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Becky Albertazzi Home Learn More Standards Inspiration About the Author |
About the Author
2017 marked my 21st year of teaching. My husband, Jeff, is also a teacher at Silverado Middle school. We have an amazing 7-year-old daughter, Stella, who is full of curiosity, creativity and a bit of drama. My biggest challenge this year has been juggling my passions. I love my family, my job, my Touro masters...it is hard to fit it all in. I have wanted to be a teacher since I first stepped into kindergarten. I attended a K-8th-grade school in Humboldt county in which there was only one of each class. I loved learning. I loved reading. I loved school. I think of a better place to spend my days, than in a school surrounded by kids, books and the love of learning.
I graduated from HSU and got my first teaching job at the ripe old age of 21. Since then, I have taught 4th grade, 5th grade, 2nd grade and reading intervention. I quickly learn that I get bored easily. I like change. In fact, I love it. I understood that if I felt bored, I couldn't sell the excitement and enthusiasm to my students. I was always looking for ways to improve and challenge myself. All students can learn, grow and improve.
Three years ago Napa Unified School District created Academic Specialist positions at each school. This was my new challenge. How to help teachers learn, grow their skills and improve. It allowed me to see the bigger educational structure. As an Academic Specialist, I have taught lessons in classrooms, worked on setting school goals, provided professional development to the staff, coaching teachers, analyzed a lot of data, coordinated assessments...I could go on. Like the classroom, each day is filled with new exciting challenges. I have really enjoyed trying to make teaching easier and better for the teachers at my site.
Touro's Innovative Teaching and Learning master's program seemed like a perfect way to continue learning and challenging myself. In my role as an academic specialist, I saw how technology was becoming increasingly more important. I also noticed a great divide developing between the teachers that were not tech savvy and those that were. Touro's Innovative Teaching & Learning program has given me a lot of tools to help teachers understand and incorporate technology into their best practices.
I graduated from HSU and got my first teaching job at the ripe old age of 21. Since then, I have taught 4th grade, 5th grade, 2nd grade and reading intervention. I quickly learn that I get bored easily. I like change. In fact, I love it. I understood that if I felt bored, I couldn't sell the excitement and enthusiasm to my students. I was always looking for ways to improve and challenge myself. All students can learn, grow and improve.
Three years ago Napa Unified School District created Academic Specialist positions at each school. This was my new challenge. How to help teachers learn, grow their skills and improve. It allowed me to see the bigger educational structure. As an Academic Specialist, I have taught lessons in classrooms, worked on setting school goals, provided professional development to the staff, coaching teachers, analyzed a lot of data, coordinated assessments...I could go on. Like the classroom, each day is filled with new exciting challenges. I have really enjoyed trying to make teaching easier and better for the teachers at my site.
Touro's Innovative Teaching and Learning master's program seemed like a perfect way to continue learning and challenging myself. In my role as an academic specialist, I saw how technology was becoming increasingly more important. I also noticed a great divide developing between the teachers that were not tech savvy and those that were. Touro's Innovative Teaching & Learning program has given me a lot of tools to help teachers understand and incorporate technology into their best practices.
Reflections on My Journey
Click on the TPACK image
to take you to TPACK.org
My TPACK journey began with a basic understanding that the educational landscape of the future was going to include technology and that running from technology or using it in limited ways would limit my effectiveness as a teacher and limit my student's opportunities to learn. As an academic specialist, I have the amazing opportunity to be in many teachers classrooms throughout the district. I have witnessed technology used poorly, not at all, in creative ways and in innovative ways. Understanding the TPACK model has made me realize that there is no substitute for great teaching, classroom management or content knowledge. Technology is the piece in the TPACK model that is ever changing. We will never get "proficient" at technology because a new technology will always be on the horizon. What we can get "proficient" at is the willingness to try new thing, find a better tool, keep an open mind and take risks. That is what it will take to keep our students current with new technological tools. Like all things in teaching, there is never an easy answer. Teachers need to be skilled in their craft, knowledgable in their content and willing to find the right tech tools to best reach their students.
