Technology & Learning - March 2009 - (Page 14) news trends New report reveals US lacking in teacher training The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) and Stanford University researchers released the Professional Learning and in the Learning Profession: A Status Report on Teacher Development (http://nsdc. org/stateproflearning.cfm) in the United States and Abroad. Among the findings: ■ More than two-thirds (68 percent) of public school teachers with fewer than five years of experience reported participating in a teacher induction program during the first year of teaching. ■ 71 percent reported being assigned some kind of mentor teacher. ■ While teachers typically need substantial professional development in a given area (close to 50 hours) to improve their skills and their students’ learning, most professional development opportunities in the U.S. are much shorter. ■ Significant variation in both support and opportunity for professional learning exists among schools and states. A lower percentage of secondary school teachers reported participating in district-planned professional development than did elementary school teachers. ■ U.S. teachers report little professional collaboration in designing curriculum and sharing practices, and the collaboration that occurs tends to be weak and not focused on strengthening teaching and learning. ■ American teachers say that much of the professional development available to them is not useful. English language learners take to tech Mooove on over, here come the COWs. Texan Bilingual Administrator, Maria Gonzales, isn’t sending teachers to pasture just yet—the Computers on Wheels are just one of many tools used to help integrate ESL and Special Learning Students into classes at Brownsville Independent School District. Mobile carts filled with 20-25 laptops do double duty, both freeing up classroom space in a busy district and offering the logistical convenience of hand-delivered technology to teachers, who simply schedule time slots to enhance a lesson. “We’re now preparing for the online assessments required for all English Language Learners in the state.” Gonzales says the school’s success through incorporating technology. “The expectation from the Federal Government is that within four years they would progress to advanced high levels. We find ourselves meeting that expectation every year.” Gonzales sees technology is another medium to motivate kids to work at developing language. “It’s very high interest and many of the software pieces have audio. At the students’ request, it will read passages, it will find synonyms for words, or offer definitions. We use everything from ESL Reading Smart to online English courses to the newest textHELP software. This provides teachers progress reports and gives a Lexile score, or reading grade level that they’re functioning at.” Accelerated learning is particularly crucial to ensure teens don’t drop through the cracks or lose their chance at continuing on to college on schedule. Offering tech goodies encourages active and frequent participation. Gonzales has already seen students progress two to three grade levels in single semester at the high school level. The school has also shifted their “end of course” testing to an online format. Maria Gonzales puts tech to work in Brownsville, TX. Gonzales says schools should not assume just because students like tech, they will fit easily into an online testing environment. “The kids need tutorials,” she says. “They need experience in an online format and they need strategies to use the tools to help them work through an online test. It’s like any test-taking skills.” Software programs not only act as private tutors for ESL and special needs students, allowing students of varying degrees of language and skill proficiency to remain with their peers in a single classroom environment. These programs also don’t handicap talented English language learners because of difficulties in comprehension. Students can listen to instructions in their own language, followed by the English direction, and reconnect with the class to work through a math problem or science experiment with confidence. Though the programs have been proven success within ESL and ELL populations, they are proving helpful for all learners. “Every content area has a language of its own,” says Gonzales. “It’s but the language of each content area that is supported through technology here.” —Sascha Zuger 14 | TECH & LEARNING http://nsdc.org/stateproflearning.cfm http://nsdc.org/stateproflearning.cfm
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