Facilitating greater communication between faculty members
Faculty members must use one another as resources. More experienced teachers can mentor less experienced teachers to prevent other teachers from making the same mistakes that they did during their careers -- and so the new teachers can use proven techniques more effectively. Being exposed to new teachers and new teaching techniques will keep older teachers 'fresh' and 'on their toes' as well! A formal mentoring program for first-year teachers should be instated. Also, monthly staff meetings devoted to discussing problems with students, and creating effective solutions to educational challenges will enables faculty members to learn collectively from one another, old and young, and to identify students with special needs. Students who are gifted, challenged, or simply had family or behavioral issues would see their education improve because teachers who had these students from year to year could talk during those meetings and design more individualized learning strategies for these students.
Improving students' technological literacy
Although students may seem to be technologically literate because of their fluency using cell phones and IM-ing their friends on the computer, students...
Encouraging individual classes to create webquests on subjects of interest, conducting age-appropriate seminars on using the Internet as a research tool through the library, and making use of computer tools in language arts and ESL classes are all ways to increase student comfort using technology in an academic setting. "Using technology for meaningful activities...helps integrate a variety of disciplines, more closely resembling activities that people undertake in the world beyond the classroom" (Means 1997).
Works Cited
Armstrong, Thomas. (2000). "Multiple intelligences." Retrieved 17 Mar 2008 at http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm
Good classroom teaching for all kinds of learners." Adapted from Carolyn
Olivier and Rosemary Bowler's Learning to Learn. Hello Friend: Ennis William Cosby Foundation. Retrieved 17 Mar 2008 at http://www.hellofriend.org/teaching/good_classroom.html#multisen
Means, Barbara. (1997). "Critical issue: Using technology to enhance engaged learning for at-risk students." North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved 17 Mar 2008 at http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/atrisk/at400.htm
