A couple of weeks ago I got evaluated by my principal, then as a part of the evaluation process in my district a peer teacher needs to evaluate me as well. Then I get a final rating by both people. I decided on both sessions to do a technology integration lessons.
I wanted to show both my principal and my peer teacher what I do weekly in my classroom in regards to technology integration. My principal is very much aware of what is going on in my classroom because her daughter is a 4th grader in my class and she goes home and shows her all the cool things we do. But my principal is so busy she hasn't seen it first hand until the day she came in. The day she came in I was in the middle of students looking up an article about Planet 9 via caltech.edu. Afterward I had students do a quickwrite via padlet. I think my principal was impressed with the 15 minutes she saw in my class but I can't be too sure about that. However, I did a similar lesson when my peer teacher came in to watch me and she was BLOWN away.
(I guess I should give you all a quick background of my peer teacher, she does not use technology nor does she want to learn how to integrate technology into her classroom.)
Needless to say she was blown away. She had no idea anything like this was out there and to her it looked very difficult. She admitted to me that my lesson intimidated her but is very happy to see such great things in my classroom.
After this meeting with this very established well respected colleague of mine, I felt sad. I felt sad because I know I can help her out in this but she doesn't want that help. She doesn't want to learn and she even used the phrase "old dogs can't learn new tricks."
I would say this is more of a personal issue more than anything, and my principal has said that the staff at my school will not go through changes for the better if it means to change their style of teaching, and I find this as a very sad thing. This is the main reason why my principal is leaving because she had great ideas but no follow through from any staff members except from the ones who are younger and are willing to change for the best but the seasoned teachers definitely outweigh everyone else.
My feeling is, these teachers I work closely with are all amazing at what they do. But if I stay at this school site, would I need to wait for fresh younger talent to come along until someone else integrates technology into their classroom?
It's one thing to teacher a child who is unmotivated but to teach an adult who is unmotivated to learn something new is quite challenging and I don't know how to wrap my head around this and make this a learning experience for everyone on my staff.
Any ideas?
I wanted to show both my principal and my peer teacher what I do weekly in my classroom in regards to technology integration. My principal is very much aware of what is going on in my classroom because her daughter is a 4th grader in my class and she goes home and shows her all the cool things we do. But my principal is so busy she hasn't seen it first hand until the day she came in. The day she came in I was in the middle of students looking up an article about Planet 9 via caltech.edu. Afterward I had students do a quickwrite via padlet. I think my principal was impressed with the 15 minutes she saw in my class but I can't be too sure about that. However, I did a similar lesson when my peer teacher came in to watch me and she was BLOWN away.
(I guess I should give you all a quick background of my peer teacher, she does not use technology nor does she want to learn how to integrate technology into her classroom.)
Needless to say she was blown away. She had no idea anything like this was out there and to her it looked very difficult. She admitted to me that my lesson intimidated her but is very happy to see such great things in my classroom.
After this meeting with this very established well respected colleague of mine, I felt sad. I felt sad because I know I can help her out in this but she doesn't want that help. She doesn't want to learn and she even used the phrase "old dogs can't learn new tricks."
I would say this is more of a personal issue more than anything, and my principal has said that the staff at my school will not go through changes for the better if it means to change their style of teaching, and I find this as a very sad thing. This is the main reason why my principal is leaving because she had great ideas but no follow through from any staff members except from the ones who are younger and are willing to change for the best but the seasoned teachers definitely outweigh everyone else.
My feeling is, these teachers I work closely with are all amazing at what they do. But if I stay at this school site, would I need to wait for fresh younger talent to come along until someone else integrates technology into their classroom?
It's one thing to teacher a child who is unmotivated but to teach an adult who is unmotivated to learn something new is quite challenging and I don't know how to wrap my head around this and make this a learning experience for everyone on my staff.
Any ideas?