Am I a Dinosaur?

Lately I have been more acutely aware of the general behavior and actions of the younger generation.  Being the potential students that will fill our classrooms, I suppose this spy like behavior is due to the desire to get to know the clientele a little more closely.  A city such as Ann Arbor, however, has a diverse, yet highly affluent population.  While the demographic makeup may reflect a diverse array of ethnicities and cultures, the opportunities that most people in this city have are greater than most other cities.  Therefore, most of my conclusions must be met with a veil, but I cannot help but notice the sharp drop in personal interaction among peer groups.  Another caveat that I must mention before continuing is that I realize that, inevitably, each generation looks upon the next one with a certain amount of judgement and criticism.  The "back in my day" mantra seems to hold true throughout time.  I am not sure if it is a self-reassuring idea of "we had it so much tougher" or "things were more simple back then" or what it is, but I am starting to feel those sentiments creeping inside me.

    I see ipods, iphones, itabs, ibooks, i carumba!  Bart Simpson

    Is it our job, as teachers, to find ways to cater to their interests in phones and technology?  I don't think you'd find a teacher who would respond yes to that question without some attached explanation.  I do think it is important that we find out what our students our interested in, but what if we're unknowingly sacrificing key life skills by choosing to find ways to use cell phones and other tech devices in the classroom?  I think there's a medium that can be found where compromise is not at the expense of learning or the teaching profession.

I think the bottom line of this post is that I am worried about the reliance on technology by the younger people in the world.  It seems that cell phones are in the hands of younger and younger kids each year.  My desire as a teacher is to help better the autonomy and future life skills of my students as much as it is to teach them french.  For that reason, I worry that I will want to spend too much time developing communication skills while neglecting other aspects of learning.  I am aware of the benefits of technology and I have used it several times with much success, but I fear the trend will continue and eventually become so dependent upon technology that we experience a Matrix like revolution. Ok, that may be somewhat extreme, but I hope that there are still some teachers out there who are dedicated to teaching children and not teaching technology to children.

Waste not, Want not

          Growing up, I was fortunate enough to have the counsel of my grandparents in addition to my parents.  My grandpa was full of idiomatic expressions and really insightful advice. However, when I was young most of these expressions went way over my head. This "waste not, want not" idea was no exception.  It was not until I grew up that I appreciated the consequences of wasting and what affect it had on how much I wanted and needed.  I chose to write to an edublogger who discussed this topic and how it could be used in schools.

 Sans Problemes! (Marie-France Perkins—French) http://mmeperkins.typepad.com/

           Her name is Mme Perkins.  In the summer, I wrote about the creativity and unique technology use she incorporated into her teaching.  While her posts have become few and far between since her retirement from teaching, each post is well developed and thought out.  The post to which I gave a response she titled her lesson (translated) "Stop Wasting!" She had a short article that described some statistics about the amount of waste being done in France and some proposed ways to help prevent waste and help the environment.  All I could think of when reading this was the guest speaker that came into our class and talked about sustainability being a central focus of schooling.  She followed the short article with a short list of questions that assessed students' comprehension of the reading and gave them an opportunity to provide some insight of their own.  It was a pretty simple activity, but the content was relevant and could be applied to their lives after school.  I shared my thoughts (below), but I have not yet heard back.  Honestly, I might steal this idea verbatim for my lessons in January. Is that illegal? 

Bonjour Madame! I have followed your blog for a few months now and I really like the ideas you have posted. I am studying to become a French teacher and I am constantly looking for ideas for ways to deliver content in interesting and fun ways. I really like the slideshare feature that you have on your site. Perhaps I should look more into that, but what I really wanted to know was where you drew the inspiration for the creation of your assignments and lessons when you were teaching. As a student, we are told to make the material we teach sustainable, relevant information. This topic of waste certainly meets these requirements. Additionally, it is something I am conscious of and could see myself teaching one day. Thank you for your creative ideas and your effort to share them with francophiles around the world. Merci!

I wanted to let her know that I appreciated her ideas and that I intended to utilize the information in my future teaching.  I was hoping to get some of her ideas on where she gets her material and where she draws her inspiration.  I am always curious as to how teachers come up with ideas and the process they go through in reaching that conclusion. I believe collaboration to be a huge component of successful teaching.  Edubloggers such as Marie make this possible.  

Tech in the field

    

     Being in Ann Arbor, I wasn't shocked to see technology being used in the classrooms at Clague Middle School.  During the first few weeks of observing classrooms and walking around the school, I noticed a variety of different modes of technology in action.  I began to inquire more about the various forms of technology that are available for students and teachers.  I was shocked by the plethora of items to which the teachers have access.  While some of the materials were slightly out of date (videocameras), some of the tools were fairly new and in great condition (3 computer labs complete with Macs from the last year or two).  In addition to some of these materials, the usage of technology I found to be the most abundant was the carts of macbooks that can be checked out for any class.  There are 3 carts full of 30 laptops that are available to check out online with the school's librarian.  The other forms of technology that exist at this school include recording devices (with a tripod), LED projector screens in every classroom, and an abundance of computers and laptops.  Additionally, at the latest PD meeting I heard discussions about ordering new tech resources for interactive whiteboards.  Meemo I think it was. 

     While having all of this technology at a school is great, how you use the technology is far more important.   I have noticed a pretty significant difference in the attitude and engagement in the students when the computers/projector/other forms of technology are being used with the lesson in class.  While it makes sense that they are more interested in using these tools, it is somewhat less obvious to me that the amount of learning seems to be improved by these methods.  While my sample size is not big enough to make a substantial claim, it does seem that kids' motivation and learning improves when the technology is being used effectively in the class.  My cooperating teacher uses technology really well in the class.  I think the key to this success has been the various ways that the technology is integrated and putting the responsibility more on the students.  When students take ownership of the work and he/she knows that it will be displayed in front of his/her peers, the performance and effort tends to increase.  Because social status and emotional security are so important at this developmental stage, it makes sense that using technology to wrap social and emotional learning into instruction would pay dividends.  

      However, I have also realized that my mentor teacher's personality meshes really well with the activities and tech use in the class.  This may not always be the case with every teacher.  Personally, I see myself using less technology than what I have seen at Clague, but that does not mean that I value it any less.  I admire those teachers who have found a way to incorporate tech into the classroom and keep the intimate relationships and authentic teaching atmosphere intact.