Recently, a laptop cart was unearthed from the dark, mysterious depths of the farthest corner of the media center at my school. The laptops came out of nowhere; I was shocked, especially because I thought such a find would spark excitement and chatter amongst teachers and fighting to be the first to reach the sign-up sheet. This wasn't the case. The only reason I found out about their existence is because I saw one of the security guards pushing the cart around and I inquired about his cargo. For a school where the only available computer lab houses three rows of slow, outdated, incredibly unreliable computers, a laptop cart filled with a fairly new set of sleek HP computers changes everything (well, maybe...).
I have been struggling to come up a creative and innovative way of using technology in my classroom for the Tech Teach-In. The discovery of the laptop cart at my school has created a number of possibilities for this lesson that didn't exist before. It will no longer be a hassle and big ordeal for students to have the chance to use computers, and I am hoping that the internet connection will be much more reliable than students are used to in the computer lab. The incorporation of technology in the classroom will be much more fluid. I use Google Presentations frequently to guide and support my lessons, often documenting students' thoughts and questions in the presentation. I have also had students set up Google accounts themselves, not only to use for the purposes of our class, but also to use professionally. At the start of the term, one of the first things I had them do was create a slide in a class Google Presentation about themselves (like Rory had us do in the fall). This was a lengthy process because most of my students are nowhere near proficient at using computers, let alone navigating Google Drive. Familiarizing students with Google Drive is one of my primary learning goals for this term, and because we have already spent a decent amount of time setting up their accounts and using Drive for their slides I am thinking that I want to use Google Drive for my technology teach-in. Though, one other thought that has come up with the laptop cart is to use WordPress to introduce my students to the concept of blogging, particularly as a way for them to stay involved in the reading we do in class.
Within the next two weeks, we will be starting the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Prior to reading the novel, I will be introducing the pattern of the hero's journey and students will do some work thinking about the characteristics of heroes and what it means to be one. I am thinking that I will utilize the practice students have had creating Google Presentation slides about themselves to create a slide about one of their heroes or a slide depicting their idea of a true hero. Like I asked them to do in the slide they created about themselves, they would describe their idea of a hero using ten words, an image, and a quote that would represent what they think a hero should be. Students would create the slide after we spend some time discussing and unpacking their initial ideas about heroes. We will read at least one article that challenges the idea that heroes must be epic and godly, separate from normal men and women. The presentation slide will be a formative assessment that will serve as evidence of how students' ideas about heroes are beginning to change or become more complicated.
