Teacher+Trainer+Example

March 30th, 2009

To Whom It May Concern: My name is Robert Walling and I have worked in the Amphitheater School District for the past 9 years. During this time, I have been able to utilize the educational technology programs offered at the District to enhance my teaching practices, making a direct impact in student learning in my classroom. The purpose of this letter is to detail a few of the experiences that I have been able to take part in.

As a brand new teacher in the District, I had little to no experience with using technology in the classroom. My methods course involved a one Saturday conference that all student teachers needed to attend. However, due to the ever-changing world of technology, by the time I entered into a classroom, much of this learning was out of date. My technology coach and instructional coach told me that the district offered free technology courses. Those first two years, I took many different courses on using Microsoft office, making a webpage, and how to effectively use the District email program to communicate with parents. All of the learning that I was exposed to was current and exciting, having a direct impact on my ability to teach and communicate more effectively. These free courses were truly wonderful and helped to shape my teaching.

The next three years, I took advantage of a yearlong Ed Tech Grant technology collaborative. During these classes, we were exposed to the beginning of the web 2.0 phenomena, even before it was referred to as web 2.0. We focused on real time data projects, where students conducted experiments and loaded the data to a central website. When people from all over the world finished inputting their data, we used it to draw some very interesting conclusions. What a great way to make the science curriculum real world based and raise student engagement. We also worked on publishing student work to the web. Using websites we created, students were able to put their final work online, giving them a worldwide audience. During these classes, I was able to learn about a cutting edge technology, the interactive whiteboard. Taking these classes, helped me to realize my true passion, creating interactive lessons to highly engage students that directly effect student learning.

During this time, I became a Tech Coach for the District when my current coach needed to step down. During these few years, I was asked to take a leadership role in teaching my staff about technology usage. Taking this position led me to teaching for the District as a Technology Trainer. When Peggy advertised the need to hire teachers to conduct the technology classes, I applied right away. Peggy hired me to teach classes with several focuses. First, I was asked to train the District employees on our new District email program. During the course of one summer, I taught over 15 classes on how to effectively communicate with staff and parents using the email and calendar portions of the program. However, my passion for interactive whiteboards led me to teach a series of classes on utilizing the SMART Board in a classroom setting. Over the past three years, I have taught over 75 classes in effective use of the SMART Board as a classroom engagement and presentation tool. Over 500 teachers have taken these classes as the SMART Board has become a widely available tool in our District thanks to the 21st Century Classroom Initiative funded by our nonprofit foundation. As a trainer, I know that I have made a direct impact in the learning of students across the District. Had technology classes not been offered at the District level, I’m not sure that teachers would have taken other avenues to learn about the technology.

As you can see, the Ed Tech Grant made a tremendous impact in my teaching, with students and other teachers. If you have further questions, you may contact me at rwalling@amphi.com or 696-3817.

Mr. Robert Walling M. Ed. Painted Sky Elementary
 * //Listen to Class Cast#1-//** [|**//http://www.amphi.com/teachers/rwalling/podcast.html//**]