Last
night, after class, I went home and fell asleep. And I dreamed on and off all through
the night about how I like to come home after work and play with my children in
the backyard. Audrey is five, and Will is two, and we spend our afternoons
hunting for baby toads, which we have had hundreds of this summer. We water our
little garden, which consists of peas and peppers and even a few stalks of corn. We check on
our accidental pumpkin, which sprouted up from the Jack-o-lantern remains from
last Halloween. We build little castles in the sandbox, and I push them in
their swings side by side. And I count this time with my children as the very
best part of my day. Because I know that I will turn around and Audrey will
have no use for chasing down baby toads, and Will will no longer fit in his
little swing. This is precious time. And during this time, we are completely
free of our television, Ipads, phones, computers, or anything we would call technological. I am free of all distraction, and I simply enjoy my
children and the perfection of these moments in time. There is something pure
and unadulterated about this time with my children where we are free to play
and talk and discover…without distraction. And I think this little narrative is
important to discussions about technology in the classroom because when I think
about my classroom, I think of it is as a family. My students are my children
for an hour each day. What kind of educational experience do I want them to
have when they are with me? Because, in all honesty, this time is precious,
too.
The majority of my classes are AP
Language. This is a rhetoric course designed to teach students to be better
arguers and to better assess other people’s arguments. And at the end of the
year, there is an expensive, gargantuan test, which, if students pass it, they
will receive college credit. As a teacher, it’s kind of a big deal. (#Big Deal) I feel a great deal of pressure to
get my kids prepared for this monster of a test. I spend my entire year
devising every lesson to prep my students for one test. And here’s the thing –
this test is comprised of three handwritten essays, and fifty-five
fill-in-the-bubble multiple choice questions. Therefore, much of my preparation
simply involves the pure practice of ideas and pen and paper. That’s all there
is to it. And much like my children chasing toads in the yard, there is
something old and pure about students putting pen to paper. And until College
Board changes the way they give tests, then I am still going to “teach to the
test.”
So, at this point, you probably just
envision some lady who has a home perm down to her waist wearing a little house
on the prairie dress she made while living on her compound with a jar of canned
tomatoes in one hand and a can of sharpened pencils in the other. And perhaps
some little chalkboards for her students to practice their letters and
cipherin’. So just let me say, no, I don’t have a home perm, and no I don’t can
fruits or vegetables, and, no, I do not have any sister-wives. But I do love a
can of pencils…I won’t deny it. But in all actuality, I also love technology.
In my home and in my classroom, I love technology. I can’t live without it. I
don’t want to think about teaching students without my Smartboard and my access
to the internet in my room. When I started teaching in Edmond thirteen years ago,
that was the case. It was only ten years ago that I had to borrow the
computer/projector cart from the library, wheel the clunky contraption five miles
to my room, and run five cords over and under the desks in my room to show my kids awesome videos or
web sites that related to poetry or Africa or George Orwell or whatever it was
we were studying that week. And today, every room in the building has this
ability. And it is incredible. Times have definitely changed.
As well, thirteen years ago, every single student
did not have a small computer they carried with them in their pockets
everywhere they went. The idea of someone being addicted to one’s phone would
have seemed absurd. I feel that in terms of technology, we went from one end of
the spectrum to the other in a matter of ten years. In our homes and in our
schools, technology has changed so much about the way we live and think and
function. For instance, If I forget my phone at home, I kind of consider just
ending my life. Maybe I should just call in sick? (cough cough) I would, but
how would I do that …without my phone?! And to further emphasize this point,
let me say that my aide is re-formatting one of my student’s papers on his
laptop so that she can upload it to Turnitin.com as I type this. So what
exactly do I want in terms of technology in the classroom?
So let me back up to my narrative of
little Audrey and Will chasing toads and watering their accidental pumpkin. I
love this time with my children. But the reality is, we don’t live in the
backyard. We live in our house. You
know, the building with the tvs, phones, computers, Ipads, air conditioning.
All the things that make life great because they generally make life easier. So
how does that parallel to my classroom and my school? Well, I think there is a
balance. We don’t want to live in the yard churning butter and practicing our
letters by drawing in the mud with sticks, but I don’t want to live in a world
where kids are just hooked up to a screen all day long to receive any and all
information. The reality is that in a class such as mine, that is still so
reliant on the pen and paper experience, I do not need a one to one tech
scenario in my room. Some days we do! And some lessons can be incredibly
dynamic because of the addition of technology, but sometimes it just isn’t needed.
So, for me, when I consider the
needs of the students and staff in our building, I think we need to be thinking
about turning more rooms into media center spaces where students can all be
working on laptops or desktops or Ipads. These labs should have “smart screens”
and airliners, or whatever the hot, new educational technology is. MAKE IT ALL
AVAILABLE TO US! And teach us how to best utilize it! Teachers and students
should have access to all of this great stuff, but it doesn’t need to be in
every room, and I know it doesn’t need to be every day. For me, it’s all about
balance. For Audrey and Will, there is a time to catch toads in the backyard,
and there is a time to practice spelling on the Ipad. For my students, there is
time practice pen to paper, and there is time to peer edit each other’s drafts
online. It’s all about striking a balance which allows teachers to use
technology in ways which will best serve her class and allows students to have
vast and meaningful educational experiences.
