The thing I most took away from Friday's class was the really useful question: why do you want to be a teacher? Even though I sort of answered that question in the process of applying to the secmac program, it was great to revisit the idea of teaching after a few weeks of hard work. It's one thing to say, "I want to be a teacher because I want to help children become educated and have access to a college education"; and it's quite another to understand the really deep implications and responsibilities involved after working with real live children. It's terrific to take a moment to pause and consider the wonderful interactions I've had with my (incoming) seventh graders.
Speaking of (incoming) seventh graders, another thing I realized in Friday's class is that they know way more than I do about technology. So the key is, and hence the title of the class, teaching with technology instead of just teaching technology to students. They don't need me to explain how computers work (thank god), but instead I need to find a way to work with computers or text messaging or what have you in order to enrich students' learning. But thank goodness there's no MTTC test about technology!
I like your distinction between "teaching with" and teaching to." I think it's true that kids in today's schools often know more about technology than their teachers, and that gap will probably continue to widen as new generations of "digital natives" arise. Although using current technology might not come quite as effortlessly to us, I think it will be exciting to explore the ways we can integrate it in our classrooms.
ReplyDeleteI also like your distinction between 'with' and 'to'. I think this has big implications for how we can incorporate students' knowledge in the classroom. I think it's easy for us as teachers to think of ourselves as the more 'knowledgeable' party in the teacher-student relationship. It's easy to forget that students come in with so much knowledge and information that we don't know. I think technology is one way that's apparent. By empowering students to incorporate and engage what they already know, we will have a better chance of showing them the relevance of learning what they don't know; what we can offer to teach them.
ReplyDeleteI agree that I could not possibly teach technology to my students. I can help them to use different forms of technology in a classroom setting, but I think that with my lack of proficiency about my own Mac that I am definitely not qualified to teach anyone how to use one. I had also thought a little about why I wanted to teach before coming into the program, but I hadn't given it much thought after getting into the program. Working with the kids at Scarlett has definitely helped me to see some of the bigger reasons behind why I want to teach.
ReplyDeleteIt is always nice to revisit the reasons for becoming a teacher. I agree completely that we are not just providing students with an ability to go to college, but an ability to understand their minds as a tool that can collect skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. The seventh graders at Scarlett are great minds with whom we can throw ideas back and forth. I'm excited to see how all of our case studies go. I also feel a bit technologically devolved because I have not been very big on computers, or even TV for that matter, in a very long time. This will be a challenging and exciting endeavor to attempt to utilize the tech skills that we are developing in order to foster learning in our classrooms. I am quite sure that we will find a way to master the skills we need in order to use technology to create an atmosphere that reaches modern minds which are geared towards learning in a high-tech world.
ReplyDeleteIt seems you're not alone regarding the use of tech in the classroom. But I think there is a storm brewing.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that Udacity, Khan Academy, Coursera are going to eliminate teachers. Nor will their unrecognizable descendants. Until computers can care and build relationships as well as humans, I think we have jobs. But I do think teachers that thrive will need to exploit technology to a much greater degree. Caring is important, but it isn't everything.
Ten years ago, I was helping the students in my oldest child's fourth grade class build web pages in support of the teacher's social studies project. I was surprised how the computer lab was usually empty, few of the teachers had web pages, and most of the teachers struggled with email.
Ten years have passed, and tech has predictably exploded.
My youngest just finished fourth grade at the same school. The kids now use laptops in the classroom, there are a couple of programs they use, few of the teachers had web pages, and most of the teachers are now adept with email.
I think we should push ourselves to see how we can use tech to truly improve our pedagogy. I just watched a TED talk by Brené Brown, and she used an expression (albeit in a different context) that I really liked. "Lean into your discomfort."
Mr. Benz,
DeleteThank you for your kind and insightful comments. I didn't necessarily understand all of the references you made, but through the power of technology I managed to grasp most of them. A useful military expression that resonates with me because of your comments is Embrace the suck. I would happily so embrace it, provided it makes my students' lives suck less.
Mr. Shap, your words have clearly resonated for your colleagues. I think you frame an immensely productive challenge for us, to wit, how we'll respond to the fact that (for most of us, anyway) our students will be more comfortable with computers that we ourselves will be. The question of whether we see this as being a problem or an opportunity is of no small import to us as teachers. I would love to hear more thoughts from you about how you *might* (if you're so inclined, and it appears that you are) to embrace this "opportunity." How might this look? What possibilities might this orientation afford us? I think that Pete's citing of Brene Brown's counsel to "lean into (our) discomfort" is both apt, and a little scary, but in a good way. Working out such rich questions is high on the list of issues for which you're signing up as you join this profession, Mr. S, and I think that it passes muster as the sort of question that one could profitably wrestle with over the course of a career.
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