Survey

Today I met with Dawn, and we worked on creating a survey for the teachers at the school where I am placed. The director is going to put this out herself, so that the teachers will actually fill out the information, and we will have great feedback on what direction our project should go in. We would like to have the project ready and in place by the end of this semester for the next one. Hopefully, I will be able to have a training session soon on how to work the smart boards because the lady in the education department has already been contacted by Dawn. I realized today when thinking about sustainability and making this project actually work, there has to be something to up the anti. People don't see a problem and just make changes very often because they are comfortable or afraid of making the change. The only way these teachers as wonderful as they are, are going to actually do more than complete a training on the boards is for them to have an incentive and reason to do so. In my opinion, for these teachers to actually need my support and for me to be able to offer my services, the teachers are going to have to be required to create lessons using the smart boards. Then I would be a wonderful resource for them that happens to be right there at their fingertips...I thought about how neat it would be if a different teacher every month was to create one lesson or project that incorporated the board, and then all of the staff met together to see the final project like a showing or viewing. This would also promote staff interactions, cooperation, self-confidence, and address peoples fears of being enable to work the technology. I also love the idea of people seeing how someone used the device and wondering how they could do that , too. Then the teachers are actually learning from each other and collaborating. If one teacher really liked a lesson plan, then they could share the saved lesson and use it in a different classroom. There is a lot of potential, but for the potential to be reached, the teachers are going to have to be required to do something. In order to work on the greater problem at hand here, (which is the lack of teachers using the technology available to them) someone has to create a problem (like having to make a lesson) in order for them to need to fix the problem (learn the Smart Board). Then they will want to actually fix the problem (come ask me for help) in order that they might be successful. Once they are confident in their abilities, then they will want to learn more and use the technology more to help with their teaching.

(2 hrs)