Halftime

During half time, the team and the coach regroup and figure out a new strategy to play against the team that is beating them. For my GAME plan, it is time to take half time and reflect on what I know now and the limits placed on the situation. Lynn and I will have to choose the most relevant information and strategies to share with our faculty during faculty meetings. Our county instructional technologist expert told me to give snippets of information about technology in the classroom to the faculty. The outlook is grim when it comes to money. Presently our update for technology will come in two rounds. Round one will take 3 days and include updating the computers in each class. Additionally projection systems with audio and voice amplifications will go along with the set up.

Protest continued the delay of the 21st century updating for our county. The vendors that were not chosen felt neglected and filed a complaint. This delayed progress and it took time and lawyers to fix it. Off the cuff, this technology installment will employ twenty people for 3 years.

I acquired this information by attending a quarterly SAC meeting this week. With my interest in technology on the rise, my principal invited me. Our assistant superintendent spoke brilliantly about lack of funding. A parent asked about maintenance for these new tech tools, and the cost of bulbs and upkeep of technology was an issue discussed. These are issues. I personally know of a teacher at our local high school that does not allow her team to use the LCD. She does not want to burn the bulb out. I burned my first bulb out after a year and a half of constant use.

I will be excluded from round one as the only art teacher at the school. Although, I may get an updated LCD projector in my ceiling to alleviate the messy cords and too short a cart to properly align with the screen that exists in my no closet classroom. The second installment will arrive less then a year later with the hope that the previous teachers will have perfected the use of the E instructional Mobis with pads and will be able to share their knowledge.

Modifying my GAME plan will include a teacher survey to find out specifically what teachers desire to learn. Questions proposed to teachers in my survey for pre-faculty sharing would be: Would you like to learn about the differences in search engines? Would you like to apply various applications to your content areas such as graphs for math? Would you like to use blogs and wikkis for collaborate lessons? Would you like to know about free software for concept maps and data gathering. If you have any suggestions about creating this survey I am open to suggestions.
Perhaps this new strategy will bring me success and satisfaction. Presently, I feel like I have been benched.