New Puzzles/Next Moves: Technology Is Power: Suggestions for Beginning Teachers

Shanklin knows it can be hard for new teachers to incorporate all they know about technology with the realities of a classroom. She suggests setting incremental, monthly technology goals; investing in equipment; assessing students’ grasp of the technology at their disposal and their use of it in classroom projects; searching purposefully for Internet resources to avoid the “black hole” of Web possibilities; working with parents and libraries to make sure students have what they need to continue their work out of school. Finally, she advised new teachers to continue to build on their existing technology knowledge because “Your students are counting on you!”