Technology Integration: The Frustrations and the Benefits

Student teaching in one of the best school districts in York County has been a great blessing for me. At Central York, the students are fortunate enough to be on a 1:1 program. My 10th graders have iPads, which we integrate into almost every lesson.

When using technology, I have learned that the goal is to make sure the use is purposeful and authentic. Too many times we use technology for the sake of "using technology." When we do this, our students are not able to see the benefit the platform provides us. 

Today, my students were completing a list-group-label activity with the essential question: What can you tell me about Asian culture?

Five minutes passed by as the students collaborated on listing ideas. Another five passed as they then grouped and labeled the different ideas. At the end of the time, I asked my students what tools they used to obtain these ideas. They all looked at me like I was half-crazy.

"Uh... We just used our brains, Miss Fickes."

I smiled because this is the oh-so-obvious answer that I already knew. When my students shared the information they had come up with, a lot of them made qualifying statements like, "This may not actually be true, but..."

To bring me back to my original question to my kids, I asked how many of them used their iPads to clarify any questions they had. Crickets.

This brings me to my point about technology. The idea of technology integration, in my opinion, is to make the use of technology second nature. Instead of being unsure, why not use the device that his limitless access to information? If you went into Google, you could type in "Asian culture," and I know Wikipedia would pop up with a ton of information. It amazes me that my kids don't do this.

One student got out his iPad to try and identify the name of a type of landscaping for which he could not think of the name. When I walked by him, he quickly explained to me that he just had his iPad out because he wanted to find out the name of something- he wasn't cheating.

This shows me that the way we integrate technology into our classrooms still needs improvement. I don't think it's wrong to look up easy-to-find information on a device, obviously dependent upon the setting. I'm not saying whip a device out during a standardized test.

My point is anyone can Google "Asian culture." The lower level thinking questions that I am asking my students are easily accessible with a few clicks of their fingers. The important thing we need to ask ourselves is where do we go from here?

For my classroom, it will be to a myth busters activity. They will be identifying the stereotypes and myths that exist about Asian culture and working in partner pairs to prove or bust them. The format they will use to present this information is Piktochart. The students will use Piktochart to create an infographic that details the research of the students. There's a purpose, and it's authentic. According to Piktochart's website, infographics are, "visual presentations intended to communicate complex information, data, or knowledge quickly and clearly." It's a template that student can drop and click the information they find.

I look forward to seeing how it goes in my classroom. To introduce the project to my students, I created a screencast of me explaining Piktochart, as well as my expectations for the projects. This is the kind of technology integration I find useful. My students are utilizing their technology to create unique visuals that they can use as a reference during their presentations. I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Differentiating Environment with an Added Tangent

Our differentiation topic of the week is environment. In order to teach us more about differentiating environment, we were given a comic called, "To Teach: The Journey, in Comics." This idea of learning about differentiation from a comic was a little strange for me; however, once I began to read the comic strip, I learned a lot of good things about differentiating environment.

The classroom environment is oftentimes set from day one. One of the best ways I think you can create a positive classroom environment is through the code of conduct you create for your class. This summer I spent a two week observation period in Philadelphia in a school called the Science Leadership Academy. The code of conduct for the school was simple.

1. Respect and care about yourself. 
2. Respect and care about the community.
3. Respect and care that this is a place of learning. 

These guidelines create an environment that is centered on appreciation of one's self, as well as understanding and empathy for others. It also encourages collaboration; the classroom becomes a community of learners, where knowledge is valued and shared. Once this environment is created, differentiation is easily achieved. 

On page 40 of the comic, it says, "What would it mean to learn from the world and not just about the world? From nature, from history, from democracy rather than simply about democracy?"

Think about this for a second. How many times do we just TELL kids what things are instead of letting them experience it themselves. When we do this, we miss the point. They are no longer participants in the problem solving of learning, but rather passive participants who are informed by a secondary source.

Why do we get frustrated when our kids question us? Isn't that what we're there for? My favorite education professor in college presented every instructional strategy as "this might work." Instead of just telling us if you use this in your classroom, you will have success, he would tell us things like these are the results that I found when I used this activity.

It's a mentality that I try to keep with me at all times. We all get frustrated when we are constantly challenged, but I'm not quite sure frustration should be the go to emotion. Do we not ask our kids to allow themselves to be challenged? Is it not our job as educators to challenge them? Why, then, when the roles are reversed, do we suddenly become defensive?

I know I went a little off track here, but I think it is all important to keep in mind. The tangent was really to highlight, that we as teachers need to be apart of our community of learners. If we hold our thoughts and opinions above those of our students, I think we aren't giving our kids enough credit. It also shows contradicts a concept that we wish to instill in them: their opinions are valuable.

I know I'm guilty of getting frustrated, so this rant was a great reminder for me. I need to center on addressing education like my favorite professor- maybe this will work for you, or, maybe it won't.

