ISTE Standard One

Technology Operations and Concepts
Teachers demonstrate a sound understanding of technology operations and concepts.

As a teacher, an on going part of my job is to continue to grow professionally. Growth should not only include knowledge of the subject areas I am teaching, but also technology. In order to "keep up" with my students, I need to understand technology and have a working knowledge of how to apply it in my classroom. I need to be able to keep up with my student's knowledge. With technology changing frequently, new ideas, new concepts, new "words"... I need to know where to find the information that will keep me current with the latest trends.

I am not that computer savvy. I have basic typing skills, but I am primarily a hunt and peck typer. I took typing in the ninth grade and I never took another typing class. I always vowed that I would never "work in a bank", so I did not see the benefit of having keyboarding skills. (Boy, what a mistake that was!!)

I have a smart board in my room, that I use everyday. I don't know what I would do without it. I have the copy, scanner, printer connected to my laptop, that I also use everyday.

Believe it or not, I was Pelham Road's webmaster for three years. I learned the basic operations from the former webmaster and between myself and the media specialist we kept the site updated. It wasn't great, but we did make a lot of improvements like adding pictures of the staff and setting up new tables etc. I learned how to manage the website in a linear way. As long as everything worked the way it was suppose to I was okay, but if things fouled up, I had to call on someone to help.

I am interested in learning about technology to help enhance my teaching. I try every year to add more technology to my teaching. Two years ago, I worked with a practicum student and the media specialist and we created a unit where my students did researched on the computers on a county in SC and then my students created a brochure (using a template) about their county on the computer.

I think part of my problem in working with technology, is that I don't take the time to play around on the computer. I attribute this to my (self diagnosed) ADD. I get the ideas for projects and then I find help...I also have the use it or lose it mental thing going on. I need to have lots of practice in order to cement things to my brain.