Mindy Tilley's Page

I clearly remember my very first project using technology in the classroom -- It was my first year teaching and I was a fresh rookie out of college.  I had my 6th grade students create a 3 slide powerpoint on narrative elements.  The "oohs and ahhs" of this was the students could change their background.  There were no images, no animations, no creativity, everyone had the same template.... and I though this was the best thing EVER! I was sure that powerpoint right there would make me the very first rookie teacher in the district to receive some sort of recognition - an article in the paper, a parade maybe.... This comes from graduating from a college that allowed you to 'test out' of a technology class by showing proficiency loading a VCR, working an overhead projector (and of course the proper keep and care of transparencies), and how to send an email.  This of course lays the foundation for my title as 'Digital Immigrant'.

However, my professional experiences have led me to be fluent in technology as a second language.  After being in the classroom I had the privilege of working for an education service center that invested in my training to train teachers across the state in effective technology integration and best practices.  

I found the IDEO top ten list so important for teacher.  It is a list that I plan on sharing at our back to school inservice next week.  These ten strategies not only work for students but also from a teacher's perspective.  Two of the most important were 1. Pull, don't push. This is especially true from my point of view as I work with teachers -- I encourage them to make one small change in a lesson and find one website that they really like and become an expert in.  When they are ready, they can build their toolbox, but it doesn't work well for anyone if we continually throw more and more at teachers and do not give them the needed training or support to help them be successful.  The second I particularly liked was "Be an anthropologist, not an archeologist"  Teachers, with good reason, have been so stressed about state assessments that the focus has been on the end (the test) rather then the means .... with common core I hope to see a big change in our teaching styles.