Upon visiting my block 2 placement school, I am really excited about the attitude towards technology. The school has put in a short term initative to purchase technology and incorporate it into classroom learning. During the previous school year there were only two SMART boards, however the school has made some purchases and now owns seven. The school is dedicated to using their limited budget to try to upgrade their technology in order to benefit teaching and student learning. However, I was surprised to hear from a few teachers that although the school did have these technologies that they had never used them. I think that one of the reasons that technology is not having widespread in education is due to the lack of knowledge of how to use them.
I cautiously expressed to these teacher that I had experience and training using the SMART board (as I did not know how they felt about technology integration). I offered to teach my associate teacher and a few of the other teachers sitting around the staff room table around me to operate the SMART board. They were very excited and open to the idea. This was somewhat surprising to me because I keep reading and hearing about how the lack of technological integration is partially due to uncooperative teachers who are “set in their ways”. However, I am relieved and thrilled that this is not the attitude that I am encountering within the school. These teachers were genuinely excited to learn how to operate the communal technology that is currently being used exclusively by the same handful of classrooms that are familiar with how to use them.
And as a young teacher, I am enthusiastic about the prospect of sharing my knowledge of technology with these knowledgeable and experienced teachers whom I am certain I will be learning from during my stay at the school. I feel fortunate to have something to offer these teachers, especially my associate teacher who was kind enough to invite me into her classroom. I will begin my quest to technological leadership in this school. Stay tuned for updates…
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