Technology and staff development are two areas that hold great interest for me. As a writer of technology grants, I know from experience that the hardware alone is useless unless there is a long-term, district-supported staff development program in place. Giving a school technology without staff development is like giving someone a car without driving lessons; it can be done, but the results are often less than desirable! Another analogy would be that learning technology is like learning a foreign language; which experts say takes 5-7 years of development. How can teachers be expected to become personally proficient and instructionally proficient when they are trained in only one or two inservices?

In April of 2000 CTAP Region 3 received funding to develop and implement a bold staff development plan for districts and schools of Region 3. The overall plan was to have 40 Teacher Leaders teach a packaged course, CTAP 295, to 400 Sacramento area teachers.

The students in the CSUS College of Education's graduate program in Instructional Technology were invited to participate as the Teacher Leaders in this staff development program. I saw this as an opportunity to gain more hands-on experience in staff development, be in the pilot year of a new program and get a great resume listing. Oh yes, the salary would also help pay graduate school tuition!