Week 6: Reflection on Chapter 5

What do teachers think of when the hear Professional Development? Clock hours? Incriment hours? How many actually think, wow what will I learn new that I can bring into my classroom?

As I was reading Web2.0 I immediately thought of my school when I read the following sentence, "Unfortunately, even though massive amounts of money have been spent on training educators, we have not seen a real difference in the ways technology has been integrated into the classroom." I am fortunate to work in a district, sau16, that has and spends the money on technology for classrooms, and schools. They also have a website dedicated to Technology New. It is there I learned about sites for educators such as CommonCraft , Best Of website, or the Mac 101 classroom. The problem is that not many teachers take advantage of the technology or the resources around them. Being that we are heading into our 5th year as a School in Need of Improvment, teachers are less concerened about using technology. "It takes up time, that could be used teaching what matters," is what one teacher told me this past year. AHH!

To address this problem Sau16 created positions at each school where classroom teachers would become technology mentors. By becoming a technology mentor they would agree to engage in ongoing professional development (100% paid for by the district), actively use and promote technology within their classroom, offer and hold technology sessions for faculty to share with them ways of incorporating technology into their classroom that coincides with what they are teaching.

I quickly applied and received the position, this past year completing my second and the programs second year. I have found over the years, that teachers are a) not even aware of the technology tools available to them, and/or b) have no idea how to incorporate them into their classroom.

As we move forward this new school year, our goal within my school is to promote several tools that can be easily integrated into the classroom. By beginning small, our hope is that once teachers become familiar with some tools, they will begin to move ahead and research and incorporate new tools on their own. While CMS is ahead with having all the technology, we are far behind in how we use it in our classrooms.