It all about this time started five years ago. At that point, we had a lot of teachers who were incorporating technology with their own devices and buying projectors as we could. We had about twelve SMART boards in our school, which we were using to the best of our ability (although we didn’t really know the best way to use them).
I was asked to serve on a technology planning committee, where I found out that we were seriously considering changing everything. We discussed device options, budgeting, vision statements for the program, and what kind of accountability should be involved. My role was mostly to insist on training. The board members on our committee rightly felt that the SMART boards had not been used as well as they could have been in the classroom and didn’t want to make this investment to have it fail. I reminded them that the teachers who had SMART boards had been given one day of training on the function of the boards and none on how to incorporate them into our lesson plans. When we talked about devices, I said, “Without training, it might as well be a stone and chisel.” When we discussed the budget, I said, “There has to be budget set aside for training.” When we talked about the vision statement, I reminded them that none of that vision could be accomplished if teachers were told HOW to carry it out. When we discussed accountability, I reminded them that they couldn’t be expected to use it well without training. I’m sure they got tired of hearing the word training from me, but I felt it was my role as the representative of the teachers.
The members of the committee were sworn to silence until the plan was unveiled. In the mean time, projectors and MacBook Pros were purchased for every teacher. They were made ready by our wonderful tech team (which at that time only consisted of Sean and Diane) in an empty classroom that had new locks and paper over the windows. You practically needed a secret password to enter that room. As the day of the unveiling approached, we all got a little excited and nervous. Diane was going to be chaperoning our 8th grade DC field trip, so Sean would be on his own that day for training. He was nervous about whether or not people would like the idea. Including myself, there were about three faculty meetings that were long term Mac users; so we were asked to help people during the training. All the teachers knew when they came in that morning was that the day would be about technology and that Sean would be leading it. Sean talked about the importance of increasing our technology usage in 21st century education, showed a prezi about the importance of changing education from the industrial model, and talked about how critical it was that we lead in this area. Then, I was scripted to ask, “So, how do we do this if we don’t all have the tools?” Sean announced that everyone would be getting a projector, which was met with minor enthusiasm. Then, he said, “You may be asking what good a projector will do if you don’t have your own laptop. Well . . .” The laptops were hidden in a closet, and I got to help roll them out. It was super exciting.
We spent that entire day of training, learning how the Mac works, looking at each type of application, and brainstorming ideas. We got a video message from Diane since she couldn’t get to us from DC. We obviously had teachers with a wide range of experience and comfort with the tool (one person asked me what it meant to click), but everyone was super on board and willing to learn. At the end of the day, I hugged Sean and told him how well he did and how excited everyone was. We knew we were at the beginning of something awesome.
Since that day, we have learned so much. Our kids have done so much. Our tech team has supported us so much. It is too much to put in this post, which is already long. Read all about our first year with tech in my next post.
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