New Post - New Position
As of August 30th, I will begin a new position as a member of the Borough of Manhattan Office of Instructional Technology. This opportunity is as exciting as it is un-defined. The public school system in New York is being reorganized for the 3rd time in about 5 years and this office is one of the results of this restructuring.
So, with this in mind, I need to make a disclaimer that ALL of the commentary in these posts represent solely my personal opinions and in no way reflect policy of any office of the NYC Department of Education.
Tonight is my first evening in Maine for vacation after 3 weeks of working with a group of Staff Developers who trained about 600 teachers in the use of new technology tools for their classrooms. And hearing the participating teachers - so many snippets of conversations during these last couple dozen days, just brimming with energetic chatter about new knowledge, new possibilities, and minds full of questions of what could happen. What will they create in their classrooms with these new abilities? What will students see that they haven't seen before inside their schools? And I'm sure new ways will develop. And I'm sure that students will be engaged by these teachers in new, creative ways. And they come into the office and tell me how they've enjoyed the classes and how good the instructors are and asking when such courses will be available again.....But it's not enough.
In a system of well over one million students, and more than 1100 schools, even the training of 600 teachers in the summer is a cup of hot tea poured into an ice bath.
And then, after plotzing on the hotel bed, I switch on the tv, and on comes an advertisement for a New Hampshire state online program for teachers that is available day or night, weekday or weekend, to all the state's educators to help them develop these new skills. There is no cost to the teachers, and no limit to the number of courses they can enroll in. They can follow their enthusiasm and their need to know. And they can do it on their time, on their schedule. And there is no class size limits. This system can accommodate an unlimited public. "Unlimited" is the kind of scale that New York needs. To change the climate, we need to open as many doors to the teachers as we can design. In class, online, on site, at conference, through workgroups, with online forums....the list must be imaginitive and broad.
When we put the same kind of priority to technology in schools as we now put into the assessment agenda, we'll see the new classrooms that belong to the time we live in and not those of our parents' school days.
So, with this in mind, I need to make a disclaimer that ALL of the commentary in these posts represent solely my personal opinions and in no way reflect policy of any office of the NYC Department of Education.
Tonight is my first evening in Maine for vacation after 3 weeks of working with a group of Staff Developers who trained about 600 teachers in the use of new technology tools for their classrooms. And hearing the participating teachers - so many snippets of conversations during these last couple dozen days, just brimming with energetic chatter about new knowledge, new possibilities, and minds full of questions of what could happen. What will they create in their classrooms with these new abilities? What will students see that they haven't seen before inside their schools? And I'm sure new ways will develop. And I'm sure that students will be engaged by these teachers in new, creative ways. And they come into the office and tell me how they've enjoyed the classes and how good the instructors are and asking when such courses will be available again.....But it's not enough.
In a system of well over one million students, and more than 1100 schools, even the training of 600 teachers in the summer is a cup of hot tea poured into an ice bath.
And then, after plotzing on the hotel bed, I switch on the tv, and on comes an advertisement for a New Hampshire state online program for teachers that is available day or night, weekday or weekend, to all the state's educators to help them develop these new skills. There is no cost to the teachers, and no limit to the number of courses they can enroll in. They can follow their enthusiasm and their need to know. And they can do it on their time, on their schedule. And there is no class size limits. This system can accommodate an unlimited public. "Unlimited" is the kind of scale that New York needs. To change the climate, we need to open as many doors to the teachers as we can design. In class, online, on site, at conference, through workgroups, with online forums....the list must be imaginitive and broad.
When we put the same kind of priority to technology in schools as we now put into the assessment agenda, we'll see the new classrooms that belong to the time we live in and not those of our parents' school days.
posted by Cabinnyc at Thursday, August 23, 2007
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