Casey King

October 19, 2015

Education 214/ Introduction to Technology

Mid-Term Exam: Part 2A: Interview with a Teacher

For this interview, I have chosen a very special woman. This woman has inspired me to

become a teacher, through her various teaching methods teaching one of the hardest subjects to

be taught, where it is hardly possible to use technology, or it used to be. This womans name is

Mrs. Kirsten Landau, who currently teaches at Southwest Career and Technical Academy, as

math department chair Mrs. Kirsten Landau teaches math applications, algebra 1, and algebra 1

honors. When asked about technology, she had multiple reactions with using it in the classroom

for the students and administrative purposes.

As I had spoken with Mrs. Landau I have found out many things. When referring to the

use of technology in the classroom, in her classroom she limits her technology down to the

smartboard and computer, Mrs. Landau talked about many apps that are used to solve equations.

Which bring[s] math in with a whole new ability in technology, because students already do not

get why they have to learn it. So now they can just enter it in and forget about how to do a

problem. As she might be teaching some part of math , students are looking up the answers,

Thus making formative assessment impossible.

Due to the lack of technology in some classes, teachers need to understand what

technology is out there to use to cheat on a subject. Shes says that many teachers need to stay up

to date on the latest technology, because it helps you, as the teacher, gain more knowledge. She

has personal experience with being behind in technology, working at one of the poor schools in
the district, Garside Junior High School, there was little technology, and the most advanced

technology that was there, at Garside, was a smartboard. Which came in in the year 2010, the

major differences between the school Im at now and the school I was at before are the

differences in technology, the administration constantly trains us on new technology, which is

something that teachers need. I observe at Garside, I do know that they may have newer

technology now, they are one of the schools that offers iPads to their students, however I do

know that they are not persistent in training their teachers about newer technology. I talked to the

math department at Southwest Career and Technical Academy and ask them how persistently

administration is on teaching them new technology.

One of the teachers Dr. Adam Lee stated, teachers are lifelong learners; we always

having to know something new. If you ever want to be a teacher you need to always be open to

learning, I remember when I first started teaching there was little technology that was electronic

computers didnt exist needed and neither did an iPad, iPod, or things of that nature. It was just

me and a board, in the room with 20 kids. When I asked Mrs. Landau all about this comment

she stated, thats where we need to get back to technology is a huge interference with teaching

and learning, while Im teaching a kid about a polynomial equation when they can just

download an app to solve a polynomial equation for them its a huge distraction for the teachers

and students. Technology gets in the way very quickly; as a teacher it is almost impossible to

teach without student technology getting in the way.

Technology may not be liked by all teachers. However, technology is a constantly

evolving thing, something that all teachers will have to know is in the classroom whether or not

they like it or not.

For this interview, I chose a very special administrator shes always been there to help me

and she was promoted from Dean to assistant principal my 8th grade year. She is the assistant

principal at Garside Junior High School Mrs. Pattie Chandler. After many years as a dean, I felt

as though information about technology would be best to come from her because she would have

a good view of technology in schools, as well as provide a well-lit view of Garside Junior High

School throughout the years. Although, many assistant principals feel as though their schools are

the most advanced in the way of technology, Mrs. Chandler feels that any school can improve on

their technology.

I do not deal with the district as much as Mrs. Perryman. She has a schedule which

deals with technology, however it does not deal with technology as much as Mrs. Perryman the

principle of Garside. From what Mrs. Chandler she knows that the district has some technology

plan, but she isnt sure what it is.

Decisions made for teachers who want in technology in the classroom, comes from her

and the principal. Both Mrs. Chandler and Mrs. Perryman deal with technology inquiries, we

both chose to deal with them because we both have different feelings towards technology Mrs.

Chandler is quite the conformist when it comes to technology she believes that technology is not

a horrible thing in a classroom, technology is actually a good thing. As for Mrs. Perryman, she is

quite the skeptic; she feels that technology is somewhat a danger to student learning and she

wants all of her students to have a great fantastic middle school year. the paper that has to be

signed, to gain new technology, is given to the school the teacher and the teacher brings it back

to the administration, which then the decision they come up with is given to the teachers and they
then choose where they put their technology in the classroom. However, the decisions that are

made as to which purchases for technologies in schools is more based on the district. Because of

the fact that it takes funding to make great schools and great technology happen in those great

school the biggest issue Garside has is that theyre integrating technology into the classroom in

the form of iPad, then they run into problems with the Wi-Fi crashing or something going on

inside the iPad. And the person that they call to fix this is the ECS/ Librarian, Joseph Cycenas,

and to fix the problem it usually takes some time if its the iPad, but it is very well depends on

what were talking about if youre talking about whether it is an operator error, teacher error, or a

manufacturer error and he doesnt know what it is right away, which takes more time.

Before they give out these technologies to students, the administration really do have

professional development courses for teachers. Do to the fact that The administration feels as

though teachers should try and do their best to know the hardware and the software that theyre

giving the students, usually professional development courses are offered as long as theyre

needed if a teacher has a problem with the technology, it is brought up in faculty meetings and

gone over with everyone. The Technology Committee is usually just the top administrators

because the administration feels as though they are the head of the school and they have all the

decision-making for technology happen. And because of that the administration feels as though

they should run a technology committee

I had the chance to also speak with Mrs. Perryman, very briefly, I asked her what she felt

about the community and if they are involved in the school technology. And she told me that the

school is very hard working but they do not believe that the community takes a big part in the
technologies offered because the students and teachers and administration at Garside need to

KNOW the technology before they give it to the other community members.

The biggest problem starts with students and parents who do want to know more about

the technologies that are being used in school however Garside wants to know what the

technologies are. The biggest technology features that the school has is the I-Pad however, they

did have a big challenge with it is the amount of money it takes to give every student in iPad and

the amount of Wi-Fi right at the beginning of the school year they always have Wi-Fi problems

which they told me about. With the IPad and all of us just getting used to them, the Wi-Fi

almost gives out daily. Says ECS at Garside Joseph Cycenas.

The digital divide that both Mrs. Perryman and Mrs. Chandler feel exist in the school

district is based on the socio-economic areas of the district if youre in a poor neighborhood then

more than likely to school that surrounds the neighborhood is going to be poorer. Unless the

teacher still has the ability or the obligation to make students understand even a little bit about

computers. Due to the lack of funding for some of the poorer schools in the district, the libraries

in the Clark County School District do have computers so students can still understand the basic

makings of computers and technology.

As many administrators as I have seen in my school years, many have some little to no

interest in teaching, I feel as though these two administrators show the proper way to be an

administrator. Youre not just a principal, or an assistant principal either of these jobs you are

everything, you have to make sure that your accommodating the new technologies as well as

those kids that dont have access to the new technologies, and how you can help them and make
sure that everything goes perfect for them. The heart of the teacher in my belief is the heart of

these administrators.