A few weeks ago I was asked by Danielle at There's a Book to participate in Share a Story, Shape a Future about technology in my classroom. Despite being addicted to technology at home, I am not able to use loads of technology in my classroom.
Unlike all the pictures in newspapers and magazines would have you believe, not every student at school has a computer. I teach at a AA school (in South Dakota AA is as big as it gets) that is growing at a fast rate. But our school only has ONE computer lab that all of the High School teachers compete for. In my six prep period day five of those preps (or classes I teach) are English 9. And while it would be possible to have each class do something different, it would be a lot more work on my part to remember what I told each class the day before and where each class was. The point of that brief explanation is that it is near impossible for me to find a day that all five of my English 9 classes could get into the computer lab.
An example of how hard it is to get into the lab: A colleague of mine who was trying to plan for her maternity leave substitute last October was unable schedule a lab day for March. And with the supposed 10% Education Cut that the South Dakota Legislature is considering (and voting on this week) there is no way to even ask about getting more computers. This is a fantastic school district with supportive parents and the over all community; you wouldn't know that we are lacking in technology by looking at us.
So do we do a lot of writing? Sadly, no. Do we do a lot of research? Sadly, no. Oh yes, I could have my students write out three pages of content but the fact of the matter is I would never be able to read it. So what do we do in my classroom? We spend a lot of time reading. Reading doesn't require computers and we have an abundance of books in our School/Public library (which I love! It's open until 8 every day except Sunday!). To bring in technology I did have students write reviews of both of their required reads for each quarter on Shelfari. Unfortunately, the students hated it! Surprisingly, the students hate when I try to bring technology into my classroom. I pushed back until Shelfari and Amazon teamed up and I had several parents calling me about their concerns; so I gave in and said they didn't have to do it.
I created a Facebook page for my class and told them that I'd update it every day with reminders of homework and tests and even offer extra credit for answering a question (content related) on FB. I thought it would be a great resource (that's what all the books and sites say) for students to "like" the page and then have the updates posted to their News Feed. I know they all have Facebook on their phones and check it a million times a day. Did it work? No! I have 5 "likes"!
Granted, I have freshmen. A colleague of mine who has an iPad uses it on a daily basis with his juniors and now he has three juniors who went out and bought one. He has since put all of his text into PDF format and are available for download. I am so jealous! If I did that my students would look at me like, "Really, Miss Remmers. You're a nerd." I have no problem being a nerd, but I don't have the time to integrate all this technology into my lessons if the students refuse to utilize it.
I do have a Smart Board and I love it. But I've never been trained properly on how to use it. Right now, it's basically a glorified projection screen. What a waste of resources. Now granted, I'm trying to learn something new everyday — but I feel like there is so much that this board is capable of and I'm not even tipping the surface!
Basically, technology is lacking my classroom for two reasons: time and money. With our standardized tests scores lower than normal teachers are expected to accomplish much more. I have attended three different workshops (all taking me out of the classroom and thus having to prepare for a sub which is extremely tedious), our school has dropped DEAR and have implemented TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) where everyone in the whole school reads the same book before lunch in different classes. The English Department is in charge of finding the book, reading the book before hand, creating power points for teachers to use in the classroom relating to the content. I am in full support of this change, but the fact of the matter is that it's become a whole other class that I have to prepare for. And, the lessons I create for the book that the whole school is reading need to be applicable for 9-12th graders. It's a lot of work on top of looking at our study guide and test questions to "Bloom" them up to challenge the students more and add rigor into the classroom. Plus, you know, teachers have lives too.
Then the money part. I don't even know where to start. Basically the short story: our governor wants to cut Education funds by 10%. With a cut like that people will lose jobs, schools will lose technology (rather than gain it), teachers will be stretched even more thin, and the list goes on. The real long term result of a cut like that will be the degradation of the education for tomorrow's leaders. It's that simple. Teachers aren't super human. We can't do it all. We can't teach to the test so the below basic and basic students can be proficient while adding rigor and challenging the students who "get it" if we don't have the time and the money. And if we can't do that we certainly can't be concerned about technology in the classroom. Yes, I'd like to believe that I can do it all. But when you look at the time of a day, just surviving is hard — much less all these added expectations without the foundation of time and money.
Who knows, maybe this summer I'll be able to conquer it all.
All of these thoughts are my own and not that of my school's administration or the district. I'm simply stating the facts — no matter how grim.