Coming from the "Dark Side" and learning to think more like a teacher, I'm very excited to learn from each of the teachers in this class. Technology is what I live and breath, and as some of my teachers would explain it, it is "In my blood". To interact and collaborate with each of the teachers in this class, I believe will give me a better insight on how to better encourage my teachers to feel confident about the skills they do possess. My biggest weakness is from the fact that I have never been a classroom teacher. My "students" are all equipped with the same resources from the technology front line. However, the skills they each possess all vary from strong to extremely weak.
I hope that I can be a leader for those in this class by using my technology background to encourage them and share with them from my experiences. The first thing I try to teach my teachers is to start with something small and perfect that, then add the next step. If we try to take on everything in technology all at once, something will go wrong. You have to be prepared for something to go wrong and fail. Have a back-up plan, and don't become defeated after a failure. To effectively use Technology does take a large amount of time and devotion, and Professional Development is a huge key in this process.
I agree wholeheartedly that bridging the tech side and the teaching side into one side is so important. At Tri-County we have worked one on one with teachers over the summers by devoting a half a day every other week to nothing more than being in each building to work on any project the teacher wants to incorporate technology wise in his/her classroom. We have even this year gone as far as having devoted times that I walk away from my Technology Director position and work with teachers one on one during the day. Granted this takes away from the teacher's prep time, they get to learn more in-depth one on one. My schools have even gone as far as support the Integration of Technology by allowing teachers to retain a substitute to spend a half a day working one on one with myself on a specific project. (Given the numerous snow days, I have only had one teacher choose to do that. But I was able to answer her questions and help her figure out how to develop her online NoteBook.) We do not have a Technology Integration specialist/Tech Coach, but we are looking to go that way. But speaking from the Technology side, some days it is hard to keep everything up and running, and be able to come directly to a teacher's aide as well. There are so many fine points that all rely upon each other to keep everything working. I encourage you to keep the dialogue open with your technology department and see if you can team up and figure out the "pitfalls" that are going on in your use of technology.
ReplyDeleteI would love the opportunity to work with our teachers one on one! Talk about differentiating instruction!!
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