Links to Mock Contract/Letter to Parents:
Contract:
Letter Home to Parents:
Technology is always changing and innovating, and with these consistent advancements, schools across the country will also have to adapt to foster well-rounded, career/college-ready students. In order to emphasize the importance of making these advancements, and ensuring that students and parents understand the necessity of these changes, our class was split into small groups of up and coming teachers grouped by content areas (I am in the Mathematics/Science content group) and asked to create a scenario where a school is implementing a new, school-wide technology to each student. Our group chose to have each student receive an iPad. We then developed a letter home to parents describing why we were distributing iPads to each student, some concerns that parents may have and addressing them, and, finally, express what exactly the implementation of the iPads will mean for the curriculum. We also created a corresponding student/parent contract in which we expressed some basic concerns and dsitractions that often occur when using iPads. Both of these documents are tagged above.
Mission Statement Applicable to this Assignment:
Our graduates are change agents committed to social justice and sustainability.
They provide students with personalized learning opportunities in an environment that
They provide students with personalized learning opportunities in an environment that
promotes cultural responsiveness, critical consciousness, and equity for all. They
facilitate projects that engage their students in finding solutions to community-based
problems and global issues.
Tagged PCs:
Performance Criterion 10.1: Candidates are prepared to collaborate with stakeholders (such as learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, or community members) to ensure student learning.
This assignment shows a real-world application of the mission statement listed above. Major, impacting, and frequent technological advancements have become an ever-increasing reality in today’s society. Equipping students with essential technological skills, as well as exposing students to various forms of technology is becoming an important role of schools to foster culturally responsive students who have a critical consciousness as to how to use and apply various technologies throughout their social and educational careers. Also, connecting back to the PC stated above, this assignment also helps us as up and coming teachers to begin to use professional language to communicate with members of the community whether that be the entire student body, or the parents of the students. As an effect of this technology implementation and clear communication as to its goals and aims, students will overall become more well-rounded, critically conscious individuals.
Technology in the classroom has already changed so much since I have left high school. Today, almost every student from kindergarten to high school have some form of technology that accompanies them in every class they are in and aids them in most of their assignments. This brings up some concerns for both teachers and parents. I am worried that it is going to be a challenge to juggle technology with other forms of learning. Many schools are forcing teachers to implement more technology into their classrooms, but to some extents that it is distracting teachers and students from their understanding and learning. Thus, it will be difficult to juggle the curriculum with technology implementation. Thus, collaboration and an open dialogue with other teachers and faculty will be essential to effective instruction. There is also so many useful technological tools to use in classrooms today, finding effective ones for students that genuinely enhance their skills and prepare them for the real-world will be overwhelming and challenging. It is important to remember that technology in the classroom is a tool, but should not overpower the learning.
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