while all the while maximizing
our resources.
Perhaps of equal or greater importance is the need to inspire and encourage the
professional development of our
faculty without whom
technological growth within our walls will not occur. We must remain focused in
our effort to
transform our understanding of the use of
technology in education. The technological transformation of the
Information Age
is upon us and cannot be ignored. Innovations in the
ways we transfer, deliver, and interpret
information are changing rapidly.
The Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School
will help students to develop technological skills, which will
allow them to
successfully,
and confidently, function in an evolving information centered society. This plan
will
provide students the opportunity to gain and apply
knowledge through technology. The Benjamin Franklin
Classical Charter Public
School will continue to provide high quality professional
development, which allows
educators to integrate new and existing technology
into the curriculum and to provide students with the most
progressive learning opportunities available.
Through the overarching principles
of our Technology Mission, BFCCPS has established the following
goals for
technology:
•
To aid all our students in becoming skilled,
knowledgeable, independent, and self directed learners to succeed
as responsible
citizens, and effective workers in the 21st
century.
•
To provide increased opportunities for
individualization, group activities, cooperative learning, thematic studies,
and
varied learning techniques through technology.
•
Empower teachers as facilitators of an active and
productive learning environment that uses technology as a tool.
•
Enable teachers and administrators to more effectively
share knowledge, resources, and problem solving
techniques with other colleagues
around the world.
•
Improve administrative, classroom, and staff
management efficiencies through the use of technological tools.
•
Enhance communication between administration,
teachers, parents, students, and the community through
technology.
•
Expand the learning environment beyond the ‘classroom
walls’ through technology.
The Benjamin Franklin Classical
Charter Public School will ensure that staff and administrators have
continual opportunities to
improve their professional skill by:
•
participation in the Staff Development Day Workshops,
which incorporate underlying principles of active,
cooperative and interdisciplinary learning.
•
offering technology based courses and conferences
Continuing Education Budget.
•
creating technology workshops based on teacher and/or
administrative requests.
•
making available curriculum workshops for those
interested in developing the integration of technology into
their curricula.
•
peer collaboration to share expertise/assistance as
new technologies are introduced to the system.
•
exposure to emerging new technologies as they relate
to the curricula of various academic disciplines.
The Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public
School will ensure that school administration continues
to utilize and support
technology by:
•
providing human resources to support the curriculum
and instructional goals.
•
establishing routine methods for review, revision,
upgrade and maintenance of existing practices and equipment.
•
developing a school budget, which includes realistic
appropriations for technology upgrade and support, and
actively seeking
alternative
sources of funding to supplement town funds (E-Rate, grants, donations).
•
enabling efficient and effective control of
operational information.
The Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public
School will ensure that the parents of our students
will be able to utilize the
schools technology for communication with the school’s staff and/or for the
access of district information by:
•
enabling parents by providing information via the
Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public Schools
Web Site:
http://www.bfccps.org
They will have the opportunity to leave e-mail messages for, and ask questions
of, teachers/administrators. This will offer an improved
communication system between parents and staff.
•
promoting technology based student and adult education
programs to enable parents to feel more comfortable
utilizing the new educational tools.
•
making our computer facilities available to students
and parent outside school hours
If we are to achieve these lofty goals we must foster
an atmosphere of success through our desire to incorporate
technological change
in a
proactive manner. We cannot be bystanders in today’s global technological
revolution.
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