PS. Thanks for the great discussion.

Tech coordinators need to help us (teachers), to give us what we need, not what you tell us we need.

The kids need to learn tech? Then give them classes designed for that. But…then the tech coordinators need to be tech teachers.

Honestly, the last thing a regular teacher needs is one more self-important non-teacher telling him what to do. And, in way too many cases… I’ve said enough.

At the beginning of the year roughly half my kids were unable to turn on a computer. They hit the monitor button and waited. And waited. And waited. “It doesn’t want to turn on!” they moaned. “Try another strategy,” I suggested, allowing the kids to teach me. There were no other strategies in their toolboxes.

I’m not kidding. It was carnage.

They can’t hit alt-ctrl-del to log-in. They can’t double-click. They are such poor typers and spellers, they are unable to log-in to the online grade program, because they misspell their names, the shool’s name, and screw-up the cap sensitivity of the log-in.

Blogging? Powerpoint? Pod-casting?

Um…

So I go back. Can the time necessary to teach these skills be justified in the face of all else they need to learn? I chip away where I can, because I believe this is important, but the mountain is tall and time is ever short.

Don’t teach tech, let the kids use it. They teach you.

“Don’t water the rocks.”

What, perchance, maketh me think this way?

I use my record player more than my i-pod.

I don’t know what an RSS is (are?)

I’m smart and good at what I do.

I’m not a knee-jerk-this-won’t-work-with-THESE-kids fellow, but I need to be convinced that the upfront time involved in tech, especially in teaching the usage of tech to my five-years-behind-grade-level, CELDT-2 7th & 8th graders is gonna pay off. Seriously. Show me how and show me where, and then I’ll go spread the good word. But you need to show me, and you better be good.

You better be good because I’ve sat through enough shit-ass PD time to choke a goat (or any other variety of hooved mammal). Also, I keep getting tech flyers in my box that suffer from awful design, and promise the acquisition of life- and classroom-changing skill sets with titles like “A Picture DOES Say a 1,000 Words!” and “Say it with Thought Bubbles!”

I’m a gilted lover with trust issues.

This ain’t your fault, but you gotta deal with it. Not up for it? Cool, but then I’m gonna keep on keeping on the way I do. This isn’t laziness; it’s resource allocation.