MULTIMEDIA

RETRIEVAL/DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

FOR

MONTGOMERY MIDDLE SCHOOL


 




Abstract

A love for science and social studies will ensure success in students’ futures. Montgomery Middle School has an adequate number of devoted, excellent teachers in science and social studies, but there are some deficiencies in the areas of science and social studies. Science and social studies are difficult concepts for any students, but especially for students who are visual learners if they only read from a textbook and listen to lectures. Teachers must be able to assist students to learn with immediate visual aids.

Montgomery Middle School has begun to address this problem in science with an outdoor classroom, a weather station, Mr. Wizard program, and the SCIS III activity-based curriculum, however, we must continue to teach these students in every imaginable way. We have begun to try to add motivation and excitement to the social studies curriculum by special school wide activities for Veteran’s Day and Black History Month. We are coordinating a Veteran’s Day ceremony with the Jr. High to facilitate patriotism among students and to honor our local veterans. We conduct Black History month activities, including a speaker, a writing contest, and a poster contest. Teachers are using more hands-on materials than ever before. In social studies, teachers incorporate the TEKS into weekly geography skills by utilizing the Nystrom maps. Teachers are beginning to use their materials in conjunction with visual aids. However, for some students with disabilities or students whose strengths lie in other areas, these are difficult concepts and without the pertinent visual aids, students are not motivated and can not visualize these concepts. With the multimedia distribution system, teachers would be able to immediately access media that would be significant to their lesson.

With the help of a $35,118 grant from by The Meadows Foundation, Montgomery Middle School will be able to purchase the multimedia distribution system that will enable the students to be successful in science and social studies.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 Table of Contents
 
 

  1. Introduction
  2. Needs Statement
  3. Goal Statement
  4. Objectives
  5. Plan of Operation
  6. Budget
  7. Evaluation
  8. Plan for Future Spending
  9. Dissemination
  10. Appendices
    1. List of Committee Members
    2. Resumes
    3. Survey

 
 
 
 

 Introduction

Mariah is a fifth grade student at Montgomery Middle School. She loves art, riding her horse, and raising animals to show at the fair. School has never been easy for her, but she does well in most of her classes and is never a behavior problem. However, school becomes more challenging each year. This year, the advanced concepts in science and social studies have begun to get her down. There seems to be nothing that her teachers can do to help her. If only there was some way for her visual strengths and love of the outdoors to be brought into the classroom, she might become more motivated. Without some extra help, she might never reach her dream of becoming a horse trainer.
 
 
 
  Montgomery Middle School is part of the Montgomery Independent School District. The school’s goal is to integrate and align the school curriculum instruction, technology, professional development, classroom management, school management, and parental involvement into a school wide reform plan for effective school functioning to enable ALL students to meet the state content standards and state student performance standards.

The Montgomery Middle School Library serves students and teachers with a wide range of materials. Classes visit the library for bi-weekly lessons and students come to the library on an as needed basis to check out books and use reference materials. Teachers come to the library with their classes and at other times to get ideas for lessons and assistance with media and technology questions. One goal of the library is to become stronger in the area of media distribution so that teachers will know what is available and be able to access it easier.
 
 
 
 

Needs Statement

The lack of success of students in the areas of science and social studies was

shown with the below standard scores in the ITBS scores from the tests last year.

Teachers are trying without success to motivate students in these two subject areas.

The media retrieval part of the system will be used to help teachers explain difficult scientific concepts with the use of pertinent visual aids available in video tape or laser disk form. In fact, by using the video distribution system, an entire class level will be able to watch the same video at the same time. A multimedia distribution system will enable us to use closed captioning with the announcements and videos to effectively enable students with hearing losses to understand the world around them. The multimedia retrieval/distribution system will enable our school to have an in-school television station that would enhance our theater arts program as well as the other programs that would be focused on the broadcasts, such as the new weather station and outdoor classroom that we got this year and the Young Astronauts Club that will be in place next year. The key to using our video and multimedia instructional materials for effective teaching is distribution of our materials. We need to get the information out of the media center and into the students without moving students or equipment from one end of our school building to another. A multimedia retrieval/distribution system will enable technology to work for our school. Using our existing wiring, the system will save time and cost of installing more expensive coax cabling while providing enhanced capabilities you need for high-quality multimedia. The already existing computers in the classrooms will control the media devices located in the media center. Resources can be shared with several different classrooms at one time. The system will also enable our school to post announcements and after school activities, have school wide assemblies, broadcasting to any classroom from any location in the school, have team teaching between multiple classrooms, and other interactive applications for educational opportunities for our students. Teachers will spend less time setting up and more time motivating students to learn and teaching students.
 
