Today we had a district-wide pep rally to kick off the new school year and officially meet our new superintendent, Dr. Valarie Truesdale. The central theme of her message, as I understood it, was change is happening at such a rapid pace that we need to prepare our children to do things we can't even imagine. Dr. Truesdale stressed the importance of technology but her main challenge was to increase the literacy and thinking ability of the children in our district so they can meet the challenges facing them in the future.

No one can ever accuse me of telling teachers to use technology for the sake of using technology. Technology is one tool to use to educate children, like a hammer or a saw is used to build a house. You can't use just one tool and expect to build a quality house. Builders use blueprints to plan what a house will look like after it is finished. Then they assemble the necessary tools, supplies, and labor to turn the blueprint into reality.

When you use technology, not only have a plan on how to use it but how technology will fit into the overall goal of educating children to successfully function in a society that is not even defined yet. Don't be afraid to try new things with technology either. Set a goal to learn and master a new skill to use in the classroom and in your personal life. It is scary to step out into a new, unfamiliar area to do things you have never done before. Yet, it is what we are asking the students we will soon be entrusted with to do in the future. Should we not be willing to do the same thing we are going to ask of them?