|
In the Spotlight
With programs like TIA, Miller and his colleagues aim to make Denton ISD a mecca for educators who are eager to embrace the future of instructional technology. An entrée into education A native of Denton, Miller lives four houses down from his childhood home. He didn’t always plan to be an educator. In what he describes as his “former life,” he studied agronomy at Texas A&M University and earned a master of science degree in soil fertility from Oklahoma State University. While working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Miller volunteered in his daughter Melissa’s kindergarten class at Borman Elementary School in Denton. Miller recalls feeling right at home at Borman, which is understandable, being that he went to elementary school there. Recognizing Miller’s potential in the classroom, the school principal encouraged him to pursue a career in education. “I had this epiphany,” Miller recalls. “I went home one day and told my wife that I was quitting my job to go back to school and become a teacher.” Miller says he loves to learn, so becoming a full-time student in his mid-30s was “a lot of fun.” After completing two years of coursework at the University of North Texas, he started in 1994 teaching at Hodge Elementary in Denton. He taught from 1996 to 1998 at Park Glen Elementary in Keller ISD, where he was named Teacher of the Year. Miller then became an assistant principal and principal in Keller schools before becoming principal of W.S. Ryan Elementary School in Denton ISD in 2008. In his new administrative role, Miller says he hopes to serve as an ambassador for technology; he wants “to help bridge the gap” and “make sense of the new science for administrators and teachers.” “There are some who are wary of new technology or feel that they can’t learn how to use the new technology,” he says. “But that’s where your students are.” As an educator who is passionate about technology, Miller strives to see both sides. “It’s just like when I was a principal and a teacher,” he explains. “If I don’t understand the purpose of something, I can’t ask you to do it.” At a conference he attended on the merging of technology and education, people were surprised to meet a former public school principal, Miller says. Yet, it’s his experience as an administrator that gives Miller unique insight into how technology can be used to run schools more efficiently. “My personal challenge,” he explains, “is to infuse what I know about being a principal and combine [that] with the hardware and software that’s out there.” Miller also cautions that “if we don’t recognize the trends, we’ll get left behind.” According to Miller, schools run into problems when they focus too heavily on policing new forms of communication, such as social networking tools. He says a school’s position should be, “We are going to monitor this, but we recognize it as a valid mode of communication.” As principal of W.S. Ryan, Miller used Twitter to communicate announcements to students’ families who followed the school’s Twitter account. At events like TIA, Denton ISD teachers will learn how to use polling Websites so that students, using text messaging, can answer questions that the teachers post online. To use these tools, students will be permitted access to the district’s computer network — pursuant to the terms of the district’s acceptable use policy — using their personal devices. “Instead of confiscating cell phones, we can use that technology to our advantage,” Miller says. “If we use technology with limitations, we can control it better than if we had tried to ban it altogether.” While he’s wild about technology, Miller is a father and an educator who doesn’t underestimate the value of personal interactions with students and parents. “Education is all about a partnership with families,” he says. “It’s their school; we are there for their children. It can’t be any other way.” SARAH ORMAN is a freelance writer and a school law attorney. |
In his first month as Denton ISD’s instructional technology manager, Gary Miller has been working “feverishly,” preparing for the district’s inaugural Technology Integration Academy (TIA). This three-day program includes lectures on topics such as “Using Blogs in the High School English Classroom” and “Wovel Your Wiki” (translation: create an online, collaborative writing experience for students). Academy guest speakers include Denton’s mayor, Mark Burroughs; Denton ISD Superintendent Ray Braswell; and the district’s director of instructional technology, Robert Bostic.