When I was in high school, the math teacher got a computer for his classroom. It sat on a table at the back of the room. It was big and bulky with a tiny black screen. The only thing I remember doing on it was playing a math game. The player had to solve a problem - using pencil and paper - and input an answer. If the answer was correct, a tiny stick person would climb one step up a ladder. Get enough answers right; the stick man would reach the top of the ladder and dive into a pool. Remember - it was a black screen with yellowish lettering, and all pictures were only outlines. No cool 3D graphics. No choosing a personal avatar or uploading pictures. No embedded graphing calculator app. I'm not even sure if it had sound - I think there was an annoying blip with every step up the ladder.
My how things have changed. This morning I sat in another teacher's classroom covering her classes because of an emergency. I didn't have my computer, or any files saved on an external devices, but I was able to log in on her computer, open files that I have stored "in the cloud," and complete some of my planned morning work. I also checked grades for a few students, read and sent a few emails, and did some research for my classes. All while away from my desk.
After lunch I returned to my normal schedule and my own classroom. My seventh graders were doing phrases worksheets. Several students were having trouble remembering prepositions. I quickly pulled up a site with prepositions and printed a list. I have been searching for writing contests for my creative writing students to enter. Today they ask about the list; instead of typing a list and making copies I decided to post links and share with each of them via google docs. They'll be able to click the link and go straight to a site that interests them.
After school I attended my first webinar. For about 45 minutes my principal and I participated in training along with teachers from about three other schools around the state; it was hosted by someone in Illinois. We went through using digital sandbox step-by-step, asked a few questions, and finished with enough information to implement the program in our school. With not travel expense and no time out of the classroom.
Education today is not at all the same field I entered nearly twenty years ago. Honestly, it is not the same as it was only five years ago Students haven't changed much. They are still bright, goofy, talkative, forgetful, and fun-loving. But our mode of delivery for information, the amount of information available to them, and the time and skills needed to access that information have made a drastic change. Our responsibility as teachers is still to impart knowledge. To instill a love of learning. To be successful, we must overcome budget restraints, our fear of the unknown, and the desire to cling to the comfortable and find a way to incorporate available technology into our lessons. Just as that diving stickman would not engage today's students and wouldn't be used in today's classroom, lessons planned years ago and delivered in the original format are not acceptable. To see growth in our students, we must be willing to grow as teachers.
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