A Look in the Mirror

Over the past eight weeks I have grown significantly in my technology skills as a professional. I have created this blog, participated in a wiki, and published my first podcast. In doing so, I have become more familiar and comfortable with these forms of technology. The idea of using them in my classroom with my students is not as mystifying as it was before. I have also begun to check professional blogs regularly through the use of a wonderful time saver, the RSS Feed aggregator. I am now able to visit with a larger community of like-minded individuals with whom I am able to share and learn.

The articles I have recently read have brought me to a better understanding of how to prepare my students for the 21st century. I understand that I need to match my teaching methods to the emerging learning styles brought about by the influences of technology in our world. Technology, and the skills needed to work with it are becoming an integral part of our students’ lives outside of school. It is imperative then to extend that technology usage into their educational lives. Marc Prensky brings up many good points about how students today think and approach learning in very different ways than in the past. Yet our educational institutions still remain tied to traditional instructional methods (2001). It will be up to creative and innovative educators to lead the way towards more effective instruction that meet the needs of our “digital natives”.

Along with this idea, the modern educator needs to change from teacher-centered instruction to student-centered instruction. Being an art teacher, I have always allowed for creativity with in my lessons. In doing so, I know that means the direction a project can go towards is sometimes unpredictable. As I have allowed more creative freedom in my classroom, I have noticed a drop in behavior problems and an increase in enduring understanding of my content standards. I affectionately term my class as, “controlled chaos”, it always has a purpose and even though they may all go about it in a different way, my students find their path to understanding the ideas we are studying. I love learning beside my students. Every day is a new challenge and teaching is truly fun.

I enjoy a challenge and every year I set goals for myself so that I am always learning. As I continue to pursue my goal of increasing the usage of technology in the art classroom, I hope to continually grow in my knowledge of even more and better ways to increase the achievement of my students. First, I anticipate that each of my remaining graduate course will provide me with more knowledge and skills in using technology, Second, I foresee myself taking regular classes and attending conferences that will further my professional development in technology use. Last and most importantly, I already see myself emerging as a leader in technology use in my school and district. Just this week, I found myself sharing some articles and web sites with our district technology director. He and the technology department are beginning to write our district’s technology curriculum and I want to have an influence in the direction it takes. Although he did not admit it, I know that he found my information very useful. I noticed that he passed it on to the “powers that be” (assistant superintendants). I don’t care if I get credit, I just hope it will eventually influence the direction my district follows in regards to technology.

To conclude, I will leave you with two specific goals I have decided to accomplish in the next two years. My hope is that by proclaiming them here to the world, I will be motivated to do whatever it takes to accomplish them. First goal seems simple enough but it has its own challenges. I want to set up blog sites for both my fourth and fifth grade classes so they keep and maintain a digital portfolio with written comments. The two challenges I face are teaching myself how to efficiently manage it and convincing my district to unblock access to blogs from our school network. I hope that over the next few courses in my graduate studies, I will become more familiar with ways to manage technology in the classroom. If not, that I plan to network with other art teachers who are currently using electronic portfolios and learn from them. Convincing the district to unblock the site will come from me demonstrating the importance of this experience for increasing student achievement. I believe I have already begun to lay the groundwork to be able to influence the direction technology takes in the district. It may take some time and some “smoozing”, but in the end, I feel it will happen. My second goal is a little ambitious but like I said, I like a challenge. I want to be teaching an elementary Digital Art class in two years. I have seen in neighboring districts the existence of two art classrooms in a school, the fine art classroom and the digital art classroom. The digital art classroom was basically a computer lab set up for students to create projects using technology. The brick wall I am up against in achieving this goal is our quickly disappearing budget. I understand it is hard to justify the expense of such a program when you are laying-off teachers left and right just so you can pay the bills. It may be impossible to accomplish this goal during these economic times but I do plan to lay the foundation for the idea. I hope to locate a grant opportunity that may end up being exactly what is needed. Also I will try to keep abreast of my district plans for any “theme schools”. A digital art classroom would fit perfectly in a technology theme school.

Whichever direction my future leads me I know that I need to continue in the pursuit of my goals and to always reflect on my instructional performance. I must continue to use and improve my strengths and keep aware of my weaknesses so that I may focus on the opportunities they provide for growth.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants, part II: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6).