Sioux Falls School District - Technology Standards

Hi Everyone -

I talked with Rich Meier, Sioux Falls Elementary Curriculum Coordinator, about the new Technology Standards. He said that many of the new technology standards have direct connections with certain subjects. The district will begin by aligning and placing technology standards into the new reading/language arts essentials. Then they will move to the social studies essentials (written next). There are some that best fit with science and math and those documents will be refined to add the technology standards as time permits this year and the next.

There will be a state technology assessment given to 8th grade students. If students are going to do well, they will need the experiences of past years/curricula. Also, once an essentials document is written, principals can monitor student progress and teacher alignment between instruction and the standards/essentials.

With this in mind, I talked with a first grade teacher and a third grade teacher to see what they thought of the new technology standards. I went to the South Dakota Department of Education's website and printed off a brochure for those two teachers. This was the first time that either one had seen the technology standards for their grade levels. Both teachers were surprised by some of the standards addressed at their grade level. As of right now they only cover probably less then half of the standards, so they are curious to see how this will work. I definately got the impression that the classroom teachers are struggling with everything the NCLB tests are throwing at them, especially at Hawthorne where we are on a plan of assistance in math and reading.

A couple of the challenges the teachers brought up when we were discussing the technology standards was the lack of computers. With only one computer lab in the school, classes are only able to meet for about 30 minutes once a week. Also, they thought it would be nice if the building would have one Techonology Teacher to help integrate and teach computer classes. Both teachers were curious to see when the district will actually inform them of the new technology standards and how they are going to train all of the staff.

It will be interesting to see how everyone adapts to the new standards. Overall, I think the students will benefit from these standards. However I know that it will take time for the teachers at the elementary level to change their ways of teaching to incorporate these ideas into their lessons.

-Amy Holland