The Longest Journey Begins with the First Step

Budget woes, no training time, lack of leadership are just a few of the reasons some teachers are wondering if they are too far behind to even try instituting a tech plan. Perhaps teachers that feel “other schools that started providing computer hardware, support and training for their teachers and students several years ago make our tech plan look primitive in comparison” will appreciate the following quote,“ Failure isn’t falling down, it’s not getting back up”, and be inspired by a success story.

When Kathy Untch, principal at St. James School in Waynesburg, first discussed their tech plan, their computers were running a Mac OS so old that I didn’t recognize the screensaver. Leadership from Kathy, the teacher’s enthusiasm to learn and willingness to help each other, community involvement and one year later…read on.

Twenty-six fifth graders and teachers attended a workshop at St. James to learn the basics of PowerPoint on twelve new Macs so the students could create presentations of their research on Ohio. Within three days the projects were done and ready to exchange with a school from South Carolina. For Christmas Open House, Kathy wants to have a presentation system so the parents can view the student’s work and next semester have students produce videos with iMovie and iDVD.

Many schools started earlier and had more available resources, but the enthusiasm of the students and staff, plus Kathy’s vision will make sure ‘failure’ isn’t part of this tech plan.

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FREE PowerPoint school resources: http://www.brainybetty.com/.

Video projects:  http://www.pbs4549.org/producer/index.htm