One of the many hats I wear is that of an Information Technology Resource Teacher (ITRT) at a Title One elementary school outside Washington, D.C.
It’s a little break-fix, a lot of training teachers how to use their tools in teaching and with the kids.
Jenny said yesterday she could never do my job because “the job description sucks.”
My response was, “Wait a second! There’s a job description?!?!”
I don’t mind. I like it this way. It’s more like the journalism career I had. My favorite job in news is working the editorial desk. Like any good job, being an ITRT it is defined by the person who fills it and the needs of the environment in which they work.
The mission statement is simple. “Get teachers and students using more technology to reach their goals.”
This means:
1)Everything’s got to work, 98% of the time.
2)And as a separate issue, Teachers have to trust everything is going to work 98% of the time.
3)Teachers have to work in a constructivist teaching model in which the students can bring their spectacular background knowledge in personal technology to bare on their learning. This means teachers taking the role of guide rather than expert.
4)Create professional development environments through which teachers use the technologies one wants them to use in the classroom.
Simple, n’est-ce pas?
Of course, to get working gear in this financial environment there’s a LOT of administrative behind-the-scenes shenanigans one has to paddle through.
Here’s the thing. The more the teachers start to use advanced technology in their teaching, the more there is to do. Small-minded people think ITRTs who work hard are “working themselves out of a job.” I’ve found it to be quite the opposite. Teachers learn to blog, then they learn wikis, then voicethread, and before you know it, they are Skyping with a classroom in another state or country using voicethread to critique one another’s art. Get 10 classrooms doing some version of this and the day of an ITRT is never slow.