I developed a PD to improve teacher technical skills, and include them in their lesson plans. For example, in my project below, teachers would receive a survey to ensure they were properly grouped based upon their personal technical needs. Working in education, some of my co-teachers needed more help with basic technical skills, and I noticed students needed small one-on-one lessons in basic technical skills. My plan was to teach teachers better technical skills and add those skills into their lesson plans.
Technical Literacy, or Teaching Teachers how to Teach Technical Basics
I found many of the same skills my students needed help with were similar to the technical questions from my coworkers. When we would receive new technology from the state, I would develop a bell ringer or exit ticket to teach my students how to use those programs. In the 2022 state testing season, Texas moved state testing to a fully online platform. Before testing began, I walked my students through how to access the platform and navigate through it. I went over their customization options, with one-on-ones with my SPED students to understand any additional options they received, like text to speech. Then I had students find all their testing tools, like the dictionary, calculator, flag, and/or highlighting options. Once students were in the testing environment, all my students were able to login to their test confidently.
As an English teacher, literacy is a vital skill we all need. But it is a skill that is more than just reading books, but it is one of many aspects within media literacy. Regardless of your personal feelings with technology, it is here to stay. Therefore, I found making sure teachers understood that and received support without judgement in the skills they did not learn. Not all of us learned how to use technology or the internet in the same ways or at the same time.
Valarie Morris, M. Ed. 