Opinion Piece: Educator Preparation and Development

This week in my coursework I was asked to compose an opinion piece over one of the four areas of the Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020. The four areas include Teaching and Learning, Educator Preparation and Development; Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support; and Infrastructure for Technology. I chose to write about Educator Preparation and Development for two reasons. The first being that my campus in the Texas Campus STaR Chart was low in this area and the second reason being that I believe this is one of the more important areas of the Long-Range Plan.
This section is very important to our goal of creating 21st Century Learners. Today, teachers must be able to prepare students for their future in by assuring that all students will thrive in the world after they finish their public education. As teachers we need to have the skills needed to change instruction to meet the needs of this upcoming generation of Texas Students. Through this area of the Long-Range Plan we are focusing on Professional Learning which is an ongoing process that will provide current educators with the knowledge and skills and classroom strategies needed to transform teaching and learning. Educators and school districts alike, must take the initiative to increase personal learning through ongoing professional development or continuing education.
In Texas we have already make progress in this area. Teachers are now required to meet Technology Applications educator standards. Not to mention, educator preparation programs are providing coursework that addresses these standards and their relationship with core subject areas. Veteran teachers are also getting their fair share of professional development regarding the SBEC Technology Applications Standards through ongoing job-embedded professional development. To ensure that educators can support the move from traditional schooling to 21st Century learning Texas must prepare teaches for significantly diverse roles, students and technologies. Currently, professional learning should include new ways to teach that lead to improvements in student academic achievement. Trends in the classroom today include teachers using instructional strategies that reflect current research, modern contexts which engage students in learning, and classroom assessments the measure more effectively what students are learning.
To further improve this area and further my campuses gains in this area I believe we should continue to provide job-embedded professional development. As a classroom teacher this is the best way that I learned and implemented technology in my classroom. We as a state and a campus to need make sure that we teach our educators in the same manner as we teach our students, they need to know how to apply the skills, not just be able to perform one of two select maneuvers. I also believe providing staff who are on-site ready to assist teachers as they move through the scale of knowledge of technology would establish a comfort zone where the teachers would be more likely to take a risk within technology, thus establishing a culture or norm of how teachers at my campus integrate technology into their instructional settings.
In conclusion, I believe that Texas has taken the precautionary steps to maintain the high standard or success and achievement that our students are so accustomed to. By improving my campus' achievement in this area, I hope to align my school directly with the goals and plans Texas has for Public Education through the year 2020.