When reading the
standards for teachers listed in the International Society for Technology in
Education (2014), I was struck by how many of their standards were expectations
I had for my own teaching. Due to my belief that technology can be a powerful motivator for learning, I have always worked to incorporate it into my teaching. Reading
through this list, however, also made me realize the weaknesses that I need to
work to improve.
I have always been
comfortable with technology; many of my teacher friends have referred to me as
their "local IT support."
Because of this level of comfort, I have welcomed technology into my
classroom, and I have challenged both myself and my students to find innovative
ways to use the materials that were provided to us. Through this goal, I have participated in a
grant program that brought iPod Touches into my classroom, attended a
Smartboard Academy and developed grammar lessons for my district, and presented
two times on the use of technology in the classroom, once at the Virginia
Society for Technology in Education conference and another time at the
conference for the National Council for Teachers of English.
I feel that my main
"technology strength" is that I am willing to try things and be okay
with the results, however they turn out.
For example, I have marveled at how simply using an iPad to record silly
actions helped my students understand the function of adverb clauses, but I
have also despaired when Google Docs wouldn't load correctly on those same
iPads, causing my carefully planned peer editing class session to end in
disarray. I feel that many teachers
don't harness the power of technology due to a fear of it ending badly, but as
my Google Docs fiasco proved to me, even something that ends badly has value;
my students still got some peer editing done (just not exactly how I had
planned), and I learned to be sure to check out laptops the next time I wanted
collaboration on Google. As the ISTE
Standards for Teachers (2014) state, technology should be used to
"facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity" (p. 1). As a teacher, I need to not let my fear of a
broken lesson plan stand in the way of that important goal. I think I do a pretty good job of this
currently, but by learning and becoming more comfortable with technology, I can
only continue to improve the experiences my students have with "digital
age work and learning" (ISTE, 2014,
p. 1).
While there are many
parts of my teaching practice that are constantly evolving and need to be
improved, I identify the idea of "promot[ing] and model[ing] digital
citizenship and responsibility" (ISTE, 2014, p. 2) as my greatest
weakness. I could use this as a space to
bemoan the assessment-driven culture that our schools have adopted, but the
bottom line is that, as an educator and member of a technology-rich society, I
need to take into account the fact that having my students be able to answer a
grammar question on a common assessment might not be as important as teaching them how to thrive in a digital
world. This year, my school had a major
problem with Twitter bullying, so I tried to focus on that in my classroom by
having them discuss and then research social media and its effects on different
aspects of life. While I feel that this
was a really worthwhile lesson in that it allowed my students to connect to the
real world, practice citing sources, and learn about an issue that was directly
affecting them, I believe that I could do more.
There have to be more of these teachable moments about our digital world
that I ignore in order to focus on the difference between a compound and a
complex sentence, and I need to find a way to meet both of these goals
simultaneously.
In the end, I feel
that the more I embrace the idea of being a lifelong learner and continue to
open myself up to new ideas and technologies for the classroom, the better
prepared I will be to meet the ISTE Standards for Teachers. I would like to learn about more ways to
engage with my students through technology.
Discussion, writing, and reading are all integral facets of the
secondary English classroom, but through technology, I can engage my students'
interest while meeting them, in a sense, on their own playing field. While I have already considered having them
start their own Blogger accounts as a writing portfolio next year, I hope to
expose myself to many other forms of instructional technology so that my
students will be reading, writing, and discussing great literature while at the
same time being best prepared for the challenges of a digital age.
References:
International
Society for Technology in Education (2014).
ISTE Standards: Teachers.
Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf
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