Journal 1: Do Your Teachers Need a Personal Trainer?

Owens, Aileen M. (2009). Do your teachers need personal trainers?. Learning and Leading With Technology, Retrieved 7/27/09, from http://www.iste.org

I really enjoyed this article. The idea of creating a symbiotic relationship between student interns from a local university and schools seems like a brilliant idea. With the state of the economy all schools are going through large budget cuts and this idea could help a lot in cutting out money given to paraprofessionals brought into schools to do the regular technological training. But, more than just being a cost effective idea this idea also helps more than just the teachers who need to learn how to better integrate technology, it provides and important learning experience for the student interns. The student interns walk away with more experience than the average student studying to get their credential and are better prepared to be effective teachers when they look for a job. This idea seems to be more than just a great idea, it seems to be logically implementable also and I hope to see programs like this start to become more widespread.

Should school district's follow in the footsteps of Mt. Lebanon School District in using similar programs for technological training for teachers?

I think school districts should definitely create similar programs to that of Mt. Lebanon School District. This is more than just an economic issue. Even if our economy was in better shape instituting programs like that at MLSD would not just provide teachers with the technological knowledge they need, but it will better prepare our future teachers. Student interns would be able to create a more diverse portfolio at the end of their credential program, furthering their ability to find work and be an effective teacher once in the classroom.

Is there a risk in implementing a program like that at MLSD in other school districts?

I really see no dangers in creating programs that take students from local universities studying education and bringing them to the local school districts as interns. It provides valuable learning experience e for the teachers and student interns and cuts the cost of paying a paraprofessional to come in and do the technical training. School funds could be redirected towards art, music, theater, physical education or any of the other decaying departments in our institutions of public education.