Week 2 Assignment - Part 2

I found the information from the STaRchart very interesting. I have to say that I remember filling this out each year but I don't know who much true attention I, or maybe my colleagues too, give it.

What I focused on was Key Area part II: Educator Preparation and Development. It was the only section that my campus scored in the Early Tech category for 2 of the 3 years. I believe some of that is due to teacher turnover and possibly some software being new. I feel the majority of teachers do not feel comfortable with their lack of knowledge of products and how to implement it into the lessons. I feel many teachers are savvy at skills that help us make our tasks more efficient such as lesson plans, gradebooks, emails, etc.. but are unsure how to engage students with more technology integrated in our lessons. I think at the beginning of the year each teach should choose from a list of technology uses for the classroom. That list would create a team of teachers to collaborate together, maybe meeting once a month, to talk about ways to use the product. There should be one teacher that is more than a novice in that area on each team. Then at a staff developement there should be ideas and presentations shared to help spur and encourage other teachers to use the products. Sometimes it is about not knowing how to use the product in the classroom vs not knowing how to use it at all.