I have always felt tech savvy, many of my colleagues or friends and family come to me for tech help. I used technology in the classroom: powerpoint notes, some youtube videos, online webquests where my students would find the answers to questions, and occasionally a game or simulation that related to the topic. I was using technology the right way right? Well I don’t think I can say that anymore. I think about how I have used technology in the classroom and realize that it has been a weak defense saying that the kids are learning more or better because there is a computer in front of them. I remember a few times last year observing my students working and I realized that they are just using the computer as a textbook at times. I gave some questions, links to the articles that had the answers, and they would read it and fill out a worksheet. I realize that is not the way to do it anymore.
Learning about how to use technology to get the kids to problem solve and communicate with the world is more important than teaching them how to memorize a bunch of facts. The assessments we give the students in our school is based on them getting good grades, not really learning the skills they need. It’s like there are loops around saying we are covering those skills, when I truly believe we are not, including myself. Our school made the front page of a big newspaper comparing our senior’s GPA with their freshmen year college GPA. The gap between the 2 was the largest in the state for students going to Illinois schools. Part of me was frustrated to see this as headline news (Round Lake already gets a bad rep), but another part of me wasn’t surprised. I know our students come into our school not having good reading and math skills, but I feel like we use that excuse too much to justify how our students turn out in the end. Maybe I’m idealistic, but I hope that I can use technology and motivate my students to become their own learners.
My problem right now is that our school was not organized in issuing the laptops to the teachers so that we have carts of laptops to share. I wanted to jump right into getting my students using Web 2.0 tools (and soon enough Web 3.0). But now I wait. I try to bring in interesting articles for them to read, even if it’s above their level, I am trying to push them. But it would be so much better if they could pick an article that is related to the topic that interests them by exploring articles and them having them react to them. While I wait I try to find interesting things they could do, but I don’t have computers everyday and our library computers can be unreliable.
While I know that once I get these computers into my hands I will be off to the races experimenting with these tools and learning what works for my kids and what doesn’t, some of the other teachers I work with don’t care for them or they will use them like I was using them last year. I understand it can be overwhelming to use these tools when you are not comfortable with them, but I’m the kind of person that says you got to try before judging something.
We are starting a writing initiative at my school where every subject has to incorporate writing into the classroom in the same format. I am fine with this, I figure my kids can write on a blog or discussion forum in this format about whatever the related topic is that day. Or perhaps they can use google docs and type a paragraph there. We were discussing the writing initiative in general and one of the teachers talked about trying to read their handwriting and I mentioned having them type in the formats I just listed, and they kind of laughed me off. I just could not believe the resistance to wanting to try something new that the kids may like. “No they have to write notes out in their notebook and do worksheets!” Sure there are some great worksheets out there, but there are other cool resources as well.
I understand change is hard, but unless we want to be on the front page news again for how our students are not prepared for college, we have to make some changes. I am feeling this frustration with the old ways of teaching and the new ways of learning. I feel like the masters class I am taking has changed my teaching life. I am seeing the students differently. I can tell that doing a worksheet is boring or going over lecture notes is hard for them to sit through (even with cool videos and my corny jokes lol). These kids need to create and learn how to find and understand information. I had them look up some information and challenged them to improve the next time. But I keep waiting on when the “next time” is because we still do not have our laptops available. Until that point, I will keep figuring out what tools to use with my kids and exploring how I can incorporate those with my lessons in the future. I know I am not going to be perfect, but I will learn from mistakes I make, a point I am trying to get my kids to accept for themselves. I am glad that I decided to focus on technology in my masters degree, otherwise my kids may never know how to research and communicate through the world. Even if some of my colleagues aren’t necessarily on board, I hope that MY students will be prepared for college and will be successful because they learned how to create and research valid information.
(Now I do work with a few others that want to do more stuff like I do, I don’t want it to seem like I am bashing everyone I work with lol)
I hope my next post is an update on how the computer use is going in my classes, I hope we have the laptops by the time it is due! :-)
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