Janet holds a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.Ed. in Instructional Technology from the University of South Florida. Her many years of experience teaching in elementary, middle, and high-school classrooms “help put issues into perspective” and inform her current position as Technology Trainer for the District Professional Development Department of Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Florida. Janet says her job is “all about facilitating the integration of technology into instruction in order to impact student achievement.” She finds that interactive whiteboard technology makes integration easy to accomplish, and also brings a whole new level of interaction between the teacher and students.
The popularity of the Mimio device has grown in Janet’s district, and she believes that is due to its portability, as well as to the improvements offered by the new MimioTeach system. “I love the reaction that erupts each time educators see a Mimio turn a regular classroom whiteboard into an interactive surface for the first time,” she says. “Hearing the first gasp and then the eventual ‘I want one!’ is always enjoyable.”
Janet says she loves teaching with technology, and she has a couple of favorite tips to share. “I show participants in my classes how to add their own folder to the Gallery and name it starting with the letter A, so it appears at the top of the list. Then they are able to save objects they create, like graphic organizers, into that folder for quick access.
“I also advise them to place a symbol of some kind, like a red asterisk, on the page preceding the one on which they are going to use the Reveal tool. That way they remember to start the Reveal tool before they go to the next page. That prevents the students from seeing the content until it is time.”
Janet is pleased with many of the features available in the new version of MimioStudio software. She especially enjoys the Clone Feature, because it “makes the page cleaner and the issue of copies becomes an easy task.” She also appreciates the ability to customize the location of both the standard toolbar and new Tab pane.
In addition to providing a variety of technology trainings, Janet coordinates technology conferences for educators in her district. Outside of work, the top priority in her life is family. “I thought having children was an interesting journey,” she says, “but now I realize that having a grandchild is the ultimate trip!”