Teaching Technology

I am a computer teacher at the middle school level in Kersey, Colorado.  We have three full-time computer teachers, one in the elementary for grades K-5, me in the elementary for 6-8, and one in the high school for 9-12.  We teach the kids as well as the teachers and other co-workers in our respective buildings.  We have a coordinated curriculum in which we make sure that we have a flow from one level to the next.  We try not to have overlap.  We flow from one grade to the next, building on what the kids learned the year before.  We cover such topics as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet, e-mail, Desktop publishing, robotics, programming, web page design, and technology literacy. Our teachers are integrating technology more often.  They are starting to use things like the CPS system (blue clickers) and some video equipment.

I teach in Lonedell, Missouri, USA, in a K-8 district with 366 students. I am the Technology Educator. I see every student, and it is my job to teach them how to use the computers. I try to meet the ISTE goals for each grade level, while enriching the classroom curriculum and meeting school goals, such as practicing for our year-end achievement tests. Our classrooms have only one computer, and most of the classes have Smartboards used for whole class activities. Very few teachers have the students using the computer in their room. Our teachers would not feel comfortable teaching students how to use the computers, either. Many of our teachers are not that computer savvy, anyway. They are learning on the fly.

I teach Technology for K-5 in Florida.  While each grade-level teacher does have computers in his or her classroom for the students to utilize, the majority of the technology-specific instruction is done in my class.  Beyond basic how-to instruction, the teachers mostly use their classroom computers as tools to supplement their subject area instruction.

Like it or not, technology IS the future of education.  Students today have to have skills that we didn't even imagine when we were young.  In our media-rich society, kids today don't learn the same way we did.  Every teacher needs to learn as much about emerging technology as possible and embrace it.  It has the potential to make all of our lives much easier!

 I saw this at the FETC conference a few weeks ago. It's a real eye-opener.

http://www.toolsfortheclassroom.com/6_PS_DidYouKnow%20III_682007_final.wmv 

Hi, Gabriela!

I am in Kersey, Colorado in the United States.  Our district has a technology teacher in each building-elementary (k-5), middle school (6-8), and high school (9-12).  My job is to teach the kids how the computers work as well as how to use certain software.  Some of my teachers are starting to integrate different technologies into their classrooms, but we are still working on that.  Hope this helps.

 Kara