As an academic specialist, my job in part will be to help teachers get comfortable with technology. I have to think about the "resisters", these teachers are afraid of technology. They feel the need to "be proficient" in a skill before they teach it. To help these teachers, I need to remind them that technology is a tool, just like calculators and slide rules before that. They need to be able to show their student how to use the tools that will be part of their future. Students need these tools and are able to explore and learn, perhaps faster than teachers can.
The greatest learning around TPACK is that the journey isn't over. It will never be over. We will always need to try to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone. We need to trust our expertise in knowing what tool could improve our craft and which tools are the passing fad. This is a time in educations where we are also the students. We will need to continue learning, challenging ourselves and growing as professionals.
As an academic specialist, my job in part will be to help teachers get comfortable with technology. I have to think about the "resisters", these teachers are afraid of technology. They feel the need to "be proficient" in a skill before they teach it. To help these teachers, I need to remind them that technology is a tool, just like calculators and slide rules before that. They need to be able to show their student how to use the tools that will be part of their future. Students need these tools and are able to explore and learn, perhaps faster than teachers can.
The greatest learning around TPACK is that the journey isn't over. It will never be over. We will always need to try to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone. We need to trust our expertise in knowing what tool could improve our craft and which tools are the passing fad. This is a time in educations where we are also the students. We will need to continue learning, challenging ourselves and growing as professionals.
Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program
Image from Punya Mishra's TPACK talk.
Where did I start?
When I first started Touro's Innovative Teaching & Learning Program, I was comfortable using a computer, but I was not comfortable with social media in school. I felt that blogging and going online was better left to middle and high school. I now have a deeper understanding of the different uses and advantages of using technology. Student blogging can increase a student engagement and allow student writing to reach a larger audience. Students see their work as "real", it lives outside of the classroom. I was very concerned about how I would incorporate technology into my action research project. I wanted kids talking, not typing. I wanted the connection to each other, not to a screen.
Where am I now?
This journey through our new digital jungle has taught me that not all technology is done in isolation. The purpose of much of the new technology is collaboration and communication. Creating new ways for students to share their work with a larger audience through blogging, vlogging or social media platforms. I think this reminder gave me the freedom to find technology that encourages partner/group talk, like Padlet or Kahoot. It is not always about the technology, but the strategy, context, and content that the teacher uses it in.
I loved this image from above from Punya Mishra as he explained TPACK. Tools are considered technology. Teachers need to choose the right tool that will increase student learning and engagement. Digital tools are an important part of today's educational landscape. Students need digital tools in order to be a successful member of our digital society. I now feel much more confident to support teachers in the "exploration" of new technologies. I may not have all the answers, but I am not afraid of the question. I am willing to try and fail and try again. We can model grit and an open mindset as we take on these new technologies. I can also help teachers decide which tool would fit their teaching style, best meet their content needs to engage their students in 21st-century learning.
When I first started Touro's Innovative Teaching & Learning Program, I was comfortable using a computer, but I was not comfortable with social media in school. I felt that blogging and going online was better left to middle and high school. I now have a deeper understanding of the different uses and advantages of using technology. Student blogging can increase a student engagement and allow student writing to reach a larger audience. Students see their work as "real", it lives outside of the classroom. I was very concerned about how I would incorporate technology into my action research project. I wanted kids talking, not typing. I wanted the connection to each other, not to a screen.
Where am I now?
This journey through our new digital jungle has taught me that not all technology is done in isolation. The purpose of much of the new technology is collaboration and communication. Creating new ways for students to share their work with a larger audience through blogging, vlogging or social media platforms. I think this reminder gave me the freedom to find technology that encourages partner/group talk, like Padlet or Kahoot. It is not always about the technology, but the strategy, context, and content that the teacher uses it in.
I loved this image from above from Punya Mishra as he explained TPACK. Tools are considered technology. Teachers need to choose the right tool that will increase student learning and engagement. Digital tools are an important part of today's educational landscape. Students need digital tools in order to be a successful member of our digital society. I now feel much more confident to support teachers in the "exploration" of new technologies. I may not have all the answers, but I am not afraid of the question. I am willing to try and fail and try again. We can model grit and an open mindset as we take on these new technologies. I can also help teachers decide which tool would fit their teaching style, best meet their content needs to engage their students in 21st-century learning.
