Friday 10 February 2012

Adventures in English

Kickin' It Old School

In grey blue dawn of the morning, I drove along with ease among the morning traffic, on my way to work.  When suddenly, in a flash, this red car cuts in front of me and speeds away, forcing me to break out of my serene commute.  At first I was upset and frustrated, how could this person be so inconsiderate, when there wasn't anyone behind me.  When this incident happened a few more times during the week, I realised that people nowadays are so caught up on this fast paced track that our society runs on, that we don't have time to slow down and enjoy the ride.  We move at the speed of new technology, trying to catch the next big wave of electronic devices that are supposed to help make our lives easier.  This pace becomes reflected in how we move through our daily lives, whether it is sprinting down the halls at school, or switching lanes through traffic to be the first one there.  What happens when you are forced to slow down?  What do you see?

Well, I'm no different than anyone else.  For the past 6 months or so, I've felt like I'm frantically grappling my way through 21st Century Teaching, incorporating i-Pads, Document Readers, Projector images; flying by the seat of my pants, in the hopes my students are engaged, or should I say entertained?  The more technology I stumble upon, the more I want to share it with my students.  Almost everyday I feel as though I have this "app" in my head that dings, reminding me to add more technology.  Does hooking up my lap- top to the projector and showing a PowerPoint, or You Tube clip make my lesson better?  Does it make the students learn the concept more easily?

Maybe.  But at what point do we rely on this technology so much that we forget the point of the lesson that needs to be learnt?  At what point does adding technology become "just for the sake of" because it is there and begging to be used?

Last week I spent hours preparing a lesson on poetry terms for my Eng 9 classes.  It was interactive, it had lap- tops and stations galore.  I pre-booked the computer cart and I was ready.  I thought to myself that this was going to be the best lesson I had ever taught.  "Look at me", I said in my head, "I'm brilliant at adding technology".   Then on the day of the lesson, everything crashed.  First off someone else took the computers; turns out there was a communication mishap with the booking.  So I decided to show the whole class my clips through Live Binders, but that failed too, as the wireless in my room dropped unexpectedly. 

Now what?  The class of 30 students awaited my next move.  I took a breath.  I took a deep breath and discovered the whiteboard behind me and a collection of pens.  My "old school" method of teaching poetry terms popped in my mind.  All I needed to TEACH was right in front of me.  I got through the lesson with my positive energy, and "old school tech." In the end the students still learnt the terms, without the fancy sparkle, I initially prepared.

So this is what I learnt.  Technology can be a wonderful tool, but that is all it is; just a tool.  Next time you decide to use technology to teach your lesson, slow down and ask yourself, does the technology enhance the lesson, or are you using it because you feel the "need" to?

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