Teacher World

Teachers, how many of you have a smartboard? If you do, I think that you would find a recent article in neatoday, “Do Smartboards Make Smart Students?” very interesting.

I feel very fortunate to have a smartboard in my classroom, and I use it almost daily for one activity or another. I have found that even the most reluctant students can’t wait to go to the smartboard to write or complete an activity. And the internet has a plethora of awesome websites with fun, interesting, and interactive ways to reinforce any curriculum. As a result, my students are always highly engaged when we use the smartboard, and I can hook them even more if I use it in conjunction with our Senteo Clickers. So, why is Rosita Force, the author of this article, questioning the use of smartboards and their impact on classroom learning?

You’ve seen it in your building, I’m sure. There are always those teachers who don’t utilize smartboards as they should, and use them instead as glorified overheads, chalkboards, and movie projector screens. Now, the article is quick to point out, and I’m sure we would all agree, that occasional use of smartboards in this way is okay. But the problem occurs when this is the main way they are being utilized. The beauty and magic of this type of technology is its connectivity to the internet and to interactive software. If a teacher cannot or will not use them in this way, it is a waste of money and a waste of students’ time.

Additionally Ms. Force states that sometimes we may be overusing technology when our real focus should be on creating “an environment that makes students want to work together to solve problems in a creative and innovative manner.” Her point is that teachers need to be learning facilitators rather than just the deliverer of knowledge. She suggests in closing that we need to sometimes “power down the technology to let students power up their problem-solving skills”.  And this is a valid point. As teachers, we must avoid the mundane routines, and be ready to experiment in our classroom with new techniques and new methods. We need to teach our children to use educational technology but also teach them to be problem solvers in a real world. And that is something that cannot be taught through a smartboard.

So, use those smartboards and other purchased technology to teach your children about the world around them and to get them to interact with the skills you teach, but don’t overuse them. At the same time, provide ample opportunity for them to manipulate ideas and concepts in practical problem-solving activities. Remember, our goal as teachers is to produce well-rounded learners who can apply the concepts and skills they have acquired to real-life situations, real-life jobs, and real-life problems.

It’s all about the proper balance in our teaching strategies.

Changes in Teaching, Teacher's Unions, Teacher-World's Blog, teaching strategies NEA, Senteo clickers, smartboards, students, teachers, technology

While listening to the radio yesterday, I heard an advertisement that really got me fired up! It was an ad for an online school called K-12, and it began with a very derogatory representation of a public education teacher. A very Charlie Brown type teacher’s voice (you know the voice I’m talking about from our favorite cartoons, only this one is female) is heard drilling her students on the state capitals. The voice is aggravating and clearly depicted as one that would put her students to sleep. The children answer her like little robots, and the gist of the ad is that this is the kind of teacher students will find in public schools but not at K-12.

I know that alternative schools are in competition with public schools and must, therefore, advertise to increase their enrollment, but this advertisement is a total misrepresentation of the quality of education children receive in public schools. I can’t think of any time I have heard a teacher in my building respond to their students as this teacher does, and it angers me to hear us depicted in such a negative light. Any school which has to stoop to such a level to attract students should be subject to the highest scrutiny. Ads for alternative schools should focus on what their schools can offer students to make them successful learners. Period! And actually, when I visited the home page for K-12, I found it to be a viable alternative, especially for those students who do not function well in a more traditional environment or those who learn best through technology. Which begs the question then: why not just lead with that? Why not tell what K-12 is and what it can do for the right kind of students?

Interestingly, when I was checking out the home page for K-12, I was struck by a contradiction between its statements on the radio advertisement and this claim: “One of K¹²’s core missions is to strengthen the promise of public education with tools and techniques of the 21st Century that brings learning alive.” And it goes on to provide a link to further explain how their “flexible approach leads to strong, effective partnerships with both public and private schools.” Hmm…I wonder how that works in light of the derogatory ads they have on the radio about the very schools they hope to partner with!

Shame on you K-12! Shame on you for your slanderous depiction of public school teachers! And shame on you for seeking to attract parents to your school in this negative manner. Your radio advertisement paints you in a less than complimentary light which simply does not jive with your online home page. I suggest that you lead with the positive, and get the negative ads off the radio.

