Blog 3

This year I was lucky enough to be assigned five ninth grade classes. Not one, not two, but five! This is my first year teaching ninth grade, for the last couple of years I have taught tenth grade, tenth grade was tough but I had no idea how difficult ninth grade would be. The peace and quiet that comes with the first days of school was quickly gone. After a couple of weeks of being scared of the high school world, my pleasant, quiet, compliant, students turned into technology monsters. I quickly realized that what I had was babies masquerading as ninth graders, it was worse, these babies came with electronic devices. I-pods, cell phones, PSP, MP3, side kicks, flat screens, you name it, if it’s electronic and portable they have it!!!

The tenth graders I had in previous years were not nearly as electronic savvy as these current students. Sure there was always the inevitable cell phone going off in the classroom, or a student secretly texting under the desk, but I had never experienced a room full of students that seem to be permanently attached to portable electronic devices. After participating in the last couple of chats with the class I noticed that one recurring topic seems to be the link between knowledge of technology and age. A couple of classmates have mentioned that as technology progresses, it becomes more accessible and this leads to younger and younger students being more knowledgeable about the tech world. Now I clearly see the connection between this theory and my own students. I am still awfully shocked as to how much difference a year makes. It is surprising how much more these students know about cell phone applications, converting files and even skype, than my previous classes. This does speak to the strong correlation that exists between age and technology. As our world becomes immersed in technology, the average age for how familiar a person is with computers seems to be lower and lower.

While it is wonderful that my ninth graders know so much, it is not wonderful that they seem to have no control over their obsession to checking their comments on myspace, or trading ipods during class time. True, they are coming from middle school and are new to the world of rules and expectations during class time; still I have made it very clear that electronic devices are prohibited in class. But even my threat, “If I see it, its mine”; doesn’t seem to be working so well. There are many days when I think to myself, “If I hear another student “accidentally” sharing his or her Lady Gaga or 50 Cent with the entire class because they were trying to adjust the volume to their ipods, even though they were not supposed to have them out in the first place, I will have a meltdown!”

It is not enough that these ninth grade babies, whine, and complain about all the work, cannot control their talking, but they truly believe that updating their status and mood on myspace is more important than homework. Besides the fact that these portable electronic devices for the most part interfere with their attention span while in class, I am also worried about what this means or says about the students and their ability to compose essays, or conduct academic research. While in fact they are knowledgeable about all these gadgets, all of their attention seems to be focused on social networking or music, completely disregarding the academic aspects. My ninth graders know all about sending forwarded texts, but know nothing about MLA formatting or compiling a bibliography.

The past couple of weeks have been draining. My students are still having trouble transitioning into high school, remembering the classroom rules, and the importance of homework. I am still trying to understand where they are coming from as far as their obsession with electronic portable devices. They are 13 or 14, they have no real sense of self control, they are learning about high school, and they are MY students. I have to teach them English and learn how do deal with their strong connection to technology. Perhaps this means incorporating their devices into the class for an assignment or two, I am not entirely sure how or when or even if this will work. What I do know is that we have to work at this together. After a conversation with a colleague that teaches seniors, I have also began thinking that every grade level is different. While tenth graders were more responsible and prepared, ninth graders will undoubtedly need more guidance, instructions and review time. For my students and me this means having to review classroom rules every other week because “Freddy” keeps throwing spitballs, but that is ok, we are slowly making progress.

Blog 2

When I was a child my sisters and I would literally sit at the door waiting for my dad to come home from work every afternoon. Dad would walk in, greet us, “Hi girls”, and go straight to the kitchen and wash his hands. My sisters and I would watch him eat dinner as my mother shared the neighborhood gossip. After dinner my father would go outside, cigarette in one hand and Spanish newspaper, ‘La Opinión’ in the other. Dad would sit as we watched him disappear behind the gray newspaper, skimming through the headlines but devouring the sports section. These events unfolded day by day, I grew up watching my father come home tired and weary from a hard day’s work, but never skipping his daily reading routine. While he was at work mom often wrote letters to her sisters and family, they lived out of state. Mom would also tell us stories about her and dad writing letters to one another while they were dating. She would write often, he not so often, but she nonetheless told about her anxiety at waiting for the mail to arrive. On a good month he would write at least once a week, she told my sisters and I about her frustrations while choosing the “right words” when responding to his letters. She cared, but he didn’t need to know how much. Yes, she liked his family very much, but she would prefer if once they married they had their own home. Listening to my mom’s stories about her younger years and her letter writing habits with dad, and watching him read the newspaper every evening are my first recollections with literacy.

Having no formal education beyond the high school level my parents always instilled in us the belief and value of an education. My parents were always involved in our school work, attending parent conferences, taking us to the public library and keeping track of our grades and progress. My parents provided us with trips to the public library and books; we didn’t have a computer at home until my older sister started high school.

My first encounter with a computer occurred when I was in grade school, fourth grade. I remember going to the computer lab, my classmates and I were instructed to pay attention and wait for instructions. The computers were large, white, the screen was dark, the letters green. Computer lab time was only once a week and all we were allowed to do was play a game that involved adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Though my memory is a bit unclear I do remember that the purpose of this game was to save some fuzzy animal or fruitlike character from exploding by providing the correct math answer. I didn’t really enjoy computer lab time in grade school.

