Assisting Technology.

1.) The station I was in contained a tube, a ruler, and a dot. These were used to in place of a mouse. The user is to blow into the tube to click and sip air out of the tube to right-click. The dot moves the cursor. The reason for the ruler is to hold the dot. However, the dot may be put directly on one's forehead or cheek if necessary.

This was a good technology for someone either with limited use of their hands (loss of an arm, injury, arthritis, etc.) or limited motor skills.

2.) Another interesting piece of technology was the large color-coded keyboard. This could be used for people with very wide ranges of motion, people who are learning to read and write, and early childhood learners. The keys are color-coded into vowels, consonants, letters and numbers.

3.) Equally interesting was the small keyboard. This keyboard had less keys with more functions per key. This could be used for people with limited ranges of motion or people with small hands.

Processing Ideas

This article basically talks about incorporating different ways of using word processing technology. The authors present good information, but the article left much to be desired. The two main examples of using word-processing technology given here were newsletters and posters. These are both good assignments to give young people. However, I feel that the authors weren't convincing enough to sell the idea that these things should be a staple in my classroom. These ideas have a lot of potential, however, the authors do not tell me how to use these items to better engage kids and raise their achievement. The main focus seems to be the fact that these are alternative ways to meet certain standards. This is also important, because as public school teachers we must connect whatever creative assignment we do with the state standards. However, I was looking forward to finding out how such alternative methods would excite my students. I was disappointed in this respect. I think that something like a newsletter could be used effectively to engage students, but engaging students must be it's primary goal. If students are allowed to put there own personalities and interests in such documents as well as learn course material, they will greatly benefit.

Data Driven Teachers

As a person who doesn't usually like to work with numbers or statistics, the Data Driven method is a bit intimidating. However, I think that I will end up using it to my advantage. It can really help me see patterns in the performances of individual students so that I can better tailor my instruction to them. By seeing student strength and weakness in certain areas, I can assess were I can make the strengths stronger and bring the weaknesses up to par. I can also measure progress throughout the year so that I can see whether or not my influence is helping. I would drive myself crazy if I became all about data and statistics, but it will make me more well-rounded and it will provide concrete evidence of things not easily assessed otherwise.

Engage Me or Enrage Me

I absolutely LOVED this article. I identify with what the author is saying because I have worked a non-profit agency wherein I taught in after school and summer programs. As a person who has worked with kids for the past three years and has taught curriculum for the past two, I immediately agreed with the "three kinds of students" described in the beginning of the reading. When I was in grade school, I was the "number 2" type of student who went through the motions because it was what I had to do. Most of the students I have taught over the past two years have been the "number 3" type. They demand to be engaged immediately upon entering the class and expect to be continuously engaged throughout the entire period. The moment they are not engaged, they will exhibit all types of negative behavior. The task of engaging these students is seemingly impossible sometimes.

The article provided great insights on why it has been hard for me to engage them. He points to the fact that they have all kinds of gadgets and gizmos that they bring to school, and that they find those things more interesting than what a teacher has to say. Also, they perform tasks in video games and Pokemon/Yugiyo cards that are really hard, and they enjoy doing so. Therefore the "old style" no longer works because kids these days have more things in their daily lives which are constantly engaging them. Often, I feel as though I work extremely hard to prepare special lessons, bring props, make the material relevant, and be exciting in my delivery of information all to be shut down by my students. There are two exerpts in the reading that jump out of the screen at me with regard to this. "In my view, it's not about 'relevence' that's lacking for this generation, it's engagement. What's the relevence of Pokemon, or Yu-Gi-Oh, or American Idol? (p. 3)" This struck me, because I was always of the belief that if you make material relevant to the students' lives, then they will pay attention and want to learn. However, I have had instances where I taught very relevant things to students with little success. The other sentence that stood out was in the very next paragraph where the author writes: "The fact is that even if you are the most engaging old-style teacher in the world, you are not going to capture most of our students the old way." This is so true because felt like all the efforts I made would have really engaged me when I was my students' age. However, most of my lessons were just engaging in the old way.

With that being said, however, it is a challenge in inner-city schools which may not have access to certain technologies. I know that in the programs I have worked in, we were lucky to get enough "traditional school supplies" for all our students let alone 21st century technology. Therefore, how do we engage students in environments such as these?

Classrooms in the 21st Century

The 21st Century learner is much different than those of the past. Attention spans for sitting through long lectures are nonexistent. The young people of today are used to watching music videos which switch frames every second, as well as playing face-paced video and computer games. It is not the kids' fault that they have a hard time sitting down and shutting up for an entire 45 minute class period while some teacher rambles on about something seemingly insignificant to their lives. It is our job as teachers to reach students where they are in order to get them to meet the desired goals and learning objectives. We must make material relevant in terms of content and the way in which we teach. If this is not done, we run the risk of alienating our students. When we do this, students react in various ways including: withdrawal, violence, disrupting, and avoidance.