Successful Tech Integration
A principal stopped me in the hallway.
She didn't know who I was. I was new to the building and she needed to know who was walking her halls.
Fair.
That 5-minute conversation led to two meetings with her leadership team, three hours of all-staff professional development, and co-teaching, modeling, and coaching with several of her teachers.
One of those teachers didn't want to be there.
She sat in the back during PD. I couldn’t see her screen but I'm guessing it was grading. Or any of the hundred other things teachers have to do after school.
Lots of questions, though.
By the end of the session, she was recording herself. Over the next 3 weeks of coaching, her students were making bilingual books in Book Creator. Another class used Vocaroo to record family histories in English and their home language, then generated QR codes so anyone walking down the hallway could stop and listen.
A hallway. There we are back in the hallway.
I was recently asked to give a 5-minute presentation about successfully connecting with a reluctant teacher. I used this story. Somewhere around minute 10 (12?), I realized I wasn't just telling a story about one teacher. I was describing my entire philosophy for technology integration.
It starts with a person. Not a platform.