Though my grades were always superb, my favorite subject in school was always reading. In middle school I developed an obsession for reading and improving my reading level. The Accelerated Reader Program was a part of my school’s curriculum; this program involved a lot of computer usage. We were initially given a reading assessment, assigned a reading level and encouraged to read books at our reading level. After reading a book, we were to take a test that would determine how many more books we needed to read before moving up the next reading level. I believe that this was my first clear memory of using computers on a nearly daily basis, this because I would read so many book that I always needed to take a test.

All of these assessments and tests involved loging in with your name and password, reading the passage, the multiple choice questions and clicking on the correct answer. Though I enjoyed this program and computer class in the seventh grade, I think that I still preferred reading to any other subject in school. Computer class in seventh grade provided me with typing skills as well as more knowledge and greater exposure to technology such as Word Processor and the Web. This was interesting and all, but I think that my love for books prevented me from igniting a true spark of interest for computers. High school brought more “Computer Classes”, greater knowledge about the Web, and research possibilities as well as more comfort with typing and working on a computer.

I think that my high school friends and their enthusiasm for what great fashion, music, or movie star websites they had discovered created in me a greater desire to spend more time with the computer my family had at home. The more time I spent with it, the more I saw it as a valuable tool especially for school. Still, my love and preference for books continued to grow beyond this new trend that had completely fascinated my friends. While they spent countless hours a week in front of one, I spent maybe three or four. So while I developed a closer relationship with the computer, I think that I was in college when I finally felt truly comfortable and knowledgeable about this technology.

I’m not sure why it took me so long to feel genuinely acquainted with a computer, but I think it may have something to do with my love for books. I enjoy sitting in front of a book for hours, I do not particularly enjoy sitting in front of a computer for longer than I need to. Though it has become indispensable as a part of my teaching career I always try to limit my computer usage to completing necessary tasks. I know how easily hours can be consumed in front of a computer. Grading, paying bills, research, email, and homework are ok, and are done on a frequent basis.

Recently I discovered that my students responded positively at having the vocabulary presented through a power point presentation. It was wonderful to have a class full of ninth grade students sit quietly as they attentively copied the vocabulary and notes being projected. Their feedback has inspired me to try to integrate more technology based activities into the lessons. My students’ early experiences with computers are definitely different than my experiences with the silly math game that I played in the fourth grade, which is why I feel they are highly prepared to work with the new computer technology that is immersing every aspect of our world.

Blog 1

After having a very lively discussion with my fellow classmates about the importance of integrating technology into our own classrooms many ideas came to me. The very first is that for the most part a majority of the educators I know are in favor of an education that integrates and embraces technology or different aspects of technology. I believe that this desire stems from an urge to keep up with our ever evolving world, but also as educators we often seek to enrich our students learning experiences with real world applications.

Technology keeps evolving and with it, inevitable change, whether it is the way we communicate or what devices we use in our daily lives. This presents us with multiple opportunities to want to learn and teach our students curriculum or lessons that have technology embedded within. We feel that this will help our students keep up to date with the changes and advances that occur on a daily basis. At the same time we want students to learn through lessons that they will find truly valuable not only because these involve the usage of a computer. So in essence we all seem to want the same thing, we want to use computers and technology in the classroom.

When facing this challenge we also face other dilemmas. First, where do we get the resources we need? Second, how do we create relevant lessons that aptly integrate the use of technology into the different content areas? As a high school teacher in South Central Los Angeles I know firsthand what it is like to lack basic resources such as textbooks, library books and of course computers. During the class chat I discovered that a couple of my classmates also teach in the inner city and they also know what it is like to want to integrate technology into the classroom. Teachers in the inner city are told of the supposed “money for technology” that is poured into our schools yet have nothing but outdated or broken computers to show for it. This makes it frustrating and disheartening, especially when we want our students to have the same resources and access to facilities that students from other more affluent areas have always had.

As the discussion of resources continued, a second question seemed to prevail, how do we successfully integrate technology into the curriculum? Apparently there are many resources, ideas, websites, and lesson plans that have been put to use by other educators, but still there is no clear consensus about the type and purpose of technology when applied in a classroom setting. Some uses that were discussed were research techniques, typing projects, and even creative writing through text messaging. Personally I think that differences in opinion on this topic vary according to a teacher’s own experience with technology and his or her apprehensions or beliefs in technology. If a teacher’s computer and technology skills are highly advanced then he or she may feel more comfortable and confident in wanting to integrate different aspects into the curriculum.

As educators our primary goal is to teach our content area, but there is no reason why we cannot do this as we simultaneously integrate technology into the curriculum. Though there are many questions and issues that arise when this topic is discussed, the goal is common. We are all aware that students would benefit from advancing technological skills especially computer knowledge and usage. One thing that I realized at the end of the discussion is that if teachers really want to make this a reality, we must face the challenges one at a time, otherwise we may become overwhelmed with a deluge of issues that stem from an area of constant change, technology.