Technology Team-Up

Beyond my laptop and a projector, my use of technology in classroom has been minimal. (Which is a significant amount of technology compared to what most of my English high school teachers used. How did they teach without projectors? How? Blows my freaking mind!) I don’t think that is shocking news from a teacher working in a critical needs school districts. We only had one cart of 30 laptops at the beginning to the school year to share between all middle school teachers. Very recently, two more carts of laptops were added to our school inventory, and now all teachers are trying to incorporate more technology in the classroom. So competition for their use, while not intense, takes some flexibility and compromise.

Last week, I used the laptops to practice vocabulary and state test questions with Kahoot. I know Kahoot is the new big bandwagon that teachers are jumping on. I first heard about it from Abigail Condit and then Alicia Sparer walked me through how to use it during a class weekend. Students really get into the game-show format of it, so I don’t lose their interest as quickly while practicing state-test questions. Points are awarded based on correct answers and how quickly they answer the question. The game updates them to their overall place and has a leaderboard they can look at after each question. But best of all, I can save the data at the end of each Kahoot and analyze what questions my students missed, the standards I need to cover more, and which students are struggling the most with understanding the questions. I have only used it twice in the classroom so far, but I would like to keep using it up until state testing.

However, there is definitely a time and place for when I use it. My students love when we use technology. Even if we are researching information for an essay or doing something educational, it becomes infinitely more interesting to them if it is on a laptop. I’m glad technology can increase engagement about once a week, but I don’t want to rely on it in the classroom. I want my students to be invested in their education and the lesson without the hassle of passing out laptops, teaching my students necessary computer skills, and recollecting the laptops without losing necessary time for the lesson.

Sometimes, incorporating technology can feel gimmicky for me, that the only reason my students to paid attention to the lesson that day is because they had some kind of electronic device in front of them. I worry about my students who want to go to college. What are they going to do when they have the kind of professor that just dives straight into the lesson and teaches? No gimmicks, no tricks, no opening sets. If they aren’t being entertained by the teacher, what’s going to get them engaged? When the professor isn’t doing everything in their power to encourage student engagement (which let’s be fair, would be near impossible in a lecture class), students will need the self-discipline to work hard and focus despite their boredom. Technology can become a crutch if it’s the only way I can get my students engaged.

The TV, the other type of technology constantly available in my classroom, has Google Chromecast and can't be used easily with my Mac laptop or Mac desktop computer. So it's used for Kahoot when I have a Google Chromebook.

7th/8th Block playing Kahoot

Kahoot data results for a section of my 5th/6th block class. It's basically a color-coordinated version of what Sam Williams taught us to make in summer school. Except it's a million times better now that I don't have to puzzle my way through Google Forms and Sheets.