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“Would we tolerate alternatively licensed heart surgeons?” (Hess, www.ed.gov)

Would you not hire a teacher because she is not technologically advanced? Our answer is NO! We feel there are more important aspects to teaching than just knowing technology. There are technology grants in the school system available to help train teachers to use technology. Therefore, having experienced technology skills is not a requirement prior to walking into a classroom. In our opinion, school administrators will be more concerned whether or not a qualified teacher will be able to help bring out the desire to learn in each student. Creativity, curiosity, class engagement, group collaboration: These are all vital components to help students reach their fullest potential.

We feel technology is most beneficial in the classroom through assisting the teacher with classroom management organization. For example, software such as PC Gradebook 4.0 (www.iglobal.net/schoolhouse), can assist in grade and records keeping. It can also be beneficial in scoring your accelerated reader program and any other organizational skills needed for the classroom.

We feel to be an effective and efficient teacher, one needs to be advanced in classroom management skills and content knowledge. Technology should not be required in order to reach students.

Researcher:

After reading all the related information it seems to me that the only way we can be highly qualified teachers is we need to be trained in different areas. We not only need to be proficient in our content area but we need to be trained in classroom management.
Alternative Certification has some benefits like it is shorter and you are earning a paycheck but the drawbacks are significant. I would be scared to death walking into my new classroom with no training in classroom management. I think alternative certification teachers are burned out faster than the traditional teacher. I feel that with the correct training there would be no child left behind and we wouldn't need a law to enforce it.

Case Studies Specialist:

Here are some video lessons that I found useful when using technology. They don't use too much technology, but they use enough to help the kids apply what they have learned.

Graphing 3rd grade In this lesson they will be using M&M's to make a graph (on paper) and they will be able to then put that graph into a spreadsheet and interpret the data.
Social studies 4th grade The students will use the internet mostly for research.
Fine arts 5-8 grade Students use video conferencing from the University Of Cincinnati Conservatory Of Music to gain knowledge on their subject.

This is the website to an actual lesson I viewed while observing a class last week. It is to prepare the students for a frog dissection they will be having in class. It has narration, video, a section for them to practice, and a quiz at the end. The students seemed to really enjoy working on the computers while watching an actual frog dissection and being able to be interactive with the dissection.
Frog dissection

Lesson Planning Specialist:

I have found some great lesson plans that we can use as supporting evidence.

Navigating Landmarks
This lesson used Mapmaker Toolkit to create a map.
Give me a Break
This lesson was fine without technology, but I think that you could add an excel chart to make it better when graphing.
Around the World with Cinderella
This lesson utilized PowerPoint to help the students recreate their favorite Cinderella story.
Technology at Work 1
This lesson works fine without the integration of technology. However, I think that the students could create PowerPoint slides to show the progression of time in an outline form.
Let the Stars Shine!
This lesson used Kidspiration to help children learn about themselves and compare themselves to other students.

Some tools that are absolutely necessary for a teacher to know how to teach are to have classroom management skills and content area knowledge. If a teacher does not first and foremost have those two things, then they will have a hard time teaching anything to children. I believe that the same is true to teach technology. Out of the 4 Types of Technology, there are two that I feel are the most important. The two most important are 1) the teacher must know technology as a subject and 2) the teacher is able to use it as lesson support when teaching a lesson. However, I do not feel that it is absolutely necessary for teachers to have the technology skills. I feel that technology should be used more as a supplement, such as lesson support. Also, I do not find it absolutely necessary for this to even happen.

Communicator:

I found a few things under the No Child Left Behind website I thought was pretty interesting!
I didn't realize that states received grants from the NCLB Legislation. Since 1997, the amount has risen quit a bit. The primary goal of the Ed-Tech Program of the U.S. Department of Education is to improve student academic achievement through the use of technology in schools. The U.S. Department of Education provides grants to state educational agencies. In 1997, Texas received grant allocations worth $16,339,913. In 2001, Texas received $38,333,916. The Department of Education's Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers (PT3) grant program is impressive. They have awarded over 400 grants to education to help prepare teachers to use technology in their classrooms.