Teachers must reflect on our teaching practices because we constantly need to find ways to connect with our students. Integrating technology exemplifies means through which we can connect with our students. Reflection, observations, and surveys, provide us with data needed to improve our teaching. We don’t teach in a bubble and shouldn’t expect that everything we do works perfectly the first time; we must model for our students that reflection offers us the opportunity to improve. For example, currently in social studies, my students are working on a menu of items from which they choose activities to earn points toward their final grade. This menu consists of activities that incorporate Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. One year after we completed the unit, I asked kids how they felt about the opportunity to choose how they wanted to learn. Overall, they loved the options but proposed the point distribution was a little unfair. Some of them felt they spent much more time on certain options and didn’t receive what they felt were accurate points compared to activities that required much less of a time commitment. We evaluated their feedback and the next year balanced out the point distribution.
For one of my classes as SNHU, I read if a person from 100 years ago walked into a school today, s/he wouldn’t see that much has changed. I beg to differ, the physical structure may look the same, but within our school very little looks like it did even when I was in school. The library immediately draws your attention as it provides a physical learning space with the digital availability of ebooks, audiobooks, computers for research, and QR codes for additional information.
Within our classrooms kids have 1:1 laptops for learning, communicating, practicing, and reading. Teachers have document cameras, digital cameras, iPads, and laptops. We use technology to communicate with our students, parents, and the community. We update our webpages with links, resources, student work, and current events. In our team meetings we discuss students, student work, and common core. In our content area meetings we plan, reflect, research, and align what we do to standards. Our administrators model technology use as they walk through our classrooms for observations. They create presentations for staff meetings using the same programs teachers use in the classroom. Our technology integrators teach summer courses based on the ISTE standards and continuously share links they find that connect to grade level curriculums. Clearly, every aspect of our day revolves around refection and current practices all while focusing on what’s best for today’s kids.
I like the idea of doing summer classes in technology. But since we work through most of the summer, we couldn't do that. But we have been having afternoon PD sessions for the last 3 months, since our new AP worked a 1/2 day a month into the school schedule. She was doing most of the sessions on CCSS and literacy for the first 2 months, as she is a former teacher and English major, but last week, I did present some alternative technology info to the staff. Hope to do more in the future, it's hard to get the teachers to stay for voluntary PD, as they have so much to do and so little time, but I would love to do an edcamp at our school sometime too.
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