Week 2 Assignment - Blog #1

One of the main goals of the Texas long-range plan for technology is to promote academic excellence for all Texas students. The plan outlines four major areas: teaching and learning; educator preparation and development; leadership, administration, and instructional support; and infrastructure. One of the areas that I find key to the success of this plan is educator preparation and development. Students that are entering classrooms often have the upper hand on most teachers when it comes to technology. Many students are more familiar and better equipped to use technology than the teachers. The vision of the long range plan is that all professional educators, both present and future, have the skills to change their instructional methods to meet the learning needs of this new type of students. The learning that professional educators receive cannot simply be a one time workshop, it must be ongoing and current with the new technologies that are constantly emerging. Educators must be proficient at the technology TEKS that are expected of all Texas students. In my opinion there needs to be a great deal of improvement in educator preparation in order to truly meet the needs of 21^st century learners. At the local level, our school district is often one step behind in technology. For instance many educators are just now learning how to operate the older versions of Microsoft when there is already a new version available. It is not useful to be teaching our educators to use software that is already outdated. As a physical educator there are many opportunities to incorporate technology in my classroom, but because I am not a “core class” teacher I do not ever receive technology training. I think it is ridiculous to deny me my professional development in this area. If the district does not feel that I am worth their time to train in technology why would I feel obligated to incorporate it into my classroom.