BACKGROUND
MARSHA
RATZEL
Technology Integration Coach
Overland Park (KS) Public Schools
I arrived at this new job as District Coordinating Teacher of Technology in a very non-linear way. Although as I look back on my journey, I know now it was an inevitable destination.
I will be working alongside classroom teachers to integrate technology in a "seamless" fashion --- so hopefully the students don't even notice. An example of what I mean by invisible occurred during a site visit where our students showed how they used the school's weather station to collect local data, the WWW to monitor frontal movement with National Weather Service maps, and Excel spreadsheets to build scatterplots that helped them to predict the next day's weather. When one of the visitors asked the students how they liked the integration of technology, a student told them, "I don't think they were doing that --- it must be another class." This seamless integration is what I'm expected to help do throughout my district. There are tons of teachers doing wonderful things with our new technology, and I get to bring them the icing on the cake. There are also tons of teachers who are doing terrific things without the assistance of technology, and I get to help expand their classroom beyond the four walls. And there are tons of teachers who are technophobic and need a gentle, nurturing helper to help them take the risks of implementing something that is scary. So this is where I am -- it sure isn't where I planned to be but I'm sure enjoying the adventure while it lasts. A little more about me When I first got of out of college in the '70s, I knew exactly where and what I wanted to do. I loved math modeling and I wanted to use those skills to solve health care problems. I majored in economics and math and would pursue my MBA in epidemiology. All which would allow me to get to the next rung of my career plan --- and the next and the next. I successfully completed about 10 years before I decided that although I was successful, I was not satisfied. I think it was my 1960s idealism rearing its head. So I changed courses. I stayed home the next five years with my three children and volunteered as a community activist. This was satisfying and successful. Next I found myself divorced with three little kids counting on me for everything. So I changed courses again. I've now been teaching middle school since 1994 and have found satisfaction, success, and some economic sustenance. Initially I thought I would be a social studies teacher given my college background. Nope. There weren't any jobs. I really didn't like science much, but that's where the work was, so I became a science teacher. I had to study hard to learn my content area --- and not just the facts. Fortunately my district had invested into a constructivist science curriculum. I participated in a wonderful two-week training program that changed my mind about science. Forever. I had hated science in school because it was all --- read this chapter, perform this cookbook lab (and you better get the "right" results), and take a quiz. I had never heard about how a scientist's passion sustains them in the long years of investigations or how science connects things. My district wanted our students to know all this from the start. About our school district My district is located in Overland Park, Kansas --- just outside of Kansas City. It is a rapidly growing area. Almost every year the district has to open at least one new school. In '94 when I started there were two high schools and five middle schools. District stats now show over 16,000 students and 1300 teachers (64% have been hired since 1992), 17 elementary schools (K-5), 7 middle schools and soon to be 4 high schools. Our community is extremely supportive; bond issues pass, attendance at Back-to-School or conferences is high, parents volunteer countless hours in classrooms. Most students come from dual-income, professional families. And since this is the Midwest, there is a huge emphasis on the importance of education. Students are expected to go to school, do well, and achieve. Family expectations, solid teaching and socioeconomic factors help to explain the high achievement in nationally standardized tests --- students placing in the upper half ranged from 78 percent at sixth grade to 87 percent in third grade. I initially taught on a three-person team in sixth grade. Luckily for me, I had a wily old 30-year vet to break me in and I never learned so much. I taught three science sections and a two-hour block of communication arts. We teamed for four more years and were pretty much known for covering the basics, being creative, having high expectations and implementing new technologies. Usually we were assigned high need kids --- you know, the polar extremes of the educational spectrum. But we loved the challenge of the gifted, nonconformist alongside the struggling academic or emotional student. We flexed time and tried to "do the right thing" --- I didn't know then that what we were doing was differentiating the curriculum!!! Our team worked well also because I was the dreamer, the overly ambitious one; my second partner was the realistic who kept us sane, made sure we fulfilled all our administrivia responsibilities; and my third partner was a blend of the two of us. And most of all, we loved the kids and loved teaching. Dipping into technology I started teaching staff development classes on PowerPoint, digital photography, searching the Web, webquests. I found I had a knack for explaining what I had used in my own classroom in way that made sense to other teachers. We could expand what they were already doing with the new technology. And they were willing to try something new. I got to meet the neatest teachers from all over my district and found out what terrific things were going on. It is wonderful. Then I was re-assigned to a new team and to a new grade level. I was partnered with two other wonderful teachers and we were supposed to help the 7th grade teachers use interdisciplinary units and technology. None of us wanted to go, but we did. I had to change course again. And I fell in love with 7th grade and 7th graders. I stayed in seventh grade for three years --- always teaching science. The last year I taught was probably the most challenging. I had to teach both math and science serving on a two-person team. Both are extensive preps, so I was taxed to the max. But the integration of those content areas flowed so smoothly that I thoroughly enjoyed and was thrilled with the in-depth student understanding. The last two years were especially difficult because of all the extra in-building assignments. I headed up the technology committee (had to write a plan, evaluate everyone's request for spending the tech budget), I was the grade level rep for advisement (had to get everyone who wasn't enthused to embrace the concept and support them throughout the year), I served on the district's portfolio committee (another thing that most teachers hoped would pass with time), was a staff council member (we planned the monthly in-service activities), and was the head of the state certification team (now, this is something everyone universally hated and made no bones about it). Taking some big steps In addition, I decided that I should apply for National Board Certification. This may be the hardest thing I've ever done, but I learned so much about the art of teaching and myself. I won't find out for several more months if I passed or not, but it's almost irrelevant because I'm satisfied with what I learned. The process taught me so much but led to feeling even more isolated. So I knew that I had to change course again. Which brings me back to the beginning of this. my new job. It's a blessing and a real opportunity to make a difference in kids' lives by helping teachers learn to employ 21st century tools. I have had flip-flopped back and forth about being excited to start. I can't imagine not sitting in my classroom with kids and just loving the process of learning math and science. Fortunately many friends have offered me their kids and classrooms if I go through too much withdrawal. Believe me, I will take them up on the offer.But I'm also
secretly screaming with excitement over the possibilities and I'll bet
I haven't even thought of most of them. Yet. So I've changed my course
again. We'll see.
