Overview of the School
Annapolis Middle School has a total of 599 students, and teaches students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade. We have a large mix of students at Annapolis Middle School, as we have students that come from million dollar homes on the water, and students that come from government housing. Annapolis Middle School has not made adequate yearly progress since 2008. The school has missed adequate yearly progress in the categories of: Special Education, FARMS, Limited English Proficient, African Americans, and Hispanic/Latino. We have gone through restructuring because of our inability to make adequate yearly progress and we have been provided many SMARTboards and other forms of technology in hopes that it would increase student engagement.
Available Technology
At Annapolis Middle School we have the following technology:
- Two computer labs with 32 computers in each lab.
- Three laptop carts containing 20 laptops per cart.
- Computers for all administrative and secretarial staff
In each classroom we have:
- At least two computers.
- An overhead presenter.
- A SMARTboard.
- Access to SMART Response Clickers.
Technology Integration and Student Usage
Though a few teachers at Annapolis Middle School effectively integrate technology on a regular basis, there is still a majority of teachers that do not use technology with their students. The teachers that do use technology, use Web 2.0 technologies as well as common software like Microsoft Office. The majority of teachers do not use the technology to its full ability. For example, teachers will use the SMARTboard as a screen to project their PowerPoint, but will not provide activities which engage students through the interactive features of the board. Most teachers will only take their students to the computer lab when the students are required to create a final project such as a PowerPoint or Word document. The students are not provided much interaction with different types of software, or the use of Web 2.0 technologies on a regular basis.
Professional Development Available for Teachers
Anne Arundel County provides professional development opportunities for teachers to explore different types of technology, but they are few and far between. Within the county, there are only five technology integration specialists available to provide support for over one-hundred schools. When the technology integration specialists can make it out to the school, they often only provide an hour or two of training, and the trainings are often rushed because the specialists are trying to cover as much as they can in a little amount of time. Though teachers do gain some knowledge from the sessions, they do not get the confidence needed to successfully integrate the technology with their students.
