Rearview Mirror

Technology Integration Facilitator. These three words can be found on my business cards, door plate, and email signature. It's hefty, to be sure. At 26, I've mixed roles in technology, education, and business to move towards something approaching a specialization, and dare I say it, a career.

As a double major in history and business administration, technology and education probably would seem like two areas that would have been written off. After serving meals and cleaning rooms on a cruise ship and backpacking around Peru, I assumed the role of Assistant Manager of Technology for a Commerce Department Office. I'd like to thank a generally curious attitude, a willingness to dismantle devices I really couldn't afford to break, and a devotion to Microsoft Excel that bordered on obsessive (mostly the third one).

In a move which was almost eerily coincidental with a minor plot-line in season 6 of The Office, I left the Commerce Department to join Teach For America on the Navajo Reservation of New Mexico. My first year was spent teaching reading to fourth graders on a "broken" Smart-Board whose power cord I was able to repair and use to greatly increase my classroom's efficiency and my students' engagement.

During my second year, I assumed another lengthy title (pattern forming, perhaps), that of Data Coach, Reading and Math Interventionist, and Technology Assistant. Again, my love of spreadsheets (this time both with Google Apps and Excel) saw me creating trackers which aided our teachers in addressing the specific skill gaps of our students. Some of these gaps I addressed in my own intervention groups, allowing me to put my own trackers to the test. Matched up against NWEA Descartes ladders, we saw some astounding growth. As a Technology Assistant, I helped deploy Smartboards and Elmo document cameras. I learned to service copier/printers, and a little bit of server management. Our school was about 100 miles from the nearest city, so the Technology Director and I were forced to be adaptive and resourceful.

Returning to my yankee roots, I've now settled in Vermont where I am a TIF for the municipality of Barre. In this position, I'm able to focus on long-term professional development centered around technology in the classroom, our schools' response to student achievement data, and make recommendations for purchasing and technology implementation for our Technology/Trades school.

I've created this blog to share some of the decisions, devices, and distillations I've come across and made throughout my journey in technology integration. I'll attempt to reference many of the sites and people who inspire my work, in the hope that their great ideas can be better spread. As is the case in so many areas, great ideas, practices, and technologies are legion. With luck, this blog will help some great teachers become more efficient, more engaging, and more capable of spreading their exemplar techniques and talents. Our students deserve nothing less.