ProfessorTOSA Blog

The year has progressed quickly and due to great anticipation to integrate new technologies into their classrooms, teachers have hit the ground sprinting.  Blogs, wikis, websites, and alternative assessments riddled with tech savvy ideas are the norm.  For me all of this means work; work of the solid, student motivating, raised achievement kind.  I like that.

This year has provided quite a few surprises as well.  Teachers who have decided to tackle technology and prioritize their instruction with some digital flair have mostly been those who simply refused to integrate any in the previous months – the laggards.  Matt Singley, a fifth grade teacher, however, was a great exception.  Last year, Matt was the very tech-capable teacher with tremendous ability in writing who didn’t touch any of the website or Web 2.0 options that would certianly bolster his instruction.  Frustrating for me?  Sure.  I knew how quickly he would become excellent in these areas and I felt that his refusal to integrate tech was a sign of laziness or stubborn protest.  I was right in that Matt would be excellent, and although we disagree whether it was protest or not, one thing it was not was laziness.  What I found with this teacher was that Matt simply needs time to, not only understand tools, but to master them.  This is was an important lesson in patience for me.  And so, after a year of thinking, planning and playing, Matt developed a great website, a stellar wiki and a blog that might become a great tool for his writing. And like that, this teacher was able to amaze this tech preacher with his efforts.