The Texas STaR Chart

As I've previously mentioned, I am very impressed with the "Texas Long Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020". My blog entry today will consist of my opinion over one of the four areas of the "Plan" - the Educator Preparation and Development section. I chose this area due to the difficulty of this section because of the differing technology skills of a campus, especially one as big as Ennis High School (This is our lowest scoring area on the STaR chart). Many of the new teachers have been exposed to technology for quite a while; not to mention all of their college studies in regards to technology. On the other hand, many veteran teachers are not as comfortable with different types of technology. At Ennis High School, our staff consists of teachers with a few years of experience as well as many teachers that are a couple of years away from retirement. Those teachers that are quickly approaching retirement are not as susceptable to all of the new technology training that is currently going on in our district. Those educators that are not technologically savvy can have trouble grasping the new concepts, while others only need a brief training session that builds upon prior knowledge. This disparity in learning can make Educator Preparation and Development very tough. Our trainers must prepare to teach to many different types of learners. On my campus, we scored "Advanced Tech" in this area, but it was the lowest score of the four areas. My suggestion to the district is to offer different types of technology training (maybe basic and advance training sessions), so that both the novice and experienced learners can be challenged. Another suggestion would be to offer interactive online training that can be done during conference periods.