This semester as we have been learning about new tech tools, how to flip our classroom, incorporate cell phones, and utilize all google has to offer, I have been thinking about how classrooms are changing and how hard it is for teachers to change. I will be a relatively young teacher when I start teaching next year and I am hesitant to use technology in my classroom. What if I plan a lesson centered around technology and something goes wrong, the internet is not working or the website that I would like my students to use is down? Do I plan two lessons? Do we just try again? I know that problems like this are occurring less often in many schools but in some schools internet is still an issue.
We have read articles explaining that we cannot teach the way we were taught, but how do you decide what type of technology or how much to incorporate. What is enough and what is distracting? Do I need to use technology to move forward as an educator? I feel that I have learned a lot about effective ways to implement different tech tools or tech strategies in teaching but when I am a full time new teacher I fear that I am going to go back to what I am comfortable with and what I know. How do I prevent that?
I have been learning a lot through reading the edubloggers and I think that is a good solution to keep my teaching up to date and to push myself as an educator. I hope that I will be able to teach with people who also would like work to be innovative in incorporating technology or in pushing themselves as teachers. I am excited about all of the technology that we have learned about this semester but worried about actually using it. What do you all think? What are you going to use or not use? How will you decide?
This year is for us to learn how to be the most effective teacher we can be. I would like to try to incorporate some of the tech tools that I have learned about this semester but how do I balance this with trying to learn all of the other aspects of teaching and working in someone else's classroom?
I am sorry for all of the questions in the post but this is where my mind goes when I think about everything we have learned this semester and how I am going to be able to apply it all come January.
My immediate response is that "something always goes wrong". I think that's the difference between us when we start off and us once we've had a few years in the field, we just learn to deal with the random a bit more effectively. I've already run into a few cases where the internet didn't work or the dongle was not allowing my computer to talk to projector. In fact, I'm pretty certain that before this year, I would not have understood the last sentence about dongles and talking....so I'm anticipating lots of "things going wrong" very soon.
ReplyDeleteI think that come January, you should hang onto that perspective. Everything working well all the time makes the consequences of something not working one day much greater. I feel we rely too much on things "working". If we have a healthy perspective of always asking, "what do I do when...", then we're better prepared for the inevitable. Once we stop asking, we're done.
Perhaps these technical glitches can make for wonderful learning opportunities. Talk through it, share with the students what you're experiencing and see what they can say.
David this is a very good point. Things will go wrong whether I am using technology or not. I like your approach and I am going to do better at keeping this in mind when preparing to start teaching more in the coming weeks and in Januarary.
ReplyDeleteI would also guess that many of my students will be able to help me through tech problems if I am able to admit to myself that they are much more tech savvy than I :)
Sarah, I just want to make two comments, both of which fall under the heading of "you actually know more about this than you think you do."
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, the answers to many of the questions you ask could probably also fit with questions you're thinking about regarding Sarah the teacher completely separate from how much or how little you use technology. There's going to have to be a lot of trial and error, and my sense is that you're in a classroom where you can take a few well-considered risks and not feel like the world's going to collapse around you if things don't go as planned/hoped. This is a time for experimentation, and for having a safe place to try things and know that there are going to be problems...having to work your way out of a few of them is a valuable part of the learning process. This connects with a response to one of your questions ("Do I need to use technology to move forward as an educator?"), which is NO, and it also connects to the insight that you yourself frame at the end of your response to David...it could actually be Great if your students wind up being able to help you out, and for them to feel useful. Those moments aren't at all necessarily bad things.
Oh, and be kind to/with yourself...figuring out who you are as a teacher, who your students are and what they need, and sifting all of that through your subject and your lesson ideas isn't an easy thing. Don't forget that, okay?