I Will As a Teacher - updated

Here is an update of my "I Will As a Teacher" (2006 version) for the educators in the Aransas County schools and in every school district that is offering "tech training" at the beginning of this school year:

I Will As a Teacher

Let’s have a little competition at school and get ready for the future. I, as a teacher, will use a laptop and you will use paper and pencil. Are you ready…?

• I can provide up-to-date information to my students - you have a textbook that is 5 years old.
• I can find and change all my instructional materials, worksheets, study guides, tests, every year - you better hope the master is good enough for one more photocopy.
• I will model 21st century skills - technology, information-problem solving and life-long learning - you will lecture about them.
• I will provide my visual learners an accessible means of grasping concepts through multimedia resources - you can use simpler words and speak more slowly.
• I give my students a world-wide audience for their creative work – you will share your students' work with the rest of the class.
• I will give my students access to study materials and resources online 24/7 - you hope they remember to bring home the textbook and worksheets.
• I will honor the range of reading abilities of my students by providing topical materials on a variety of reading levels - you will use the basal reader.
• I will allow my students to take their learning as far as they want – you will keep everyone at the same place at the same time.*
• I will communicate with my students and parents electronically - you can hope to catch them after class or at home in the evenings.
• I will give parents real-time access to how their children are performing in my class - you send out report cards and have two parent-teacher conferences a year.
• I will use the information gathered from computerized value-added testing to know exactly what my individual students' strengths and weakness are - you will use whole group instruction.
• I will stay current on best educational practices using online databases, listservs, professional blogs, and the myriad of news sources - you can go to a conference once a year and read routed professional journals if they get to you.*



• I will create a personal learning network with educational leaders, experts and colleagues using e-mail and social networks – you will try to remember the advice of the instructor in your college methods class from 1980.
• I will collaborate with my peers from around the world – you will stay behind your classroom door.*
• I will save time by drawing on the generosity and genius of others who have created and shared digital versions of lesson plans, handbooks, templates, guidelines, reading lists, and more - you will use the teacher's guide.

• The cost of a laptop per year? - $250
• The cost of teacher training? – Expensive, but no more so than other staff development activities
• The cost of effective schools? - Priceless

*These items were suggested in comments to the 2006 version of this on the Blue Skunk. Other suggestions are always welcome.

(Oh, and take a look at Jacquie Henry's "I Will as a School Librarian.")

Comments

[Michael Doyle]

Fun, comprehensive, and, alas, binary--but then I'm an analog guy living in a digital world.

Some things are obviously not mutually exclusive--I do, indeed, communicate electronically (though to be fair, my phone has advanced beyond tin cans and waxed string, and should be considered "electronic"), but there is a huge place for live conversations and face-to-face chats. I suppose I could skype with my ubertech parents....

And doodling with a laptop cannot beat doodling with a pencil. It's also tough to scritch your ear with a puter.

(I know I'm pointing out the obvious--it's my role in the e-world.)

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Michael,

Oh, I would agree this is simplistic and one-sided. But given the tenor of current public discourse, it's quite reasonable.

Yes, no scratching your ear with a computer, but there is not searching for porn with a pencil either. I think it balances out.

All the best,

Doug

[Jacquie Henry]

Just catching up after a truly wonderful trip to Nova Scotia. Thanks for the link to one of my early forays into blogging.

The benefits are SO obvious - and yet our schools keep erecting road blocks. In Newfoundland they refer to moose as "speed bumps". After spending several hours watching moose in a Nova Scotia bog, I have to say - they're easier to get around than an internet filter.

[Sarah Miller]

I really enjoyed reading this article and I like how simple and straightforward it is. The main idea that I got from reading this is that technology allows teachers and students to get in contact with people all over the world, while textbooks only allow you to go as far as the classroom door. Technology allows for students and their teacher to be in contact whenever they want. Teachers can collaborate with other teachers from all over the world to make their teaching strategies more effective. The possibilities of technology are endless and I wish technology would have been used in my classrooms when I was growing up.