In 2006 South San Francisco Unified School District was one of three Bay Area districts to receive a two year Enhancing Education through Technology – Competitive (EETT-C) grant from the California Department of Education (CDE). The CDE augmented the $703,500 two-year grant by a third year award of $95,040, which was completed June 30, 2009.   

     The purpose of the grant is to strengthen Language Arts instruction and improve reading and writing for approximately 2,245 students in the three middle schools and the Mid-Point Program at Baden in the South San Francisco Unified School District.   We accomplished this through the integration of technology into classroom instruction through intensive, one-on-one professional and small group development.  

 The following steps will lay the process we took in order to assure a successful grant implementation:

Year One - Parkway Middle School, Westborough Middle School, Alta Loma Middle School, Baden Midpoint Program

In the first year, SSFUSD equipped all 41 Language Arts classrooms with three state-of-the-art Dell computers, a networked printer, an LCD projector presentation unit, and a suite of special software (Inspiration, MS Office, Photoshop Elements). The District also acquired the license for READ 180, a technology-assisted reading program (at Parkway Middle School) for students who are reading at least two years below grade level.  

In year one we introduced School Loop as a communication tool for teachers, students and parents and as a classroom interactive resource tool.

In year two we introduced My eCoach, an online learning community, coaching and mentoring tool, where our teachers have been publishing the curriculum they have developed as well as student work samples.

Year One Through Year Three

At the heart of the program was ongoing professional development and site based coaching and mentoring to help teachers use these technology tools to improve student reading and writing and deepen their understanding of the Language Arts content they are learning.  An Instructional technology specialist was hired as a curriculum integration coach for the three-year duration of the grant, along with a reading specialist coach. These two coaches collaboratively worked with teachers through site based workshops and one-on-one or small group coaching sessions to help teachers develop lessons and units that use technology to enhance student learning. This support helped teachers to address the needs of all students in their classrooms.

Along with coaching and workshops and summer institutes brought teachers together to explore effective instructional strategies, share best practices, develop lessons and materials for upcoming instructional units and foster a community around Language Arts instruction. 

Teachers as Leaders

After year one, we formed a Teacher Leadership Team made up of three teacher leaders from each school that met four times each year. The purpose of this team was to help guide the implementation of the grant, ensure that the professional development programs were closely tied to the Language Arts curriculum and identify the specific PD needs of each site while addressing specific teacher needs.

Teachers as Professionals in the Field

CUE National Conference, Palm Springs - In the spring of 2008 we took a team of 4 teachers from our leadership team to present curriculum they developed to a national audience. The name of the session was Visual Learning Strategies and Best Practices in Language Arts Classroom.

In fall of 2008 we took four teachers to the Innovative Learning Conference in San Jose to see presentations of other teachers and leaders in the field of educational technology.