Terriorizing Teacher or a Terrific Teacher of Tech. What am I going to be?

Terrorizing teachers with technology is happening a lot in school districts. As a parent, I can’t just assume that my kids are going to open up a textbook, take a test only on paper, maybe view a few lessons from a projector, and watch School House Rock on the television. WAIT…you mean my kids have more technology offered in their classrooms? Yes, they do and as a substitute teacher, I see many teachers who are terrorized at the technology in their room. I see some unopened boxes that are stored with equipment just waiting to come out of the box to enhance the student’s lessons.  

I have learned many things from my lesson one this week. First of all, I was not aware of all the standards for the students and teachers. This is my first graduate class and maybe I should not be expected to know all of the standards now, but I am not sure that all of our teachers know them or implementing them in their classrooms. I have never participated in a Professional Development class, but I would hope that the school’s tech staff would be helping their teachers in learning how to fully use the equipment to their best ability.

As a teacher, I might be overwhelmed at first with all that is expected of me, but I will start with technology in my lesson plans. It will be up to me, as a quality teacher, to develop lesson plans and use the tools that I will have on hand. One obstacle might be that my room is not equipped with what I need to successful produce and execute a lesson. It will be up to me to ask assistance from the Media Specialist or the computer teacher in my school.

Students are all about technology. Most have available to them a computer, IPod, email accounts, CDs and DVDs, internet, or other contemporary tools at home. If not, I would pay attention to those that do not have internet access outside of the classroom and may offer them extra time at school to work on projects.

I was very surprised to read about human growth in our technology book. Each one of my students will meet one of the areas of Multiple Intelligences. I have viewed Howard Gardner talking about Multiple Intelligences. I took a survey and I was the Interpersonal. Understanding people is hard, but one area I feel confident in. However, my teenager trumps this. Another area for me is Bodily-Kinesthetic. I am very expressive as a person. As an Interior Designer, expressing my self is what I do best. I will use technology in my classroom taking pictures, using graph, posters, spreadsheets, and I can see me also implementing a blog for my students to participate and comment back and forth. This is a great way to express your thoughts and try to get that student that is not expressive and has very few words to open up.

I look forward to the challenges and celebrations that await me as a teacher. For now, I work hard as a substitute and learn all I can as I am in a classroom. That way, I won’t be a Terrorized Teacher from Technology and will be a Terrific Teacher of Technology.