My opinion on Educator Preparation and Development

I chose to give my opinion about Educator Preparation and Development in the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020. Educator preparation and development, is just that, are the educators in front of students today prepared to utilize the most recent technology available and are they receiving development to keep up with the evolution of technology. The STaR Chart showed progress in this area through the state level. Though there has been smaller progress in the school district I am employed compared to the rest of the state. I think you have to envision how the areas of "educator preparedness" and "leadership support" work together. A problem that I see, is our leadership in schools are usually compromised of teachers who have taught a while and have limited knowledge of technology themselves. Our teacher coaches are in the same situation. It would seem difficult to really support a teacher who has a desire to integrate technology into their lessons if the very people designated to coach that teacher is not proficient in technology. For instance, three years ago I had an administrator who was technologically savvy. She really pushed integration of technology into everyday school life. We as teachers even started our own blog to communicate best practice withing our school. The year she left you see a significant drop in our leadership support number according to our STaR Chart. I do not think this is coincindental. If school leadership do not lead by example and not technology savvy, the school will have a hard time meeting these goals.