New Year, New Victims!

I am posting on the second day of school because the first one was just busy, busy, busy! I am really looking forward to this year because I plan to entangle more staff in my Web...2.0, that is! One of the things I really focus on at the beginning of a school year is the new staff. We have seven new staff members this year. They range in age from 20-something to 4o-something. They represent a cross-section of typical technology users.
In our district, Technology Integration Consultants, TIC's meet once a week with each new teacher, for at least the first nine weeks, to help them learn all of the technologies and resources available to them. I love this facet of my job, because it gives the teacher not only a chance to explore the resources, but a reason to explore them and learn how they can incorporate them into their curriculum.
Just like students in a classroom, some new teachers are raring to go and try out something like podcasting in the first weeks of school. Others need a bit more prodding to even let their students open the laptops. By working with teachers one-on-one, I can take them from where they are and move them forward at just the right pace for them.
Sometimes, I just need to give them the information they need to access the resources, and off they fly! Other times, I get to go in and do model lessons so the teachers are learning with the students. I feel that this is one of the best forms of staff development for teachers because they are getting training right on the battle field, so to speak. When there are 24 or so students learning from me, the teacher gets to see all the little "unexpecteds" that arise. They can watch how a person can handle those minor problems before the teacher has to do it the first time themselves.
Often times, a teacher that is not that strong in using technology has the sense that their lesson failed if the technology fails. Breaking away from that idea brings movement along the continuum. No matter where a teacher begins, in today's schools, they will gain new knowledge in regards to technology. My hope is to be able to help not just the new teachers, but all of the teachers that I work with, to use that knowledge to impact student learning.
Happy 2008-2009 school year!