EDUCATOR PREPARATION and DEVELOPMENT

In the Starchart statewide summary, I recently focused on the area of Educator Preparation and Development. This is an area of concern for me because I feel that teachers are lacking in the areas of preparation and development when it comes to technology. Both local and state data support this theory because the ratings were overwhelmingly falling in the classification of Developing Tech. This means that I have received Professional development on integrating technology into content area activities for students as well as to streamline productivity and management tasks. It also means that I participate in large group pro-fessional development sessions that focus on increasing teacher pro-ductivity and building capacity to integrate technology effectively into content areas with followup that facilitates implementation. 74% of our teachers in the state fall into this category. It is not enough to receive and participate in professional development. This will not produce positive results that will impact technology infusion within our classroom. This will keep us hiding behind the mask of being a passive learners. To really impact technological learning in our classrooms through infusion of our core subjects, we need to become active learners by engaging in segments of collaboration with our peers of common core areas of education. In this way, we can come up with ways to effectively integrate what we’ve learned so we can have positive application within our classrooms. The highest level of Target Tech requires that I collaborate with other professionals in the development of new learning environments which empowers students to think critically to solve real-world problems and communicate with experts across business, industry and higher education. This simply means that if we want our students to be Global learners, we must first become Global learners as teachers. We must give what we are trying to get. If we want to reap a great harvest, we must first sow a great planting of seeds.