 

Goal Statement

The library of Montgomery Middle School will house a multimedia retrieval/distribution system that will enable teachers to use pertinent visual aids to successfully teach science and social studies to all students.
 
 

Objectives

By February 1, 1999, the library staff will provide the faculty with an updated list

of available media.

By March 1, 1999, Montgomery Middle School will install a multimedia

retrieval/distribution system that will enable teachers to use pertinent visual aids to

successfully teach science and social studies to all students.

By March 1, 1999, Montgomery Middle School will train all of the staff and

faculty to use the multimedia distribution system.

By March 15, 1999, Montgomery Middle School will display announcements

over the video network which would assist students with disabilities with visual bells and

closed captioning.

By April 1, 1999, Montgomery Middle School will have an in-school television

station that would enhance our theater arts program as well as the other programs

that would be focused on in the broadcasts, such as the new weather station and outdoor

classroom that we got this year.

By May 30, 1999, Montgomery Middle School will conduct a survey of the

students, staff, and faculty to seek input about the new multimedia retrieval/distribution

system.

By August 15, 1999, Montgomery Middle School will include the Young

Astronauts Club on the in-school television station broadcasts.

By December 1, 1999, Montgomery Middle School will increase its audiovisual

library by 20%.

By December 1, 1999, Montgomery Middle School will buy a new video camera.
 
 
 
 

Plan of Operation

The use of the multimedia retrieval/distribution system will begin after its

installation and the training of the faculty and staff provided by Lufkin-Conroe

Telephone Company and Teradon Co. by March 1, 1999. Teachers will immediately be

able to access media from the library by use of the computers already in their classrooms.

As needed, teachers will use the media retrieval/distribution system to show difficult

social studies and science concepts and experiments. The teachers will turn in software

requests to the library by 4:00 p.m. each afternoon for next day use.

The faculty and staff members will display announcements and after school

activities on the network by March 15, 1999. The faculty and staff members who want to

put information on the network will turn it in to the receptionist. The library staff will

check with the receptionist each afternoon and make sure that the information is

displayed by 8:30 a.m. the next school day.

The theater arts teachers and library staff will coordinate with the science and

social studies team leaders to have successful in-school broadcasts beginning April 1,

1999.

The team will conduct a survey of staff, faculty, and students to seek input about

the multimedia distribution system by May 30, 1999.

The Young Astronauts Club will be incorporated into the in-school station

broadcast by August 15, 1999. Tracey Larson will coordinate with the library staff to

achieve this goal.

In the fall of 1999, the library staff will collaborate with staff and faculty

members to purchase more media and a new video camera.
 
 

Budget

Media Retrieval Hardware & Software: $ 14,900 (includes server, software & training) Clock/Bulletin Board Software: $ 3,795

AMP Multimedia Distribution $ 12,423

Hardware (allows cameras to plug

into jacks and broadcast on the network)

Additional Coax cabling(to connect the $ 4,000

Wiring closets in the main building and

the portables to the main building)

TOTAL $ 35,118
 
 

Evaluation

Students, parents, and teachers will be involved in the evaluation of the media distribution/retrieval system by participating in a survey conducted in May 1999. The committee will use the surveys for changes and improvements to the system and its use.

Plan for Future Spending

Montgomery Middle School is committed to integrating technology as a learning

tool into the science and social studies curriculum. The commitment of teachers to technology is shown by their daily use of Gradequick and Sleek software on the computers that are in each of their classrooms. The faculty and staff have come up with numerous strategies to achieve their goals. We plan to use our allotted district audio-visual and technology budget each year to increase the amount of media and audio-visual aids housed in our library for use by our students and teachers. Our plan is for all students to be successful in science and social studies. Montgomery Middle School will continue to seek goals from other local, state, and national agencies and investigate purchases to enhance technology. Montgomery ISD will continue to give monetary support to the schools and identify materials needed in order to integrate components of TEKS into social studies and science curriculum. Montgomery Middle School will continue to offer computer literacy to help our students become fully prepared for the world that awaits them. We will continue to use computers as instructional support to increase student knowledge and skills in all areas.
 
 
 
 

Dissemination

The results of this program will be shared with students, parents, teachers, and the entire Montgomery Independent School District through the school newspaper and newsletter and the local newspaper, The West Montgomery County News
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Committee Members

Janet Fick

Billye Klawinsky

Tracey Larson

Phyliss Teasdale

Pamela Wilson