Maria Dunford
Maria is a mid-career 4th grade teacher who has a class set of iPads. She is a little wary of having iPads in her classroom, because she doesn't think of herself as a "technology" teacher. However, she can see that her students are excited to use iPads and she wants to leverage that excitement into learning opportunities.
When she uses technology, she picks apps (or websites or programs) that are simple and "bullet-proof." She doesn't want to lose class-time because she or her students don't understand how to do something. She sometimes gets technology coaching from a “techie” teacher friend at her school, but Maria will only use technology with her class that she feels comfortable with.
Maria likes to have her students work on collaborative projects and has struggled to come up with a good system to create productive groups. She relies on an intuitive sense of class dynamics and occasional formal notes. She is very concerned with how she will collect and assess student work in from the iPads. She knows what quality work looks like when her students work with paper and poster board but not with pixels.
When she uses technology, she picks apps (or websites or programs) that are simple and "bullet-proof." She doesn't want to lose class-time because she or her students don't understand how to do something. She sometimes gets technology coaching from a “techie” teacher friend at her school, but Maria will only use technology with her class that she feels comfortable with.
Maria likes to have her students work on collaborative projects and has struggled to come up with a good system to create productive groups. She relies on an intuitive sense of class dynamics and occasional formal notes. She is very concerned with how she will collect and assess student work in from the iPads. She knows what quality work looks like when her students work with paper and poster board but not with pixels.