Social Justice for Today's Learners

I think that using technology in the classroom is still feasible but it requires some flexibility in the part of the teacher. Teachers who use technology in the classroom, and require the students to complete assignments via technological pathways, will have to realize that not everyone has a computer or internet in their home. The glory of today’s schools is that many, if not most, have computers available within the school for students to use. This allows the students to complete assignments at school if they do not have access to them at home.

However, while students can use school computers there may be some extenuating circumstances when it comes to assignment completion and computer access. You, as the teacher, may be required to be present before or after school to allow students the access that they need to complete your assignments. This means spending less time at home and requires more of a commitment to the use of technology than you might have if you worked in a higher socioeconomic school district. Also, teacher would have to realize that due dates for assignments might have to be skewed as students that have the ability to type up their papers at home over the weekend have a distinct advantage over those that can only use the school computers. This is something to be cognizant of when deciding on whether or not to use technology in the classroom.

I think it might be a disservice to not use technology in the classroom simply because we now live in a technological world. Everything we do is seemingly technologically based and the advances in technology are only making this more and more clear. If a few students out of an entire class do not have access to technology it would be more logical to either provide them with access through the school or give them a supplemental assignment that does not require technology. I think that using no technology in our current society would be a disservice to the students because we would not be providing them with the best possible options to learn in some cases.

How will I increase access to disadvantage students? I would be willing to meet students before school or after school. I would also be willing to hold a weekend session once a month at a library or computer café (if those still exist). It would also be feasible to provide the students a class period during which they could work on the assignment at school. I think that these options would fluctuate based on the need of the students and I could come up with other ideas too if none of these happened to work for a given student.

PowerPoint Presentations

I thought Keri’s video was very entertaining even though I had no idea what they were talking about sometimes. She used a lot of very colorful and interesting pictures as well. Brandon’s music lesson was engaging and informative as he explained a somewhat confusing topic in a simple way. Matt provided some great background information about the Boston Massacre, something I had heard about but knew little about. James’s video was an absolutely AWESOME way to explain algebra! I loved Hayley’s explanation of improv and theater. The use of Jeopardy was a great idea in Steven’s presentation as it made geometry more fun. Kevin’s Civil War lesson was very informative and detailed. Zach’s laser presentation was pretty amazing. I think he made a difficult topic interesting, informative, and super fun. Jayne did a nice job explaining cell structure. Liz’s supporting materials (i.e. her mitosis song and video) made the lesson more fun than it would have been if it had been a simple lecture.

As far as the scientific classifications go, I thought the classifications now start with Domain and then go into Kingdom. Also, there was mentioned that there were now seven classifications but there were only six listed. Maybe I just missed something there. I wasn’t sure how all the pictures were relevant in some of the presentations. If they are used solely for entertainment they can end up being distracting. Many lessons were well put together but some felt rushed and maybe too detailed for the amount of time provided.

I would definitely make sure that my little sound clips actually worked. It was lame that other people embedded them and I could not remember/figure out how to do that at home. I would also try and make my presentation more engaging for the class as I don’t think I related my topic to them as much as other people did in their presentations. I could have designed an activity for the class to coincide with my lesson plan.

PowerPoints are useful but can be boring even with fun pictures and videos, especially when the lights are turned down. PowerPoints can help students who are visual learners. Not all students learn from lectures so having visual aids can be very important. However, I think many teachers use the slides as a place to keep their notes and then they simply read off of them. They can be boring and students can end up finding them redundant. Unless someone designs them in an interesting and fun manner they become somewhat pointless in trying to make a lesson more engaging than a straight lecture.