MY FUTURE WITH TECHNOLOGY
FUTURE UNCERTAIN
By: Lial Miller
22 February 2011
Take no offense, but I am done learning for a while. It took
me 35 years of my life before I decided to go into the teaching field and then
it has been class after class since then. Now I am 45 and sick of school. You
have to understand that I was probably the worst candidate to be a teacher to
begin with, but here I am. I hated high school; it meant nothing to me. I
graduated with a 2.7 GPA only because I had to graduate. I considered my
teachers “Information Parrots” and wondered how many times they repeated the
same subject matter before they burned themselves out. I never listened,
studied, or even tried. I cannot stand the structure of education and this is
one of the reasons I became a teacher; to buck tradition.
As an Art teacher in the Lansing School District, I am subject to what technology is available in each room, or school. This is my sixth year of teaching and only this school year was I given a personal laptop to use for planning, or displays (they also provided a document projector). This is great, but it is also hard since each classroom is set up different. Some teachers have all of the Internet connections buried, or the screens broke. There is something wrong in over half the classes, so why try? Plus, it also takes five to ten minutes to set up my technology and, since I only see each class for one hour per week, a sap on time. By the time I get everything set up, present the lesson and get supplies distributed, it is time to clean up and move on.
Things would be different if I consistently had my own Art Room. I would set the technology available up to my specifications, use my computer and projector to show my students the real world of Art and compliment my lessons with video (or live) demonstrations. I have done this on special occasion and it held the students’ attention for the duration of the presentation (I got to use a Promethean Board). The problem here is that it was in one building and for two classes only. It is hard to properly explain my situation without sounding like I am making excuses, or just complaining about my plight, but it is a reality. What one building has, the others do not. What is available in one classroom is broken or defunct in another. I cannot make 75 different lesson plans just to accommodate 25 classes, based upon availability; it just doesn’t make sense.
Now, in Utopia, I would be implementing this education of mine every chance I had. If I had computers in my Art room, I could teach drawings through PAINT, or photo manipulation through Photoshop. I would love to implement a “Make A Video” lesson through Still-Shot photography (think Claymation). I could even teach video editing. We could upload all of these digital Art formats onto a class, or personal, web page for the whole world to see. The possibilities are as endless as my imagination, so you may as well just say endless.
Believe it or not, I am not the type that likes to be up in front of a class, but I would love to be able to teach my colleagues how to do some of the things I have been taught here in the MAET program. It took me a whole summer just to catch up to what other people knew (CEP 810, 811, 812) and another summer to get ahead (CEP 800, 815, 822). I came into this program computer illiterate (literally – I barely knew how to check my e-mail) and I am going out developing web pages and creating high technology, digital work. Since I have all of this knowledge now, why wouldn’t I help my fellow teachers develop lessons and web pages to promote their classes? I would love to start up an online school newsletter and oversee as I have the students do all the work. Let it be theirs and I would have final say only; like an editor. Although it would take a lot of teaching, the kids I have are already technologically educated and it would be easier than it looks.
Formally, I am done learning. It will be another 10 years before I have to go back into a classroom as a student. When I do go back, it will be for hands-on Art classes, or “Underwater Basket Weaving With Power Tools - 101.” My learning in technology will be On-The-Job. If I get into a school that has the finances to promote technology, I would be up front trying to implement all I could. If I stay where I am at, the fruit will probably whither on the vine, unless I can find resourceful ways to gather the technology to implement into my room(s). Informally, I will be playing with whatever I can get my hands on. Peer learning can be a wonderful thing.
Downloadable Version: /uploads/6/2/9/8/6298896/cep_807_-_future_uncertain_-_22_february_2011.doc
As an Art teacher in the Lansing School District, I am subject to what technology is available in each room, or school. This is my sixth year of teaching and only this school year was I given a personal laptop to use for planning, or displays (they also provided a document projector). This is great, but it is also hard since each classroom is set up different. Some teachers have all of the Internet connections buried, or the screens broke. There is something wrong in over half the classes, so why try? Plus, it also takes five to ten minutes to set up my technology and, since I only see each class for one hour per week, a sap on time. By the time I get everything set up, present the lesson and get supplies distributed, it is time to clean up and move on.
Things would be different if I consistently had my own Art Room. I would set the technology available up to my specifications, use my computer and projector to show my students the real world of Art and compliment my lessons with video (or live) demonstrations. I have done this on special occasion and it held the students’ attention for the duration of the presentation (I got to use a Promethean Board). The problem here is that it was in one building and for two classes only. It is hard to properly explain my situation without sounding like I am making excuses, or just complaining about my plight, but it is a reality. What one building has, the others do not. What is available in one classroom is broken or defunct in another. I cannot make 75 different lesson plans just to accommodate 25 classes, based upon availability; it just doesn’t make sense.
Now, in Utopia, I would be implementing this education of mine every chance I had. If I had computers in my Art room, I could teach drawings through PAINT, or photo manipulation through Photoshop. I would love to implement a “Make A Video” lesson through Still-Shot photography (think Claymation). I could even teach video editing. We could upload all of these digital Art formats onto a class, or personal, web page for the whole world to see. The possibilities are as endless as my imagination, so you may as well just say endless.
Believe it or not, I am not the type that likes to be up in front of a class, but I would love to be able to teach my colleagues how to do some of the things I have been taught here in the MAET program. It took me a whole summer just to catch up to what other people knew (CEP 810, 811, 812) and another summer to get ahead (CEP 800, 815, 822). I came into this program computer illiterate (literally – I barely knew how to check my e-mail) and I am going out developing web pages and creating high technology, digital work. Since I have all of this knowledge now, why wouldn’t I help my fellow teachers develop lessons and web pages to promote their classes? I would love to start up an online school newsletter and oversee as I have the students do all the work. Let it be theirs and I would have final say only; like an editor. Although it would take a lot of teaching, the kids I have are already technologically educated and it would be easier than it looks.
Formally, I am done learning. It will be another 10 years before I have to go back into a classroom as a student. When I do go back, it will be for hands-on Art classes, or “Underwater Basket Weaving With Power Tools - 101.” My learning in technology will be On-The-Job. If I get into a school that has the finances to promote technology, I would be up front trying to implement all I could. If I stay where I am at, the fruit will probably whither on the vine, unless I can find resourceful ways to gather the technology to implement into my room(s). Informally, I will be playing with whatever I can get my hands on. Peer learning can be a wonderful thing.
Downloadable Version: /uploads/6/2/9/8/6298896/cep_807_-_future_uncertain_-_22_february_2011.doc