As our school's technology coordinator, I collaborate with teachers to integrate technology into the curriculum. Most of the technology-rich lessons I help to design and implement are for Grade 2 through Grade 8 students, but I also help teachers of younger students make selective, strategic use of technology. Before becoming a technology coordinator, I spent seven years
teaching language arts. This classroom experience shaped my philosophy of technology integration. I strive to maintain a healthy skepticism of technology that offers whistles and bells without transforming the way students learn. I search instead for technology tools that can help students relate to texts in new ways, achieve deeper understandings of who they are, or better appreciate the world in which they live. Because "text" refers not only to written words but also to things like data sets, equations, and art, my mission is to help students achieve Exceptional Literacy in the humanities and also in mathematics, the sciences, and the arts. I enjoy collaborating with educators online by tweeting as @MrFichter and sharing blog posts (http://fichterforunderstanding.blogspot.com). To learn more about my teaching and my school, I invite you to read about Exceptional Literacy (http://www.stpatsdc.org/program/index.aspx).