Educator Preparation and Development

One of the most beneficial parts of education is having teachers who are prepared. We need to be taught to be prepared in so many areas in order for us to be successful. The big push now it seems is incorporating technology across the curriculum for all grade levels.
According to the STaR Chart survey that our campus teachers and administrators completed, this is one area that is weak for us as a campus. In 2006-07, we had a classification of Developing. In 2007-08 and 2008-09 we had the rating of Advanced. I talked with the librarian and was wondering how we would rate in this area for the 2009-10 school year. We looked it up and the areas were all rated with Advanced and one section was Target. So that is encouraging that the rating did not drop. This area oversees that the educators meet SBEC standards, administrators recognize and expect technology use in the classrooms, and makes sure that the budget has allocations for professional development.
As a campus for the 2007-08 school year, Educator Preparation and Development was ranked as Advanced. The state had a majority fall into the Developing category for this area. Only 20% of the schools that reported were Advanced. This is comforting to me because it shows that we are on the right track with where we stand in the use of technology on campus.
I feel that college and university programs need to maintain a high use of incorporating technology into the classes that educators are taking. School districts need to provide multiple opportunities for teachers/administrators to attend staff development sessions. The sessions need to be hands on, steady paced for the types of learners in the session, and have an opportunity for questions or a way to contact someone when they need assistance. Technology is a very beneficial tool to help our learners, however the teachers need to know how to use technology themselves and be comfortable with it before they can implement it into their classroom.