Thinking About Learning

I’ve had one week of summer vacation, and I’ve now had enough mental rest to objectively reflect on the growth of technology integration in my school this year.  This was the first full year that every classroom had a SMART Board, projector, and audio system.  That was a huge catalyst for change for teachers in instructional practice.  Additionally, my school experienced phenomenal gains in student achievement this year, which was hugely due to the increase in teacher collaboration and common assessments through the PLC model.   But as indicated by Marzano’s research, I also partly attribute the increase in achievement to the increased use of interactive whiteboards.

As part of my self-evaluation process, I conducted a survey of my teachers to gain some insight into their perspective on growth. (View the results here.)  I was impressed that over 70% of the teachers felt that their use of technology had grown between 50%-100%.  Even more eye-catching was that 97.6% tried something new using technology with their students this year.  During the 2 years I have been a TIS at my school, I have been so impressed with the openness of my faculty to new ideas for technology integration.  Every time I asked a teacher to participate in a project, each one has always agreed!

One example is that this year my 2nd grade team really branched out with PBL.  Every 2nd grade student in my school learned about using the Internet for research (I got to teach that lesson!), used Open Mind 2 mind-mapping software to organize research findings, exported OM 2 to PowerPoint, refined the PPT, and then presented an oral multi-media project.  It was an amazing leap in technology growth for our 2nd graders.  I can’t wait to see what these students will accomplish in the future!

I know that all of my teachers had tremendous growth in the area of technology this year.  I had 15 teachers who were new to our school and district.  Many of these came from districts that did not have the technology resources we have.  They were required to take the TTCA, our district’s level 1 technology competency test.  After some tutoring, they all successfully passed the test and have made great personal gains in their use of technology.  It was a great year at my school, and I’m already beginning to think about how to guide growth next year!