Interview with the ELA Teacher

After interviewing the ELA teacher on my team, I’ve learned the major challenge he faces when integrating technology into his classroom. His biggest concern was not having enough time to learn the technology well enough to present it in the classroom. This teacher is afraid the children won’t think the technology is “cool” enough like their own personal technological devices. How can he make a student interested in something they feel is not “cool”. Also, he feels his senior teacher status makes him out of the look when it comes to technology. He is still using the overhead projector to present lessons to students. With all our professional development going towards learning the new APPR rubric, teachers are not getting the proper training they need to convert their classroom into the new 21^st century learning centers. The computers our building has for students to use are kept in a rolling cart that teachers must reserve 2 weeks in advance. Most of the time the computers are not working and it takes too long for students to try to log in and get set up. The 40 minute class periods are not long enough for technical support and setup. At the end of the interview I tried explaining to him he should try to integrate one technology technique a month. He can start small and work up to bigger things.