Through a Reinventing Education grant awarded in 1995, IBM and the San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) worked together to improve teaching, with an emphasis on helping teachers integrate technology into their instruction. The partnership developed an electronic Teacher Portfolio Tool, technology that provides teachers with guidance and instruction on activities designed to help them achieve instructional standards along a four-step continuum, from "emerging" to "exemplary." The tool also helps teachers collect the work produced from these activities and enables them to keep an online journal that they can share with their teacher-mentors, resulting in a portfolio that documents their teaching practice and professional growth.
Along with new technology, district teachers were supported through the grant by a summer school clinical program and teacher action research projects. Through the clinical program, teams of participating teachers worked with specially-skilled teachers, engaging in hands-on, classroom-based learning to build upon their teaching skills, especially in the effective uses of technology. The lessons learned through this program have formed the foundation for other teacher professional development work in the district. Through the teacher action research projects, teachers design standards-based projects that focus on an instructional concern that potentially could be addressed through technology. Projects are implemented in the classroom, along with any training or other support that may be required, and findings are evaluated and disseminated to help other classroom teachers.
Through a Reinventing Education grant awarded in 2002, IBM is working with the San Jose Collaboration, made up of SJUSD and San Jose State University, to build upon current pre-service, in-service and ongoing teacher professional development efforts. For pre-service teachers, Riverdeep Learning Village is being integrated into university methods and field-based courses for communication, collaboration and instructional planning. For in-service teachers, the technology is being implemented into the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment program for credential certification; these teachers are accessing a database of exemplary instructional resources, participating in collaborative online mentoring environments, and developing professional growth portfolios that will lead them toward National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification.
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