Unfortunately when I was a teacher in the classroom, I did not have many opportunites to use technology with my students. We had three computers in the classrooms that I utilized to the best of my ability but it was not enough. During my last two years of teaching, I was introduced to the Aver Key device which allowed me to connect my laptop to a television in the room so the students and I could visit websites and do some exploring together. There was only one Smart Board in my whole school and there were not any iPads or iPhones. Five years ago I left the classroom to become a Curriculum Support Teacher so I have not had the opportunity to utilize all of these new innovative technological devices in my own classroom.
Today, it is a completely different world where technology is at almost everyone's fingertips. As a result, information can be found in an instant from a myriad of sources that can lead us in a variety of directions. When new technologies were coming out including iPADs and iPhones, I always waited a year or so to purchase these items myself. I liked to wait things out and let the manufacturers work out all the kinks and refine their products before I invested in them myself. Therefore, I used technology over the last several years but not in the realm of education.
Within the past year, I have to started to become excited about using technology with teachers I support. I slowly integrated some of the following into my professional development sessions and in modeled lessons: Wordle, Tagxedo, Prezi, Linoit, Scoop It, to name a few. However, most of the training was still very much "sit and get." I modeled different ways teachers could use technology with their students and asked them to try it in their own classrooms. I did not provide teachers with time in these sessions to play around with these tools and develop some activities for their students. I also did not monitor the implementation of these strategies or provide ongoing support.
Three weeks ago I started a new role as a Humanities Program Specialist in which I support reading, language arts, social studies, and world language teachers grades K-12 in 21 different schools in my district. This new position included several grade levels and content areas I was unfamiliar with so I began doing some professional development on my own to learn about these fields that were new to me. I found so much information on my own through blogs, Twitter, iPAD apps, videos, even Google. I also attended several workshops and conferences that illustrated the need for technology integration in the classroom and provided me time to explore some of these tools on my own.
Within this short amount of time, I have found a new passion: technology. I am constantly researching new technologies to improve my own professional development, build teacher capacity, and improve student learning. This has inspired me to write a blog about my journey into the world of educational technology. This is quite impressive given the fact that I absolutely hate writing!!!! However, my goal is to write a blog at least 2 times a week to share interesting facts and information about why we need to integrate technology into our classrooms as well as provide teachers with the resources they need to become better teachers.
I hope you will visit my blog in the future and find some valuable tools and resources you can use for your own learning and to improve your students' learning.
Kelley
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