[IAEP] Some Comments on Digital Textbooks In California

[Caryl Bigenho]

Hi Again,I'd like to comment on two of Kathy's comments.

"4. Ensure, as a teacher, you have a printing and paper budget." 

* Don't lay this in the laps of the teachers.  They have far to much to do as it is. 

* Every child should have access to a computer al la the OLPC model (that is seldom really followed) and printers they can use at school for things from the textbook that need to be on paper.  

*Teachers should not be asked to do more than they already have to do.  They should be provided with teacher workrooms at least, with up-to-date, working equipment at their disposal for duplication of special materials such as lab sheets for experiments. Ideally, every teacher would be supplied with their own equipment so they could do this in their own classroom (that they don't have to share with several other teachers as "traveling teachers" at crowded schools often do).



"5. As with everything, never assume funding. Make it work on a shoestring budget. Be creative."


*Teachers have been being creative for years.  There is a limit to how much that shoestring can be stretched.
*It is time we concentrate on supporting the teachers and treating them like the dedicated, highly trained professionals we want them to be, and most are. Only then will be find the "best and brightest" scrambling to get into schools of education rather than doing, as so many do, teaching until something "better" comes along.



Sorry!  It is the old retired educator talking again!


CarylP.S. For some reason the formatting on this message is acting crazy. That's Hotmail for you.
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