ED 300 and Wheat Thins

It seems to be common knowledge that most students do not try very hard in school because they do not find it relevant in their day to day lives.  Teachers have to handle those students in some manner.  Some teachers let the students sleep in the back of classroom.  As long as the student does enough work to pass the class, the teacher does not care.  But what if the teacher tries to reach those students and makes their classroom more relevant to the student?

Technology is one way to make a classroom more relevant to a student.  The teacher can not just use some form of technology and expect results.  The teacher needs to use it so students can see what the technology can do, then have the students need to use it so they can really comprehend how it works.  The teacher should explain why the technology is important.

In the business world, knowing how to make charts, use a spreadsheet, be able to video conference, or write formal documents is very important.  Having a student create a fake small business and have them use a spreadsheet to keep tract of all their supplies would be a way to show how a spreadsheet could be used.  The music world has different audio editing software, recording formats, and sheet music writing software.  After marching season is over, have the students edit together audio or video clips of the band together into a music video.  The audio would be the students playing.  It would give them a way to remember what they did that year.  Science has been using technology for a long time.  Most doctors have several different programs they have to use to access patient information.  Teaching students how networks work and showing them that once something is on a network, it can still be there even if they think they took it off.  Every class could use one of these technologies at some point in time.  Teachers need to go beyond using the technology to teaching the students how to use the technology.

I will implement technology into my music classroom as much as possible.  As a music teacher, listening is very important.  I plan on teaching students how to record themselves, listen back on what they played, analyze how they did, and how they can improve.

As much as I want to integrate technology into my classroom, I do have to remember time and place.  Appropriate and educational is another way to phrase it.  There is a time and a place for everything.  As a teacher, I need to use my reasoning to figure out the best time and place to use technology.  This will be different for every student.  Not all students learn the same way so using the same technology all the time will probably not benefit some students.  There has to be multiple ways technology will be used in the classroom to increase the chance of reaching all the students.  I believe that since I am aware of time and place, I will be able to use technology to its fullest extent.