Blog Group 1/Carey, Kelley & Stratton

I found the homework reading assignments very interesting.

I am definitely a Digital Immigrant.  I am currently in my 20th year as a teacher in the Manchester School District.  I am a high school business teacher and I am proud to say that I am a lifelong learner.  Business is always changing and I have worked hard over the years to try to stay as current as possible to prepare my students for the 21st century. I've been frustrated over the years with the technology available for our students.  I've worked with area businesses to get donated technology, spoken at school board meetings to advocate for better technology and I join committees, workshops, cohorts, etc. to try to work with like-minded colleagues to learn about technology and ways to update my methodology and content.  

I have seen our district take some big steps within the past 2 years in infusing updated technology and updating our infrastructure (as Jeff presented in our technology plan).  I believe our district needs to be more assertive in scheduling hands-on PD workshops for more teachers that want to change their methodology and content but don't know how to start on their own.  We all know there are many teachers that are embracing technology and already taking steps to update the way they teach.  We also know there are a lot of resistors that need extra help to encourage them to learn more about HOW they can take small steps to change to improve student learning.

My two youngest children often came home to report how boring school is and that really makes me sad.  I have one son at Central High School in his freshman year and I'm sure he would feel differently if he was being taught using more technology.  We have to do better for our students in this district.  

Prensky asked the tough question, "Which is harder...learning new stuff or learning new ways to do old stuff?"  The latter is the correct answer and I believe it is our district's responsibility to find ways to make that happen with our teaching staff.  We used to have early release days periodically for the district to sit somewhere and listen to someone talk about best practices, etc.  That was not very effective.  I believe it would be better to have late arrival for our students so teachers could work at their own schools in the morning to share best practices and teach each other about technology. Quite a few schools are currently participating in a T21 cohort but we're having difficulty finding the time to share these great new skills with our colleagues.  Mornings would work better and the students would appreciate the extra sleeping time.