New Teachers Need to Embrace Technology

As a new teacher, you have the option to use technology to your advantage in the classroom. If used correctly the technology that you use can reduce your workload, help you tech particular subjects, and even communicate with the parents' of your students.

My mother was a teacher for almost 30 years, and my wife used to be a teacher for about five years, and one thing that I have seen is the need for teachers to use technology to help them. I have also seen many teachers that are scared to use computers and technology to their advantage, mostly from a fear of learning.

The good news is that many people that are new to the teaching field having grown up with computers and they feel comfortable with using technology on a daily basis. This attribute will serve them well going forward, as confidence in technology is helpful in today's schools. I think that it also helps that most classrooms have one or more computer nowadays. When I was in school, there were very few personal computers; I remember in high school that the computer labs and main office had some, and there was one in the library.

Therefore, as a new teacher I would recommend that you begin your embrace of technology with being familiar with most of the programs that are offered in an Office Suite. This would include word processing, spreadsheets, publishing documents, and presentation software. Having a good foundation with these programs one will find that information from one program can be easily transferred to an application. So, for example, you want to teach concepts about percentages and graphs. By producing multiple styles of graphs in your spreadsheet program, you can display that information in a clean looking presentation that will be sure to grab your students' attention.

Obviously, there are other applicable purposes, like producing a mail merge document to send "semi-personalized" letters to parents, or to tally grades, or keep track of other records.

Fortunately, there is a lot of software available to teachers today. This is where technology will help you with your lesson plans. From creating customized cross word puzzles to finding a new way to demonstrate how our DNA structure and chromosomes work together to form a human body, there is software that will help to make the job of teaching easier and hopefully more relatable to the students so that they can fully grasp the concepts.

I would also suggest that you become very familiar with search options on the Internet, where you can find things like lesson plans and learning aids. Why reinvent the wheel when you can modify what is out there for your needs. As a new teacher, one of your learning curve obstacles will be putting together lesson plans. By learning, how to search for things on the Internet you will find lesson plans, suggestions, etc that will be valuable as you build up your own stash of items helpful in your classroom. Knowing where to find resources on the Internet will be as important as knowing who to go to for classroom supplies.

While on the subject of classroom supplies, find out all you can about the computers in your classroom. Does your classroom offer Wi-Fi? Can your students print to the printer via Bluetooth or infrared? If there is a wireless network, what do the students need to do to access this resource? What do you need to do to stay protected?

Finally, remember as parents are working more and more use email as a communication device. Monthly newsletters or class calendars are helpful. A good example is Office 2007, with Outlook you can create a separate calendar for each class period and if you needed you can email the details of that calendar to the parents of your students to keep them informed of projects due, field trips, activities, etc. There are a many ways that you can use Outlook to stay in contact with your parents, from setting appointments to emailing information to distributing calendar information about the classroom. Using software like Publisher or Expressions, you can even create your own web page for your class. Therefore, as I mentioned in the beginning know the software that you have installed. Know your office suite and the tools that each program provides.

With the knowledge of office products, other software out there on the Internet and being able to search the Internet with confidence you will be able to create or locate the tools needed to be a successful new teacher.