Wait Time

I want to talk a little about the concept of wait time. I want to start off by saying it is a strategy that I struggle with. First, I hate awkward silence. I hate awkward silence less than a group of 15 year olds, but I still don't enjoy it. Secondly, when I was in school, I was the kid who had to fill that awkward silence. Provide a suggestion, so everyone doesn't sit there with a blank stare of their faces. Finally, how long is too long to sit in silence?

How does one acquire the skill of wait time? How do I become good at waiting for responses?

The answer from an administrator was years of teaching. I don't know if I'm patient to wait for my years of experience to begin. It is a skill that I believe an instructor should master as soon as possible. If I am not providing adequate wait time, I'm giving them answers. Instead of allowing them to think about the question I'm asking them.

I am going to start making a conscious effort to slow down. Not necessarily the speed of my lecture, but rather the speed at which I push my students to answer. Create a larger time frame. This way I am allowing them to use their own critical thinking skills instead of depending on me to formulate an answer.

Honestly, I'm a little disappointed that I made this mistake in the first place.

Invitation to Reflection

UBD Reflection 1-3: Which of the following do you think is appropriate content for a high school course in English?

• language study (grammar)
• language skills
• writing
• speaking
• listening
• reading
• viewing
• print literature
• nonprint literature
• communication skills
• students' own lives
• context of students' lives
• other (explain)

Right away, when I was evaluating these topics, I identified four which are necessary to include. In order to teach students about the language, they must utilize the skills of writing, speaking, listening, and reading. These four skills align to a few categories. For example, speaking aligns to communication skills, and writing and reading align to grammar. All four of the components together make up the category of language skills. Without much examination, all of these topics are necessary components of an English course.

The next two easy content areas to address are students' own lives and the context of students' lives. Learning needs to be authentic; in order for students to build connections to the content, they need to understand the relevancy of it. If we didn't include our students in our content, who would our target audience be?

The last three are also necessary to include. Viewing nonprint and print literature helps to create well-rounded individuals. Students who are not well versed in literature are not able to have the same insights as someone who is well read. An important 21st Century skill is critical thinking. If our students do not address these different texts with their critical thinking hats, they will lack the perspective needed to objectively view material.

Currently, I am teaching an Honors Humanities class. My students are required to read a novel, The Bhagavad Gita, which addresses the Eastern philosophy of Hinduism. Almost all of them have at some point in time asked the question: Why do we have to learn about other philosophies?

Here's the part where I begin the explanation of our globalizing nation and the importance of broadening our perspectives. It's usually met with some unblinking stares, and now and again, an eye roll.

Except for today..

Today, one of my students said, "I really don't care about what pathway he chooses. It isn't helping me learn to understand this book. Either way he's going to die in be reincarnated."

I paused for a second, and responded, "Now, what type of philosophical view is that?"

She answered, "Well, it's Eastern."

To which I said, "So, what have you learned?"

This is when I saw it click. She understood a difference between Eastern and Western philosophy. This student is really struggling with the content of this book, but in reality, she is learning information about the different philosophies, maybe just not as consciously as she would like.

My point is that all of these aspects are important to incorporate into an English course. It is our job to cover different material by viewing nonprint and print literature. It is our job to make sure our students are writing, reading, speaking, and listening. Most importantly, though, it is our job to make sure that our students are learning about their own lives, so they can have a better self-understanding. It allows them to self-reflect, to empathize, and to broaden their perspectives.

FINALLY, Understanding Restatement and Definition

For my Honors English II class, my students are working on vocabulary. The vocabulary words are taken from their current class novel, Like Water for Chocolate; however, they also all are able to be found on the SAT's top vocabulary list. Today, I had the students work interactively with their vocabulary creating a visual representation of a specific vocabulary group. The students have been learning about the importance of context clues, specifically restatement and definition clues, when defining vocabulary; as well as how to use these context clues in their own sentences. For this project, they had to combine the two elements of vocabulary and context clues. Here are the requirements of the project, as well as my example:

The students were given approximately 20 minutes to partner together and to complete the assignment. They were given free choice as far as format and design; the only real guidelines were the components listed on the board. Below are a few of the students' creations. I was really impressed by all of them!


