Digital Natives

Yes, I do believe that we have "digital natives" in our classrooms. They can text, email, blog, and download music. The problem is that most of our students do not realize the technology that they need in order to become successful in society. As a leader, it will be my responsibility to make sure that teachers are teaching our kids the skills that are necessary to stay globally competitive. To prepare my teachers for this change, I plan to offer professional development that adheres to the 21st century goals. Also, any technology that we have for the school, I would expect it to be used.
While I do believe that we need to prepare these students for the 21st century through exposure to technology, I also believe that we cannot lose sight of the value in knowing how to properly write a letter or complete a resume. It works the same way in math. We want children to have critical thinking skills and using the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy such as application and evaluation but in doing that we have lost sight of the fact that students cannot do basic math facts.
Yes, I definitely think that tests should be changed to correlate with these 21st century goals. We want our students to be technology savvy yet we are still testing them with paper and pencil.

My principal is a great leader when it comes to implementing technology into our curriculum. He has been with our school for 4 years and within that time, he has purchased multiple computers, laptop carts and smartboards. This year he is actually hanging Smartboards in teacher's classrooms that have been trained in using them. He makes sure that with any technology that is purchased, we have professional development and experts in the school that can help us implement this into our curriculum.