Blog #1 Opinion Piece

Opinion Piece on the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020
Focus Area: Educator Preparation and Development

This area of the plan was the one that I wanted to study more for two reasons. I have been teaching for over 20 years and I am more of a "digital immigrant" while my students are in the "digital native" category. I know that I must continue to grow my own professional development as a teacher, but maybe even more importantly, as a future leader, I must grow the knowledge and skills to lead others into growing their skills. For these two reasons, I wanted to understand the plan and be able to form some thoughts and opinions about it.
The vision for this particular area of the plan is to provide professional development opportunities to ensure that the educators of Texas are adequately prepared to deliver and provide the 21st century learner the skills needed to adapt and contribute to a technology-based world. In the vision, not only do Texas educators have to provide the knowledge and skills that are outlined in the Technology Application TEKS, but they must be able to provide instruction and opportunities for students to initiate and increase personal learning through and with current technology. We know that professional development is necessary to keep instructional strategies aligned with best instructional practices for a diverse student population. This means that professional development with technology must continue almost daily to keep up with the digital world. I recently reviewed the Texas campus STaR chart and studies the results of my current campus' progress over the past three years. Our school has moved to the Advanced Tech in three of the four areas. The one area that was still in the Developing Tech category was Educator Preparation and Development.
This means that our school needs to not only engage in more current technology training, but it needs to use that training to move students to the next level of learning with technology and its uses. About 75% of schools in Texas are categorized in the Developing Tech area for Educator Preparation. So, my school, along with many others will have to address this area in the very near future to be in line with the technology plan. As a teacher leader, I can be a part of more professional development and share those implementations with my colleagues. I can actively change my practices by giving my students more technology application experiences and allow them to evaluate themselves. As a future leader in some capacity in a school, I can not only be more technology savvy, but I can know and understand the direction in a way that will be a shared vision for teachers. I can use my resources and budget to guide and direct my staff to the right professional development opportunities that will support the campus needs and mission. Without proper educator preparation and development, the technology plan will not meet its goals by 2020. It is vital to know these standards and to know how to incorporate them and that comes with excellent professional development opportunities and the infrastructure to support technology-based learning. These thoughts are certainly my opinion.