Tomorrow People

If I were designing a program to prepare teacher leaders for multiple pathways, one of my strategies would be to pair them up with exemplary administrators and TIS/teacher leaders for observation and clinicals including modeling and demonstration of integrated technology for instruction and communication, so they would get a sense of involvement from the ground up. I would also require them to read “Stratosphere: Integrating Technology, Pedagogy, and Change Knowledge” by Michael Fullan, as it underscores the urgency for dynamic change in current educational paradigms. Fullan recommends training teacher leaders to be “digital ambassadors” who can then outreach to other teachers to help embed innovation.  

I would also have them attend a leadership conference so they would get a sense of community and empowerment. Conferences were not part of my teacher prep program, and I have never been to an educational conference. If I’d already been to a conference, I wouldn’t have anxiety about it as a new experience. I think sometimes we are so focused on pedagogy for the kids that we forget how important it is to build ties to the adults we will work with. The WVPTS standards address this, especially in regards to Communicating with all Stakeholders and building a community centered around learning.

One of the strategies I will use to assess technology needs will be to talk to other teachers in my building and our TIS to determine what we could be doing to better engage students but aren’t due to lack of technology. Additionally, I can also talk to students and families about what kind of learning activities they would like to see happening. I can get access to current inventory lists, as well. I’m already aware of some obvious needs, and plan on asking teachers about their current or desired level of use of interactives in the classroom, as I’d like to focus on procuring equipment like Smart projectors to enable interactive instruction. There are several classrooms in my wing that have dead boards and no or low-functioning projectors, and I would use data showing the benefits of technology integration for interactive instruction as part of my proposal.