Submitted by Sheryl Wagner (not verified) on April 19, 2007 - 09:31.
I have not seen any software that I believe works as well as a good textbook with support materials and a good teacher.
I am the system operator and classroom paraprofessional for a small rural elementary school. I work with teachers and students in grades K thru 4. We have 101 students total this year; 5 full time teachers; 2 half time teachers; and 2 third time teacher. All support staff is half time, or third time, or half a day a week or half a day every 2 weeks.
We have quite a bit of technology….two smart boards, a classroom performance system, 16 lap tops, and about 32 desktop computers. We have Kidspiration, Accelerated Reader, Reading First, software from Houghton Mifflin that accompanies our reading series, STAR, Click and Learn, Orchard, and misc other things.
Now ask me if the teachers use any of this…the answer is No. Why? No one has time to learn how to use the programs or the hardware. No one has time to learn how to integrade the technology with state assessments or any other bench marks.
You would think that this is where I could help. Wrong again! I am only allowed 4 hours to be sysop per day. Most of that time is spent trouble shooting, taking care of the server, keeping student and staff user accounts up-to-date, repairs, enforcing the acceptable use policy, monitoring state testing, updating security on the computers and the server, managing software accounts, etc. I have to keep myself up to date with the library checkout system, the lunch cashier program, the gradebook software, the attendence software, the student record software, microsoft office and computer programs, etc. I have no time to help anyone learn anything…plus even if I do know how something works, I don’t always know how to tailor it to meet the needs of the teachers and students. That is up to the teachers….but they have no time either.
The teachers wear so many hats and are so tired that they aren’t very interested when inservices are available….besides, about the time they do learn something well enough to be comfortable, the administration either changes it or gets rid of it.
There is tons of potential for all the equipment and software that we have, but we spend so much time assessing this and assessing that and teaching to the state tests that there is no time to use technology. We have a hard enough time just keeping enough comptuers on line to do the actual testing, that no one is interested in using the comptuers to teach anything. Most of the teachers use computers to find material for their teaching or to find an on-line activity for their students to do for a center. They can tie the programs to some benchmark or use them to reinforce teaching, etc., but we have a long way to go before we reach the ideal.
So, my opinion is that technology is necessary and we all use it to some extent everyday, but it is not magic and a good teacher doesn’t really need it.
I have not seen any software
Submitted by Sheryl Wagner (not verified) on April 19, 2007 - 09:31.
I have not seen any software that I believe works as well as a good textbook with support materials and a good teacher.
I am the system operator and classroom paraprofessional for a small rural elementary school. I work with teachers and students in grades K thru 4. We have 101 students total this year; 5 full time teachers; 2 half time teachers; and 2 third time teacher. All support staff is half time, or third time, or half a day a week or half a day every 2 weeks.
We have quite a bit of technology….two smart boards, a classroom performance system, 16 lap tops, and about 32 desktop computers. We have Kidspiration, Accelerated Reader, Reading First, software from Houghton Mifflin that accompanies our reading series, STAR, Click and Learn, Orchard, and misc other things.
Now ask me if the teachers use any of this…the answer is No. Why? No one has time to learn how to use the programs or the hardware. No one has time to learn how to integrade the technology with state assessments or any other bench marks.
You would think that this is where I could help. Wrong again! I am only allowed 4 hours to be sysop per day. Most of that time is spent trouble shooting, taking care of the server, keeping student and staff user accounts up-to-date, repairs, enforcing the acceptable use policy, monitoring state testing, updating security on the computers and the server, managing software accounts, etc. I have to keep myself up to date with the library checkout system, the lunch cashier program, the gradebook software, the attendence software, the student record software, microsoft office and computer programs, etc. I have no time to help anyone learn anything…plus even if I do know how something works, I don’t always know how to tailor it to meet the needs of the teachers and students. That is up to the teachers….but they have no time either.
The teachers wear so many hats and are so tired that they aren’t very interested when inservices are available….besides, about the time they do learn something well enough to be comfortable, the administration either changes it or gets rid of it.
There is tons of potential for all the equipment and software that we have, but we spend so much time assessing this and assessing that and teaching to the state tests that there is no time to use technology. We have a hard enough time just keeping enough comptuers on line to do the actual testing, that no one is interested in using the comptuers to teach anything. Most of the teachers use computers to find material for their teaching or to find an on-line activity for their students to do for a center. They can tie the programs to some benchmark or use them to reinforce teaching, etc., but we have a long way to go before we reach the ideal.
So, my opinion is that technology is necessary and we all use it to some extent everyday, but it is not magic and a good teacher doesn’t really need it.
Thanks for listening.