Passion #1 - Staff Development

This section of Leading with Passion and Knowledge really caught my attention because my main role as the Campus Instructional Technology Specialist is to effectively train our teachers to utilize the technology in their classrooms.  I am responsible for ensuring our teachers know all the programs/applications they are expected to utilize on a daily basis with their students.  If a teacher is not knowledgeable about any aspect of technology, it is my responsibility to get them up to speed.  If a teacher is not utilizing the technology, then I have to brainstorm ways to get that teacher to use the technology provided.  I was happy to find in the reading that having an ongoing, school-based staff development program in which that program can flourish is one of the best indicators of instructional leadership (Dana, 2009).  As one of the CITS on campus, we are there all day every day for our teachers so if and when they need us, we are there within a matter of minutes.  Also, our trainings are specifically geared towards programs/applications used in a 1:1 setting where our district education technology teachers are not.  My personal feeling is that if teachers don’t feel they have the required support on their campus, they most likely will not feel compelled to utilize the technology available to them.  This section made me reflect on what we are actually doing in our staff developments.  Are we making it meaningful to teachers where they understand the purpose of using that particular piece of technology and understand that students will reap the benefits from doing so?  Can they use this program in the time allotted to them, which is 45 minutes per class period?  It also forced me to look at the ISTE’s standards once again to ensure we are aligned with them.  Personally, this was a really good reflective piece for me.

References:

Dana Fichman, Nancy (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.