RESA visit

On Thursday our students had a half day and teachers had to go to a meeting. The topic of the meeting was getting the results from our September RESA visit. The results showed everyone what we already see. No administration in the classroom, weak co-teaching model, and lack of technology use. I see the lack of administration in the classroom just because there is so much to do in the office. Between student problems, parent problems, and just the natural administrative problems I don't see how anything gets done. The principals "pitched" an idea of how they might make more time for them to come into the classroom to see what is going on. As for the lack of technology use, I think that teachers are unaware of how to utilize the technology. Many of the teachers at my PDS are older and I think that they may not have a education on how to use the technology. I think that my school would benefit from a professional development on how to utilize the technology in their classroom. Another reason teachers aren't using the technology in their classroom is because it doesn't work! For example, in my mentor teachers classroom we do not have a cord to hook up the SMART board so we can not use it. We explained this issue to the appropriate person at the beginning of the school year, and nothing has been done, and now it is November. You can't use the technology if it doesn't work. Another thing that is lacking at my PDS is the co-teaching model. I think this is because one party gives more than the other. If both teachers had time to sit down and discuss lesson plans and expectations then this collaboration would work much better. I think that if my PDS can fix all these suggested improvements, then it will be a truly great place to work and learn.