Conferring with colleagues always provides beneficial. Often times colleagues have a different perspectives and viewpoints tend to shed light on chartered territory. Therefore, I chase two colleagues that I confer with often and felt they would offer good advice.
The first colleague I chose was G . G is a teacher that I communicate with almost daily. He actually thought my idea to incorporate technology was "cool", He feels that students will not only actually benefit from the lesson itself but be able to apply it in now and after high school. After sharing my dilemmas, with actual lesson he encourage me to try despite of the lack of resources. He applauded my will and tenacity < He also recognizes that I continually make an effort to explore new avenues for my students. He believes that I am a great teacher perhaps even a master teacher.
The second colleague I shared my goals for the lesson as well as the dilemmas. Unfortunately, I was met with a lot of opposition. In a way I was surprised by the responses, but for some strange reason I actually wasn't. The teacher spoke a lot about the students and what they are incapable of more so than the dilemmas I presented. The teacher felt that nothing I try will make a difference if the students aren't willing to learn. The teacher feels that the lack of interest and student motivation will cause the lesson to be a flop. The teacher referred to the students as microwave babies and blamed social media and reality TV as our competitors. She feels that until there is a change in the system, we will never be able to impact students
Moving forward, although, both colleagues perspectives were totally different. I am glad that I chose to increase my knowledge in order to benefit my students. Despite, the politics and lack of resources I will strive to continue to educate at all costs. Hence, I chose my senior level class to act as my focus group. I though utilizing the senior class would be a great idea simply because they are about to expound upon a new way of life. Whether that life be in a collegiate or career setting is of course their choice but technology is sure to be present either way. Therefore, I introduced my students to google classroom as well as the creation of their own weebly pages. After the introduction of both lessons I had students to write a brief reflection on the incorporation of technology into the classroom as well as my implementation. The consensus was all students liked the fact they had been exposed to technology in this manner because they hadn't before. However, some expressed fear, and a a sense of feeling overwhelmed with the thought of just using technology. Moreover, to my surprise, there were a few students who don't like using technology at all. How could that be in this day and age? I wonder. Moving forward, students had mixed reviews about weebly. Unfortunately, some of them don't have smart phones and weren't privy to accessing at home, which of course limits accessibility. On the flip side 100% of the students loved google classroom. They even suggested that I should have implemented usage in the beginning of the school year. They really like the fact , that google classroom is readily available as a resource. They felt it helps them monitor and track their assignments.
Needless to say, I am partially pleased with the results and students' work thus far. However, I feel that I am simply scratching the surface and I would love to do so much more. Unfortunately, with few resources its a seemingly daunting task. Oh how I envy my classmates and the things they are able to accomplish simply because they have technology at their fingertips.