Journal Post #3

After completing the readings of the first two chapters of A New Literacies Reader edited by Lankshear & Knobel I reflected upon the use of technology in my own classroom.  In my classroom, as I have mentioned my students all have access to an iPad.  This iPad is for the student to take home, complete homework, and other assignments that the teacher gives.  In my mathematics classroom it can be difficult to incorporate the various technologies while trying to cover the intense standards and curriculum we are faced with.  I try to incorporate the iPad into every lesson for about 10-15 minutes daily.  If the technological incorporation occurs in the bellringer, class activity, or exit ticket I am doing what I can to get the students involved in technology.

I have an app that allows for me to create a class web page.  On this page my students have access to everything that I post.  They call it the facebook of school.  It has the same appearance of facebook and similar ideas.  I post the homework daily, class announcements, and videos I create for the students.  This allows for me to stay constantly connected with my students.  They know they can ask me a math question till 9pm, at which point I told them I am going to bed.  They post questions, answer eachothers questions, and collaborate. 

One thing that I have not been able to incorporate into my classroom is the blogging piece.  Granted this is my first time blogging, I wonder how I could do this.  (Any ideas please let me know).  Tiffany discusses the use of blogging in her non-traditional english classroom.  She teaches in a small high school in Brooklyn, New York.  In the short segment that she has in this chapter I really feel connected in her classroom.  I think that her passion desire to read everything the kids write and not feel the pressure of preforming to the standards says a lot.  “A content analysis of my students’ blogs found that they focused their writing on the following issues: academic or financial stress, high school graduation, college, friendships, dating…” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2013, p. 27). Tiffany’s ability to connect with the students is truly rewarding to watch, today I feel many teachers lose sight of getting to know the student.  Tiffany states that she is the, “techy teacher.”  The term “techy teacher” is very interesting because I feel that when students view you in a positive way, that they are going to work harder in your classroom.  The blogging aspect of the classroom allows the students who struggle socially to connect with his or her peers in a different level.  Today our students struggle with conversation face to face and I think that the blogging is a place that they can release stress and other triggers while being appropriate. 

In my opinion teachers today are not taking full advantage of the technology available.  I know and agree that it takes additional time to create a lesson plan, check for flaws but in the long run I think that it is rewarding for the students.  In my district the veteran teachers refuse to partake in the use of technology, some still refuse to use their SmartBoards.  As Lanshear and Knobel (2013) state, “As youth are engage in the processes and practices of exploring, making, and remaking their identities across a wide array of representational modalities and spaces, both online and offline, the role of the educator becomes more complicated and, we would argue, ripe with possibilities” (p. 35).  The possibilities of and within education are endless and as educators it is our job to take full advantage of these opportunities. 

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2013). Multimodal Pedagogies.  In A new literacies                          reader: Educational perspectives (Vol 66). New York: Peter Lang.