Changes in Teaching, Teacher-World's Blog K-12, online schools, public schools, students, technology

While visiting other blogging sites, I spent some time on http://assortedstuff.com. The author of this blog talked about a gathering of educators to discuss “why schools have remained isolated islands of status quo over the past twenty years, while the rest of the world has been fundamentally altered by computers, networks, and communications tools”. He will be a speaker at this conference where he will talk about his “growing frustration with American education and the two-faced embrace of techie tools while at the same time rejecting the transformative possibilities they offer.” He continues to contend the following:

“Schools in the US have spent billions of dollars in just the past decade to buy laptops and software, install networks, connect classrooms to internet, and train teachers. However, walk down the halls of your average American school, especially high schools, and you’re likely to see a teacher-directed, lecture-demo formatted lesson, with little or no technology use by either teacher or students. Over the past few years, the most visible example of technology use in the classrooms of our overly-large school district has been interactive whiteboards, devices which chain teaching to standards of the previous century. Talk all you want about ‘student engagement’ and ‘interactivity’, these boards are little more than expensive electronic extensions of blackboards and chalk, controlled by the teacher, and locking the learning focus on them, not the students.”

First, I use a smart board daily in my classroom, and I do allow it to direct my instruction by either introducing or reinforcing subject matter which is to be covered in an interactive way. And with more professional development, I am sure I could utilize it even more effectively. But therein lays the problem with incorporating technology into the classroom to its full extent. How many schools in this crippled economy have the financial resources to purchase the technology needed and provide the professional training required to truly bring classrooms into the 21st century? Our school still doesn’t even have smart boards in each classroom, and those we do have are hooked up to antiquated computers which are living on borrowed time. Our district has been unable to pass a levy, which is true of many districts in this troubled economy, so we are looking at significant cuts in order to survive. We have already been told that the budget for replacing computers is non-existent, as is money for professional development. Now that is about as bare-bones as it gets.

How can we provide 21st century classrooms without the significant amount of money it requires to do so? It is expensive to purchase the technology, and even more expensive to train teachers to use it adequately. So often, software is purchased, but teachers are not thoroughly trained in how to use it. And if they aren’t comfortable with it, they will not use it. It is that simple. And the cost to purchase software licenses is often a deterrent for school systems that are pinching pennies.

So here is the bottom line. You cannot expect significant changes in the use of technology, which I totally agree is necessary to better prepare our students for the future, without the resources that it takes to implement them successfully. Where is that money coming from? Because, sure as shooting, it isn’t coming from our overwhelmed school systems or already-taxed tax payers.

.

Funding Education, Teacher-World's Blog economy, school levies, technology

I love technology and the fact that it makes my life easier, and I love integrating technology into my classroom.

I preface this blog in this way so that you don’t think my next complaint is born out of a hatred for or frustration with technology in general. What is that complaint, you might ask? Simply this: Every year we provide our students with assignment books which are part of their school fees. Each student is expected to write their assignments down daily in this book copying it from their teacher’s assignment board. The expectation is that students will take these books home each night along with the materials they need to complete those activities, and bring everything back the next day. Clearly, the goal here is to teach and encourage responsibility; the same responsibility that will enable them throughout their life to complete necessary tasks on time and on their own. Sounds reasonable, as certainly, this is a life skill we all must master, right?

Suddenly, our principal announced at our opening meeting that he would like us all to have a web page on which we post our students’ homework daily. Now, bear with me as I think out loud here, but if the students already have assignment books provided by their school, and they are being told that they need to copy their assignments and use this assignment book to be responsible and get their work in on time, and then we tell them that if they forget their assignment book or don’t write their work down as they were instructed to do, it’s okay; all they need to do is get on their teacher’s web page and the homework will be right there, how are we teaching and encouraging responsibility? The only responsible party then becomes the teacher who not only needs to write the assignments on the assignment board, but must also post it daily on a web site, which may include updating it during the day again if the homework was adjusted for whatever reason. My responsibilities have now increased as my students’ responsibilities have decreased! And students will learn that they don’t really have to listen to their teacher and write their assignments because they can always use the website later.

Why have we been asked to do this? Because some parents want to be able to see for themselves what their child has for homework either because their child is not copying their homework at all or they are lying about what their homework is. Wouldn’t it be wiser to deal with these issues directly? Shouldn’t there be communication with the teacher to change the negative behavior in order to achieve responsible behavior in the future?

I am all for technology, but this is one time when I feel very strongly that it is a copout, and I will not design a web page (at least until I am told that I must) because I feel that the life lessons that will be missed in the process are far too valuable.

Changes in Teaching, Teacher-World's Blog student responsibility, technology, web page