After studying for a grad cert in elearning and ICTs last year I found myself in the predicament of doing a lot of theoretical study and having nowhere to apply it.

I was a relief teacher with no regular classes to teach and no place to really belong.  This didn’t stop me trying to find ways to apply my learning and it has improved my patience… a little (not my strong suit).

So here I am 12 months after my course and I find myself the IT teacher at a local government primary school. It is only 2 days a week and contracted just for this term, but it is better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick (as my dad would have said).

Talk about baptism by fire! Now I have so much happening at once I barely know where to begin! I see classes ranging from reception to Yr 7. ESL and literacy difficulties, as well as GAT. Each class has different ICT needs and skill levels and studying different topics in the regular classroom. My strategy has been to work WITH the regular classroom teacher to supplement whatever they are doing with technology in some way. From my experience of learning digitally, the strongest learning moments came from ‘just in time’ learning needs. I am trying to find a balance between explicit instruction of a particular skill or tool with acting as a problem solver to individual needs and questions.

Every day seems to throw up a new project or challenge to meet, to get our school up to speed in the digital age. First step is to develop a plan of action -which will promptly get overruled, changed, or adjusted as soon as it is printed- for me and anyone else who steps into this role on a more permanent basis to implement in the next couple of years. But learning can’t stop to make time to ‘make plans’ so everything is happening simultaneously as well as breakdowns, glitches and slow downloads!

I may have only been in this job a short while, with only a short time to go, but already I have been able to implement learning activities that have enriched students’ digital literacy and connected to their future learning needs. I have to keep reminding myself that Rome wasn’t built in a day and small steps following a plan -rough as it may be right now – is o.k .