Jan 13 2010
Section 2 readings
I’ve just finished reading the seven principles of good practice as assigned in this section. I haven’t got to the Bates and Poole reading yet. Maybe it’s just that my day started of with finding my car had been vandalized or maybe it’s just that we are at the end of the semester and the rush is on to get as many students to catch up and get the credit, maybe it’s finding students continually disregard school property as they destroy school computers, bit by bit (because they are old and slow and kids today have little respect for what they don’t own or what is not the latest technology) but… I am not very excited about what I am reading so far.
On a day like this, it all seems irrelevant that I make every effort to ensure that students try new ways to express their work, that differentiated learning and experiential learning are the norm in my class, that feedback comes from me not just in the form of a mark on a test but also in questions on discussion boards and comments about their answers. Never mind that I use the computer to show the latest episode of Dragon’s Den so the class can discuss relevant examples or that I use episodes of The Apprentice to model good (and bad) group dynamics. And I won’t even mention the many, many little chats I have, outside the classroom (sometimes via email) with students about what they are trying to accomplish (either with their good or bad behaviour) and what I am trying to teach them in my own style (respecting curriculum expectations, of course).
On a day like today, when I find myself hurriedly printing off copied notes for them to memorize so they can pass the final (because they didn’t settle down enough to let me teach all the material or the blasted flu caused so many absences), I shake my head and think: “Who cares about technology? They don’t see it as educational, they see it as a way to pass the time until the bell rings and they can get out of there (with the credit, I might add). Gaddddddd!!!!!!!
What I am trying to say is that I think I am missing something here. I feel like I am reaching my students less and less every year. Are the students changing? Am I getting too old? Is the technology in our school outgrown? We all know that a child’s mind is like a sponge. I am delivering the content using as many approaches as I know how, adapting as quickly as I can. Yet I feel as if I don’t know the magic password for them to open their minds to this information. Is it that their minds are too cluttered with the many stimuli they are receiving at any given moment? (Not to mention the effects of teenage hormones.)
Where and what is the key then? I guess I’d better continue my reading.
