Hi everyone!
My name is Vicki Glover. I am a Grade 7 teacher in Surrey, BC, Canada. I’ve been teaching upper intermediate for the last 5 years, and am looking to become admin in the future. Before you boo me, I have a lot of people that will keep me accountable and help me be the best version of admin as I can be. I have faith in myself and my abilities as a leader that I hope I’ll be one of the good ones.
This is my second to last term for the MET program, which means this is class number 7/8 for me. Yes, I do two courses a term. Yes, it’s a challenge. But it’s something I’m up for. And I have a lot of support in my life that help me get through when things are getting tough.
I am actually really excited about this course. I have noticed that when students are given the option of devices in class, they gravitate towards their personal devices. It’s what they know, what they are comfortable with. And obviously, they are tempted by their social media that they just need to check, but once they get that out of the way, they tend to be ready to get to work. This all depends on the group, of course, but this year I’m lucky to have students I can give a little more leeway to. That being said, I would love to learn how to utilize their preferred technology in class so that we can all have the most success.
I hope to implement what I learn in this course to my classroom and general practice. I also look forward to getting to know many of you while we do all this learning.
Cheers!
Vicki
Hi Vicki,
I have noticed the same trend with students using personal devices, although some have trouble self-regulating, so I often call phones “tools of mass distraction”. That being said, I am also a firm believer in natural consequences, and have structured my class with some free time, 5-10 minutes, and encourage using their phones as tools to help with the subject matter rather than distractions. The only students who tend to have home work are those who do not use their class time effectively.