One of the major things I have struggled with in this unit is helping my students to understand how to apply their understanding of restatement and definition context clues. When I first had them create sentences for homework, I was alarmed by the number of students who were way off base with what I was asking. I felt like failure; clearly, I hadn't explained it well enough. I used their sentences as a formative assessment, and I adjusted my plan for the activity today. I reexplained the concept of restatement and definition context clues trying to give them a almost step-by-step way to create the clues. Here's what I wrote on the board:

Restatement: expressing the same idea using different language
- Use the synonyms column of the list
* Example: The church was attended regularly by the pious congregation because they are devout followers of their faith.
Definition: use unfamiliar word and then explain what it means
- Signal words + definition of word
* Example: The woman attended church regularly, and the pastor called her pious, in other words devoutly religious.
     : signal word      : definition

As I went around to the different groups, I was able to see that a few of my students were still struggling with the concept. I sat down with them and had them show me what they thought were examples of restatement and definition context clues. As I worked individually, I saw that the real problem was my students didn't understand how part of speech played a role into the creation of these sentences. A lot of them didn't understand that for a restatement clue if you use the word as a noun, you must then use the synonym for the restatement as a noun also.

When I talked to Tara, I explained the students' confusion with parts of speech. She informed me that the Common Core does not have a real place for grammar; therefore, the students have little interaction with the parts of speech. This left me feeling frustrated, maybe it's a personal bias from my linguistics background, but I feel like these kids are missing out on an important element of writing. I'm not talking about teaching them traditional grammar, but there are proven case studies that show teaching generative grammar can enhance student writing. I am curious to see how the student's lack of understanding of grammar will play into their understanding of future elements of writing and vocabulary.

Overall, the lesson went really well. By having the students work in pairs, I was able to get around to each group and address any problems or concerns they were having. Another thing I was excited about was the students' engagement in the activity. They were definitely all active participants. I was a little skeptical about captivating their attention because I didn't want them to feel as though the activity was beneath them. Fortunately, they all seemed to enjoy the activity, and I was able to see a lot of their creative thinking!

Saying Good-bye

I thought this had posted earlier, but I guess not. Blogger apparently hates me.

This last week in the field was great. I had to cut it short for my own sanity, because I'm in a show on campus and waking up at 5:40 in the morning and doing a show at night didn't sound pleasant.

All in all, my time in professional block was great. It was definitely a learning experience. I learned a lot about building relationships with students--something my cooperating teacher was greatly skilled in. I also learned a lot about what I don't want to be like as a teacher--and I don't want that to read as any sort of snide remark against my co-op; I just know I observed a lot of things I don't want to do, which I think is good.

Overall, this was a really great experience and I am so happy I got to do this. I will go into student teaching a way more confident teacher as a result.
I was really pleased by the number of students who told me I was a good teacher when I left. It made my year. =) I'm told if you can get the endorsement of a tenth grader, it means quite a lot, so I am still on cloud nine from their kind words.

Creativity vs. Comas

Something hit me this week while the students were reading and attempting to analyze Julius Caesar.  As a class, students have been chugging through this classic piece of drama, and completing various typical tasks along the way: vocabulary, graphic organizers, quizzes. My co-op taught a myriad of short lessons about literary devices and skills that are familiar to the average English classroom, like rising and falling action, cause and effect, figurative language, and characterization. Sounds pretty solid, right? Sounds like the English classes we grew up in, where every piece of literature served to place check marks next to state standards and cover specific aspects of curriculum. The kids should, then, be learning a lot and taking much away from this play. But they're not. Most of them couldn't remember from class to class what we had read and in terms of doing any deep, analytic thought about the thematic nuances or the deeper meanings of the play, most were both disinterested and not fluent. What's more, these things didn't matter to them and, even worse, didn't have much bearing at all on the corresponding work they were completing. 

I was trying to figure out why these students were not getting it, why this unit was falling flat for them. After about a week, it became apparent: it was boring, painful even. The entire unit was lifeless, focused strictly on coverage, and did not possess even one creative aspect to engage students. Students walked in each day, sat down, trudged through as much reading as possible, filled out charts, answered objective questions, passively took notes, and worked on a long list of vocabulary. This was the scene for four weeks (they started a week before I got there) and would probably be the scene for at least one more week. To be honest, even I was bored, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be in their shoes. I was desperate to add some kind of creative aspect to the class, but was reluctant to give them even more work. So, for the non-hybrid English class, I asked them to create an epitaph for Caesar after he had been stabbed and the funeral speeches had been given. I wasn't expecting magic or anything overtly clever, but I was hopeful to at least provide a small break in the rigid routine and create some engagement. But they were completely stumped; it was as if I had turned their world upside down. They didn't know what to do and, even more telling, didn't know what I expected them to say. These students have been subjected to the same objective, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, charts-and-tables, worksheet routine (in all of their classes, not just English) that they have a hard time being creative or thinking deeply about transferable concepts and meaning. This realization made me angry and frustrated, and made me feel sorry for these kids who are missing so much from their education.

This has proven to me how important having an engaged and creative classroom is. It creates relevance and gives the material life and purpose. Creativity gets students' juices flowing, facilitating deep thought and more memorable learning. (Ironically, I think students remember more from the creative, concept-centered classroom versus the objective, memorization-driven class.) I hope to never create a classroom that threatens to put both the teacher and the students into a boredom coma.