Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Administrative Support in my school
I believe I have a lot of support from my administration on changing my curriculum as long as I stick to the science standards which I have to cover. I have a lot more freedom in my science electives then with required courses. The biggest problem in my school is that we don't have the technology to carry out a lot of the activities we talked about in class. There is 1 projector for the entire science department, the computer lab has to be booked weeks in advanced because there is only one for the entire school and many sites are blocked. I know there are ways to unblock sites but the administration usually tells us to deal with the 1 computer technician in our school who is very busy. A colleague of mine spent an entire period trying to access You tube so she could show clips that she downloaded for her lesson. She finally was able to connect with 5 minutes left in the period. I am one to spend my own money but who can afford laptops for all their students. I really want to take some time this summer to start researching grants that would help me get this technology for my classroom. It is sad that the technology that is available to my students, their cell phones, are strongly not allowed in class. Many students not only have cameras and video recorders but also internet in their pockets and we can't use it. Don't these policies need to be changed if schools aren't going to provide us with the tools we need to educate our students.
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...I wrote almost exactly the same thing about my high school; I teach English, and frankly, science departments ought to have these tools even more than English departments considering all that can be done with the tools. OK, we all ought to have the tools, but I would have thought that all these science and tech. companies who constantly beg for properly educated high school and college graduates would have done more by now in terms of helping to get technology into schools...if nothing else to help their own causes!!!! But hey, it costs mucho bucks, right? "Hmm...a computer donation to a school district....or corporate jet rides for our vice president of marketing....?" Tough choices, indeed, these days!
ReplyDeleteMaybe books could be fazed out, or one classroom set and than the students could access the rest on line. That would save a lot of money, every 6 books not purchased could be a capable lap top. Unfortanetly it is not the lack of computers, there are plenty of ways to get the lap tops, or other computers into the buildings it is the maintance of the computers and the tech suppoert people that the money needs to go to. It is very important that the technology be ready to use when you want to use it and that means a well payed tech support group.
ReplyDeleteI agree with John. B-town has been teaching science without books for at least 10 years with no on-line component. We finally got books last year with the on-line version. We found that the kids preferred the book (goes back to the tangibility in education). We do have 30 laptops in our department that we got through grants. They are great, but the problem is the maintenance. Administration (the tech guy) has total access to everything and we have to go to him for everything. This a problem when he's shared with two other buildings. They also take our laptops and use them for other things outside of the department. I'm all for sharing, but when you take them from a teacher two minutes before they are to use them in a classroom, then there is a problem (Not that this has happened to me or almost caused me to break down and cry).
ReplyDeleteTechnology is great but it seems as though we get caught in our own way. Gotta keep plugging away and try to get around the obstacles we put in our way. Maybe hiring a technology educator instead of a technology specialist would be a first step.