Greetings, my name is Anna Clayton. I am currently a Biology (and AP Biology) teacher at William H. Turner Technical Arts High School in Miami, FL. Aside from teaching and science, my interests include photography, traveling, crocheting, and driving fast cars. My husband and I both love cars and when we can, we attend car shows. Currently I am taking RES 8100 and IDT 7007 as this is my first semester. My EdD concentration is Instructional Technology and Distance Education. After barely surviving 18 months of Pandemic online “teaching” with zero training and barely any tools, I decided to join this program in hopes that proper training will lead to enhancement and expansion of current teaching practices.

The lack of technology skills and tools our teachers, students and parents have were evident during the 2020-2021 school year. Having to teach Biology and AP Bio to students who had no resources to complete an online program, at a level where they could develop a deep understanding to effectively perform in a State Mandated End Of Course Assessment (and National AP Assessment for the AP Bio) was an overwhelming task to say the least. Being on ZOOM daily was mentally exhausting and creating “effective” lessons overnight was a nightmare. It is my hope to put together handbooks that will help content area teachers develop the skills needed to infuse technology and reach children through distance teaching in a manner that is meaningful and engaging. There must be a better way to conduct distance teaching than what we had to endure during this pandemic.

As we return to “in person” teaching/learning, we must prepare for the possibility of being back online and we are not ready. There is a 200+ year old system in place that did not plan for teaching outside of the schoolhouse. It is my hope to help develop a pathway out of this ancient system for teachers, students, and parents. If you had kids in school during the last school year, I would like to apologize on behalf of teachers… we had no training and no idea what we were supposed to do. We had no information or tools to teach online and we did what we could.