Texas Long Range Plan: Educator Preparation And Development

The STaR chart is designed to help teachers, campuses and districts determine their progress towards meeting the goals of the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology .The data helps administrators to determine how well technology is being used in their schools.The STaR Chart is developed around four key areas of the Long Range Plan for Technology,2006-2020:Teaching and Learning;Educator Preparation and Development;Leadership,Administration and Instructional support;and Infrastructure for Technology
My focus area is the second part of the Texas Long Range Plan - Technology Educator Preparation and Development. Whatever the teacher learns is brought back into the classroom. The teacher has to take the initiative of going to all the technology professional development classes and open new doors for their students. Meeting the technology application standards is required of all beginning teachers. Job embedded professional development helps teachers who have been teaching for a long time to master technology. Distance Learning can help teachers by providing new opportunities for keeping up to date with new technology. If teachers have to effectively teach all students then the teachers must themselves be engaged in learning virtually all the time. Our students have grown up in a digital age and they learn in a different way than us. They spend hours on Video games, texting on cell phones, chatting on internet and posting information on face book. The way they process information is different so we will have to change our outlook.
The STaR chart report showed that Clear Lake High School showed consistent scores across all years in this area. In most recent years professional development experiences increased. 60% of staff met SBEC technology standards and 29% of Technology budget was used for professional development. Level of understanding and use actually decreased from 2008-2009.
Professional development should be provided to teachers to create lessons that use all the technology that our students are comfortable with. The resources should be available for teachers for frequent use so that teachers get comfortable using new equipment. This will make students more engaged and learning will become more meaningful for them. We have to start teaching them for their future so that they can pass the test of life that awaits them in a digital land.