Left Behind

For most of my time in this program, I have been a major tech skeptic.  Actually, I still am a tech skeptic, but something happened that changed things for me.  I had to complete the "Technology in my Placement Survey" for class.  And really, what the survey uncovered about the available technology and uses for it at my placement school, TCEC, was nothing surprising.  Yet I couldn't help feeling pissed off.  It was this weird combination of being angry and shrugging the whole thing off with laughter at the same time, like it was impossible to even imagine TCEC having laptops or Chrome books, Smartboards or digital cameras.  I was taken aback a bit myself that someone so skeptical of the presence and use of technology in the classroom, such as myself, would have such strong and complicated feelings about the overall lack of technology at TCEC.  

Part of this has to do with the fact that tech talk amongst teachers just doesn't happen.  I have yet to even hear "I don't think technology belongs in the classroom" or "I wish I had ____ in my classroom."  But my reaction also has to do with a discussion I had with my peers about the results of their own "Tech in Placement" surveys.  What struck me most about this conversation was not necessarily the amount of technology or even the quality of technology that is available to most of my classmates at their placements - several people talked about the difficulty simply getting access to the available technology - but the ways in which that technology is being used.  Technology like Chrome books, Google Drive, and even PowerPoint are altering teachers' instruction and giving students entirely new ways of interacting with content and creating knowledge.  Even as a tech skeptic, I still find it fascinating to learn what tech savvy teachers are doing in their classrooms with these resources.   

Then I think about TCEC and my students and what they know how to do with what technology is available to them.  And that's when I cringe.  It is not the technology itself, or even the lack of it, but how it is being used, or rather not used, to support student learning.  There is this ever-widening gap that technology is creating between what my students can do and what students at other schools, where technology is being implemented to enhance learning, can do.  Although there is a computer lab at Tri-County, its availability is limited due to the online education program that requires use of that space most hours of the day.  This is not to say that it is impossible to reserve that space, though my mentor teacher has yet to use the computers for a lesson or activity.  Many of my students do not have access to computers at home and are not proficient at using Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.  Where does this leave them in our technology-reliant world?    

It doesn't matter what kind of technology any school has if it is not being used to support student learning.  Teachers need to know how to do this, to be resourceful with what is available.  Despite students' overall lack of access to technology at home, there is one piece of technology that they admit to not being able to let out of their sight - their cell phones.  To have that thing glued to their thumb pads is intuition.  That cannot be ignored.  I never wanted to admit it before, but students resistance to put their cell phones away for an entire class period is not just going to go away.  We need to take advantage of what we have in ways that will benefit students and for those of us at TCEC cell phones may be the best thing we've got right now.       

Who's reading this?

Recently, I've been reading Jim Burke's The English Teacher's Companion for my methods class.  He 
has a chapter titled "How to Teach So Students Will Learn, Use, Remember - and Enjoy!"  In this chapter, Burke quotes Schmoker who "calls for teachers to focus on a 'coherent curriculum, sound lessons, and meaningful opportunities to read and write."  The last part of this quote really struck me, the whole “meaningful opportunities to read and write.”  It is something so seemingly obvious – that English teachers should provide their students with such opportunities – and yet in the majority of my experiences in high school English classrooms, whether as student or observer, these opportunities have been starkly missing.  As strange as it may sound, opportunities to read and write in class aren’t a regular thing.  Most students in English classes are asked to do almost all of their reading and writing outside of class.  Why?  How are they supposed to become better readers and writers?  Though, it is not just about the number of opportunities, but also how meaningful these opportunities are for students.

Just the night before reading the Burke chapter, we had a guest speaker come to our Teaching with Tech class.  Reading the Burke chapter brought to mind the conversation that was generated last night with our guest, David Theune.  Theune, a high school English teacher, talked about his decision to essentially eliminate the use of rubrics in his classes.  In place, he has forged meaningful ties with both the local community and world at large as audiences for his students.  Every time Theune’s students write, they are writing for an audience, and one that isn’t just him.  Sometimes that audience is a friend or family member, other times it is a local non-profit or younger students in the school district.  Community members are invited into his classroom regularly to hear students read their work and he provides students with opportunities to get out of the classroom and share their work out in the community.  He also facilitates book clubs and community reads that are inclusive of all community members.  In sum, Theune is the man and has nailed Burke’s Ten Elements of Effective Instruction.  In particular, by having his students read and write for specific audiences, Theune makes explicit connections between students’ lives, the real world, and Big Ideas.  He also provides meaningful opportunities for students to practice, perfect, and perform all lessons in class and at home.

Without meaningful opportunities to read and write, without audiences to read or write for, what inspiration is there for students to read and write at all?  What motivation is there for students to produce their best work?  Burke also provides meaningful reading and writing opportunities for his students.  In the case of Burke's classroom, the reading and writing is meaningful less because of the audience and more because of its relevance and use in building toward the most difficult task.  He explicitly teaches them strategies for learning, remembering, and doing, one of his elements of effective instruction.  He models note-taking and has students formulate paragraphs from their notes in class - all in preparation for a final essay.

As is evidenced by Theune's classroom and his educational philosophy, the impact of audiences and meaningful opportunities to read and write extends far beyond his immediate students and has the effect of transforming both school and community climate.  Boundaries are crossed when the community is invited into Theune's classroom and when his students go out into their community.  Rather than co-existing as two separate spaces, the school and the outside community interweave and sustain one another - a symbiotic relationship.