Aligning Our Goals

Andrea Reichenberger contributed today's thinking. Click here for more of Andrea's posts.

One of the things I love most about my new school district is the work that I do with my new colleagues.  Discussions are a lot easier when we are all on the same page, have a similar mindset, and are working toward the same goal.  We are also comfortable enough to challenge each other’s thinking in a professional manner that won’t impede our work. As is the goal of any district, ours is to improve our overall instructional practices. My two closest partners in crime are the Director of Curriculum and Instruction and the District Technology Coordinator.  

District Technology Coordinator? Why would I work so closely with the technology department? If departments such as ours don’t work toward the same goals, our work and initiatives become a barrier to improving instruction. It is imperative that technology coaches and coordinators work closely with our instructional coaches and continue an open dialogue about best practices. We are always talking about grade level standards, literacy, math, assessment and unit design. One of our technology integration coaches has been working to model lesson design with the ELA standards in mind and then incorporating technology to promote authentic assessment and reflection through an online portfolio!

We all need to understand sound instructional practices, so we can use technology to support learning and instruction. Technology isn’t meant as a substitute or a replacement for teaching and learning. The ISTE professional standards for teachers related to integrating technology into the curriculum remind us that it should facilitate and inspire student learning, allow us to design and develop digital-age learning experiments and assessments, promote digital citizenship and responsibility and allow us to engage in professional growth and leadership. Recently, our technology department released a district online newsletter/magazine and it contains questions that challenge teachers to think about why they are using technology. One of my favorites is:

If your students can accomplish mastery of the content using the 4 C’s (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity) without  technology, then why are we using technology?

This is an important question to reflect on as we continue to encourage incorporating technology to create rich, collaborative learning environments that foster group inquiry, research investigations, critical thinking and problem solving. This is what we try to accomplish and encourage with our instruction in all areas--especially literacy.