A.+New+Teachers

Knowing what you have learned about 21st Century instruction, how would you assist a brand new teacher coming into your school make the 21st Century transformation? What would you teach him/her first? How would you teach them this? What would you teach them last? A.  My approach to assisting a new teacher make the transition to 21st century instruction would be based upon the assumption that he/she has already been exposed to 21st century instructional strategies during their undergraduate/graduate experiences. The focus would not be upon what are 21st century skills, but rather, how to successfully implement theory into practical experience. To that end I would advise him/her to: a.  Work within the institutional parameters, adapting and implementing change whenever possible. b.  Develop learning experiences that emphasize creation, collaboration, and communication. c.  Realize that transition to 21st century instruction will occur in stages. d.  Establish educational goals for student outcomes that are rooted in a “real world” setting. e.  And finally, realize that an array of new classroom management skills are requisite for success in the 21st century classroom. To that end, the relationship between teacher and student needs to be revised in order to meet the changing demands of the 21st century classroom. Tiffany Over the course of the last two and a half years, I have had one student teacher (semester) and two interns (full year). Amazingly, only one of these pre-service teachers had an understanding of the need for technology in the classroom. Therefore, it is interesting to note that the infusion of technology in the 21st century classroom is not being emphasized through the teacher preparation programs as much as it is being enforced with enthusiasm in the schools. This is a concern to me as well as others. 1. School districts should provide in-service time to assist ALL teachers as we venture into the world of technology. This should be a given. The best investment a school district can make is in their own personnel. 2. The equipment and software must be available to teachers at their convenience. It would be ideal for teachers to have the ability to go to a resource center to work and fine tune their craft via technology. 3. I, personally, would be available to provide an opportunity for new teachers to test drive the technology with some assistance. Common planning time or after school sessions, above in-service time, would be most beneficial. 4. The first thing that should be taught to the new teacher is the basic and most necessary of the tools: Microsoft Office, Power Point, Google, wikis, blogs, etc. 5. We would then look at short activities that can infuse the technology into the lesson. For instance, instead of having class discussion face to face we would use the blog or wiki to complete the activity. 6. Some type of discussion about differentiation of instruction and authentication of learning experiences should happen before we venture off into the world of “advanced” technology. 7. After the teacher feels comfortable we should then move on to CPS, SMART boards, tablets, etc. 8. Lastly, we would focus on taking steps to continue to implement new things as we are able. 9. ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY.