Technology and Me

The advent of technology in the classroom changed my entire life. I became fascinated with the educational possibilites of technology even before my first classroom computer arrived - in 1982 I think - a Commodore 64. The software available was minimal but all of a sudden students had the ability to type what they were thinking and then make changes and corrections with the stroke of a couple of keys! It was amazing! Kids could enter information for our endangered animals unit in a database form I made and we could then generate reports on different information with the push of a button. Students could manipulate figures on a screen according to programming commands - a new way of looking at information. Somehow from that point on my experience with technology in my classroom spread to providing trainings to staff in any school I was in. That was particularly the case once the "Seed Teacher" program began in our district. The program was designed to pay a stipend to a teacher in each school to help the other teachers learn to integrate technology into their curriculum. With the state of technology at that time many of us found ourselves learning nmore about technical support than curriculum integration. Ultimately I became a full time Instructional Technology Specialist and was able to devote all my time to supporting staff, finally becoming the head of the Technology Department. That opportunity has enabled me to truly focus our district's technology resources on supporting teachers and staff, providing professional development for teachers to integrate technology into curriculum and student learning, and also to assure our schools have a stable, reliable, secure network system, hardware, software, and technical support for students and staff to access the electronic resources they need. Technology has become my career.