I work in a district in Texas. Yes, we are one of several states that are having financial troubles. But my situation does not really come from that. I have been in education for over 20 year. I now find myself in a district that is turning its beliefs about teaching and learning toward a new direction. Like most districts, we had an English department along with all of the other academic departments. Each department was led by a director. That person's role was to guide the department with a teaching and learning philosophy and help the administrators and teachers with their decisions based on that philosophy. We managed staff development including national consultants.
We are a successful district that is looking for a way to move student thinking to a more rigorous level. This new path to teaching and learning removes the focus on departments and moves it toward an interdisciplinary approach that includes the use of technology.
We began the move by eliminating the directors of all core content areas. We also eliminated our school improvement specialists in every building. There were two in each building. One who worked with math and science and the other who worked with ELA and social studies. The role of interdisciplinary coach (iCoach) has been added to each campus. The role of the iCoach has not been clearly defined--it will develop as we move into our new learning. We know that this person will know technology and encourage appropriate use of it. This person will also help to write curriculum that includes interdisciplinary units.
We began last week with Sara and Shelly from November Learning helping the coaches and administrators better understand how technology fits into good learning. I was invigorated by the three days of working together. I learned a lot about technology, but I also learned about building units with appropriate technology. I especially liked using jing to create tutorials. But in meetings today, the conversation was around different tech tools rather than the learning. Looking at one tool after another became overwhelming. It was suggested that a teacher acquire two new tools in a year. I learned about more than 30 tools today. Too much!
So I have decided to chronicle my change from someone who guided the English department to someone who works with all teachers in a middle school helping them to move away from thinking just about their content toward thinking about connecting their content with other content areas while also using technology.
As I was feeling overwhelmed today, I decided that I would use technology to help me make this move. I know that many of you out there have been using technology in your teaching for years. I would bet that many of you are also in an interdisciplinary environment. I need your help! I don't know how you will find me to help me, but I am putting this out there hoping to get feedback on my ideas as well as suggestions for additional ideas. While I am no "Julia," I am more than willing to put my ideas into the blogosphere and hope that help and encouragement will come flying back towards me.
We currently have ACTIVBoards in every classroom. Teachers are getting mini laptops (4-6) and 2 IPads in their classrooms. Our libraries have Macs, IPads, and Ipod touches. We also have digital cameras. So we have the technology basics. How can I help my teachers use these tools to improve learning among the students in my building and this district?
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