What does it really mean to be progressive in today's educational setting? Does using Twitter, blogging, and maintaining your own website make a teacher 'progressive?' I read this post on Te@chThought this morning and it made me think. Terry Heick compares the words of John Dewey in the 1940s to much of the talk we hear today in education. We must prepare students for the future, not our future, but THEIR future! Our students will work at jobs that don't even exist right now! Teach by doing, not by just telling or showing. In other words, be a progressive teacher! Go above and beyond! And a big one in districts around Iowa: Use technology! What? You don't know HOW to use the technology...well, here it is, so go be amazing! But how? Heick's argument is right on-it's time to actually "do" progress, once and for all. Often progress seems to go hand-in-hand with technology use, so how can we do better? I said this in a meeting just the other day, it's not that today's teachers are resisting the progress when it comes to technology (ok a few are) it's more about them NOT KNOWING HOW. When the expectation is to create and maintain a website, then the training must be provided accordingly. When the expectation is to use an online grading program that changes constantly, then the training must be provided. These are just two examples of places where in my opinion we are missing the boat, putting the cart before the horse, so to speak. And don't get me wrong, a little training is certainly better than none. It's a start, and sometimes, it's all the inservice time will allow. I think our students deserve more. They deserve progress. They deserve to go to a school, in the year 2015, that looks different from the schools of 1940. The only way to move forward, to 'do' progress, in terms of technology, is to effectively train teachers. We're off to a great start, my district is lucky to have two fantastic technology gurus who are encouraging and helpful. But their hands are tied where training time is concerned. We wouldn't expect our students to do something we didn't effectively teach them to do. Don't expect teachers to either.
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