Where I come from is like this...

This week's question is all about...what is our day to day relationship with technology. At home and at work, how are we living with technology?

In my last entry, I talked a lot about technology at home and how I don't want my children growing up in a world that integrates technology all of the time. There is time and place inside and outside of the classroom to unplug. There is a time to spell on the IPad and a time to churn butter, if you will. I just don't want to live in a world where people, or God forbid my children, are falling in love with their OS, or even worse, a world where Lawrence Fishburne is asking me if I want to take the blue pill or the red pill! It's all about balance.
 
This week, I am typing my blog on an IPad in order to force myself to try something different. And that's really where I am at with technology right now. I am forcing myself to try new things. I am trying to walk away from my very comfortable can of sharpened pencils and do things I have never done before. So let me start with where I'm at with technology at home...

I have two small children, so technology is very important. The iPad is a very important tool in our household. My kids love to work puzzles, watch their favorite shows, and they play with the coolest apps! There is one where the kids tap on every room of a farmhouse and turn off the lights so that all of the different animals can go "Nighty Night." The iPad has changed traveling with small children in an incredible and delightful way. I think about sitting in the back of my parents' car during a long ride at fifteen listening to my Depeche Mode cassette player over and over again. What I would have given for an IPad! Instead, the lyrics to "Personal Jesus" will be forever etched into my brain. At home, we have two personal iPads, and we both also have work iPads.  My husband and I both have iPhones, and both of us will tell you that if we forget our phones at home for some reason, then life immediately becomes an unbearable trial that no one should ever have to endure. My phone makes me feel that I am connected to my husband, and my parents, and the people who care for my children, so it makes sense why I would feel so lost without it. It is the tie to the people I care most about in this world. We also have a desktop computer and a laptop. But the laptop feels so clunky compared to the iPad, so I'm trying to do most everything on the iPad these days. I shop on the iPad, or even on my phone. It seems like a real ordeal for me to drag the old laptop out. My husband has a small server area built into the top of one of our utility closets. I'm not exactly sure how or why or what that is all about, but I know it is VERY IMPORTANT to him. I just assume that if something happened to that closet filled with whirring fans  and cords and blinking lights that the entire house would lose power...and possibly running water. Additionally, we have a TiVo and we access movies and shows through an assortment of devices and services. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon make our entertainment possibilities endless. We have Sonos players in the bathrooms and kids rooms, so that they we can listen to Pandora whenever we feel like it. There is so much more to technology in my home, but it seems impossible to list it all.  So where am I with technology in the classroom...

As I said in my last post, I teach a class that is very pen and paper centered, so we practice with a lot of pen and paper! But I love my SmartBoard. I love to find video clips related to what we are reading or studying. It's a beautiful thing to pull up a John Green Crash Course over The Great Gatsby for my students. He brings humor and philosophy all together in the most brilliant 10 minute clips. As an English teacher, we use computers to research and write papers. I use Remind101 to communicate with my students. I have tried various websites over the years, but I never felt that students actually utilized it. It was just a way for me to say - Look I have a website, and all of the calendars and information is on there! You can't blame me if the kids are clueless! In English, we also use Turnitin.com, a website that allows kids to upload their essays online. This site makes sure that students aren't plagiarizing their work, and it also gives us an online space for students to edit each other's work. This year, I have downloaded the app on my work iPad, and I can grade essays on my iPad. Hang on, let me repeat that! I CAN GRADE ESSAYS ON MY IPAD, PEOPLE! This is a real game changer for me! No more stacks of paper for me to keep up with. I just click on the essay and type some comments. I can even leave voice comments! VOICE COMMENTS! This is a #BIGDEAL for me, to say the least.

That is what I have to say about me and technology for this week. I'm trying to grow and get out of my comfort zone, but I'm also looking for that Lawrence Fishburne to come knocking at my door, so let's try to keep things under control. It's all about balance!