New Technology

I was helping a 3rd grade student at an after school program the other day and she said she needed to go to the computer lab to make a powerpoint presentation. I was a little blown away that a 3rd grader would have to make a powerpoint presentation in one of her classes but it was not stretching my mind too far. We started working and she dowloaded a sound clip from her e-mail that she pulled up and added it to her powerpoint. That is when I was trully baffled. I had no idea what to think. I then proceded to ask her how she did it and she went step-by-step with me of how she learned to put sound clips in her powerpoint presentations. When I was in third grade, hunt and peck was definitely around and powerpoint, internet, or e-mail was no where in sight. She has successfully mastered all three of them. I do not even know why I went in the computer lab to help her because she was the one teaching me! Anyway, I wanted to tell you that story to let you see how much technology has changed since I was in school. It is really amazing the programs children are learning at such an early age now. I went in one school where first graders were learning how to type poems on Microsoft Word. Students are learning more about the internet, and ways to navigate it than ever before. There are now SmartBoards in classrooms where projectors used to be. Now teachers can be thousands of miles apart from their students and still teach over the internet. There are so many things that are changing that I can not keep up with them. If i had all of those technologies when I was in primary school, I can not fathom where I would be now. If this is how far we have reached in ten years, then I can not imagine how much more the technology is going to grow in the next few years.

Do I have to go to school?

There is at least a little something you can do for parents who do no help their children with homework. I would come before school or stay after school with the children to make sure they understand the concepts I am teaching in class. But, what do you do with a parent that does not make their child come to school, or lets them leave school for a haircut or just to go home? This particular child misses about one day a week from school. After talking with her mother it doesn’t seem as if it is a problem to her. Her grades are not suffering. She just does not want to come to school because it is boring for her. She asks her mother if she can stay home, and she says “yes”. For instance, at the end of the school year last year, this girl did not want to go to school for the last week in school because she said they would not be doing anything. Her mother let her stay home for a week. It has gotten to the point where she is keeping count of the days she goes to school so she will have enough days to move on the next grade. Truancy charges obviously do not threaten her. How do you convince a parent that it is important for their child to go to school to learn? When she arrives at college and sees that if she does not go to class, her grade drops or she does not pass the class, then it might be evident that going to school is important. Nothing anyone says has been able to convince this parent that school attendance is important. It has gotten so bad that other students are noticing and not wanting to come to school either. “If ******* does not have to come to school, why should I?” I do not know what else to tell her or her mother. If you have any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated.

Horror Story

A few weeks ago I made a trip to a school about 30 minutes away for to go observe in a 3rd grade classroom. I already knew upon arriving that this particular school was going to be very small because the town was made up of around 12,000 people. I went in very optimistic. That was definitely no the way I came out. The building was in very good condition and was built only about three years ago because their last school burned to the ground. The actual school was not the problem. The sad thing is that the teacher ended up to be the horror story I came back with. One of my colleagues and I were very excited when we came to “Ms. Good’s” classroom. We walked in and there were only five students in there. I knew the school was small but I did not realize it was that small. Anyway, I saw Ms. Good in the corner of the room and half expected her to invite us in to her classroom. She said “I didn’t know yall’d be coming till about five minutes ago.” My colleague and I walked in and went to the table Ms. Good was sitting. She did not even stand up to welcome us or introduce herself. I gathered her name from the name plate on the door. We told her how glad we were to be here and were wondering if she would give us a list of the children’s names so we can make nametags for them to know their names better. We realized we needed the names written down after we heard the students calling each other’s names. I had no idea how their names were spelled. She replied “I would get up and get you a list, but that’s just how lazy I am.” My jaw dropped and I was baffled. We asked if we could talk to her for a couple of minutes to have some information on her classroom and students. She told her five students to go play games on the computer (as they were doing when we arrived). It was horrendous. The room was in complete disarray. The desks were in no particular formation, there were cubby holes on one wall that were packed so full you could not fit another piece of paper in them, and we had to tip-toe just to be able to walk around. You can imagine that the interview did not get any better. I came out of there completely shocked because I did not know there were teachers like her that existed in the world. It made me completely grateful for the school system in Auburn. If I were her, I would have been delighted to only have five students to concentrate on and give more undivided attention to. She did not see it that way. She saw having only five students as a waste because there were only five instead of fifteen or twenty? Why only teach to five students? I absolutely could not believe it. This was definitely a learning experience and made me see why some students do fall through the cracks when they come from teachers as Ms. Good. I felt horrible for those students. That particular day I learned definitely was teaching was not and by meeting her, it made me more fired up about teaching than ever.

Autonomy

When do children decide for themselves that homework and studying are both important parts of school and they should do it without being told? When do students decide that they have to study to be able to do well on a test? When do students decide that doing well in school sets the tone and helps them excel for the rest of their life? When does the light bulb go off where children decide to be more independent when it comes to their education or any other aspects of their life? I was speaking with a group of teachers the other day and we were discussing this very issue. Students now would rather watch TV and play video games rather than do well in school. I remember back when I was in school and I do not ever remember my parents having to tell me to go to my room and study for a test of to go do my homework. I always wanted to do those things to make myself better. Why have some students lost their self-motivation? Why do they not want to better themselves? It is beyond me and I wish I knew the answer. I wish there was something teachers could do to light this fire under students to make then desire to read and desire to do well in class and try to succeed. I am not talking about all students because some did receive this trait as most teachers did when they were younger. I am talking about the other students who do not seem to care if they succeed or not. If there is something you know of they will encourage students to want to do some of these things for themselves, please let me know. Until then I will keep encouraging my students to study and work hard for themselves.

Graduate School or not?

Should teachers, as soon as they graduate from their prestigious institution, go back to school for their master's degree right away, wait a few years and then go back, or do not strive for it at all? Or should you go for your master's while you are teaching? This is the particular delimma I am facing. There are so many different possiblities that I am having trouble deciding what I should do! From many professors I have definitely heard both sides of the coin on whether to wait or go for your master's right away. Every teacher definitely seems to have a very strong opinion concerning timelyness of graduate school. Here are the opinions I have weighed:

- Immediately go get my Master's:
- I would be more educated and more specialized to benefit my students.
- Higher pay scale
- Less likely to aquire a job during this hard economy.

- Teach for a few years and then go back:
-I would experience that might be helpful during grad school.
- Since I would be used to the steady income with teaching, it might be hard to give that up
and go back to school.
- I believe I would have a better chance of being hired back with experience than without.

- Master's while teaching:
- It would take longer to achieve master's.
- Challenging when first time teacher.

One professor made the point of saying "not too many school systems want to pay $6,000 more a year for a teacher who does not have any experience." I can see his point. Also, I do believe teaching experience would help when having success in graduate school. But on the other hand, I believe I would like to finish school completely and then start teaching. This is the particular delimma that has been troubling me for many months. Any suggestions would be very helpful! Thanks!