Preparing to Prepare...

Today we discussed reality. We discussed the fact that technology is everywhere and is now for everyone. I was shocked to hear that second graders were using iPads in class for activities and to submit assignments. This was so surprising because when I was in second grade, there was no such thing as an iPad. In fact, technology was not incorporated into the classroom until I was in middle school. It is very true that the generation we will be teaching has grown up in totally different world than we did.

Many past generations would venture to say that this change is destroying our future generations and they aren't learning anything. On the contrary I believe we are doing them an injustice to not expose them to technology. Technology is no longer part of leisure activities it is involved in almost every workplace, thus not to expose them is to not prepare them. This preparation is essential to them becoming successful in life. For example I was not allowed to have a computer in a classroom until my first year in college. My typing skills were poor and I was not use to note taking on a laptop. Now for me this was an easy adjustment. However, this week I'm also trying to teach my grandmother how to use a tablet so she can access her paycheck because the company she works for just went paperless. That adjustment for her is not so easy because this is the first time she has ever used the internet or even a computer.

Another thing we talked about during class was questioning strategies. Have you ever put much thought into how or why you ask a question? I hadn't! But now that I entertain the thought it makes a lot of sense, it also explains some of the things my elementary teachers did when I just thought they were being cruel. There was a method behind their madness. Today I realized that sometimes the questions that are and unanswerable for students are the most beneficial. This is because questions are thought provoking. To encourage thinking increases learning. Allowing students to learn without thinking, simply learn the strategy and not the reasoning is teaching for the test not for student growth. It is my belief that it is our goal as teachers is to increase student growth not test scores. The rise of test scores is simply an affect to effective teaching.

Today's class was a lot to take in but it reminded me that we are teaching children for real life. We are teaching them to prepare them for things that have not yet happened. When our elementary teachers were teaching us I'm sure they had no clue we would now live in a world with paperless jobs or one-to-one classrooms. However, the point is that they prepared us. They did their jobs as teachers and prepared us. Now it's our turn to go on and prepare to play that role for our future students.