A Final Reflection

While many of the assignments and the want to generate discussion during class has caused me to play the devil’s advocate, I should probably use this opportunity to objectively write my true thoughts on the information we have covered in class. I will also incorporate thoughts on how I have developed and think differently as to fit the criteria of the assignment.

First, I will address how I have changed throughout the class.

I remember the day my boss told me that my company was going to be switching over to bookless curriculum and smart classrooms. They had struck a deal with Samsung. All 200 plus teachers were handed a tab and told to “get comfortable with it.”

It was as comfortable as a sandpaper condom. Or so I imagine.

The switch was made and all of my lesson plans and wonderfully prepped books became obsolete overnight. For the next year, I would watch teachers crumble under the pressures brought on by the company. In a true Nazi-Germany-esque fashion, representatives of HQ randomly showed up to branches to make sure that the quality of education as well as a positive outlook on the shift was being upheld. Some were fired. Many quit.  All lived in fear. How were we supposed to “uphold” standards for curriculum that was presently standard-less?

This became my first independent experience with the integration of technology into the classroom, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth. Not a lot of research needed to be done to realize that the foundations of this new curriculum were rotten. I heard references of Harvard professors backing particular methodologies; complicated charts and unnecessary language (fake terminology that sounded impressive) became tools for indoctrination; worst of all, nobody knew what we were objectively trying to do, namely the creators of the curriculum. You can imagine as a person whose position required me to not only teach but also guide other teachers that this represented dark times for me and my coworkers. I became known around my branch as a bitter protestor of smart technology in classrooms.

“You used to be so happy…” my boss said to me when I turned in my resignation.

Thus, you can imagine the sort of feeling that came over me when I realized that this entire class was going to be based around incorporating technology into the classroom. There is an entire community of people on the other side of the planet that know me as an avid hater of this very concept.  

However, this class has provided me with a flavor of new literacies that has me understanding its merits, a stark contrast to my previous experience. Specifically, I would like to elaborate on some of my previous posts.

The relationship between Atwell and my classroom experience.

This was one of my favorite readings from the semester that sort of put light on much of the bad teaching I had seen, and also much of the bad teaching I had participated in. It simply showed me that as teachers we need to be aware of more than simply our classroom objectives. This has cause me to use a term that I may or may not have coined: peripheral learning.

While Atwell talked about her experience as a child, and how her parents’ attitude towards it was reflected in their physical response rather than the words they were saying, I take this idea a step further. I think it is not just our attitude towards the learning that entails this peripheral learning, but also the means we use to promote learning that our kids pick up on. It has caused me to question the use of cell phones, or the implementation of TV shows as supplemental tools. This reading gave me the insight to question the efficacy of certain technologies in the classroom. It has forced me to ask questions about the purpose behind the implementation. Not just things like “What are the benefits to replacing a boring short story with a TV show?” but rather “What does replacing a short story with a TV show imply about short stories?”

Finally, how has this class and its contents changed the way I will teach? This to me, the answer to this question lies in the discourse prompted throughout the term and the flexibility of my professor. The feedback from the blogs have been really helpful for me in that I was not only able to respond to them in my own voice, one which is absent of the formalities found in academic writing, but I was encouraged to. As someone who never writes, this provided an opportunity to find my voice. Even as an art teacher, I will be encouraging my own students to maintain a blog. I have been able to see the benefits from the standpoint of an English teacher trying to promote writing, but this could also have promotional benefits to art students. This brings me to my final point.

I would like to say thank you to Professor McEntarfer for her understanding of my situation. I enrolled in this class, one designed around implementing technology into an English class setting, knowing full well that it would probably only vaguely represent the type of teaching I would do as an art teacher. She has allowed me to change many of my projects for the sake of making them more relevant to my vocational interests. In other words, I am learning things that I will actually use rather than fulfilling the requirements of a class. As someone who has paid in full for my education out of pocket, it is invaluable to me. Not as a number on a piece of paper that impresses employers, but as applicable and useful knowledge.

Going back to peripheral learning, I think a lot about the implications of such a gesture. Like the worried look of Atwell’s parents as she paddled in her swimming pool, I think that the lessons I have learned in this course go beyond the simple implementation of new literacies theory.

They say to me “I value your education.”