21st Century Teaching...Am I Ready?

Classrooms are evolving what seems to me to be overnight.  Long gone are the days of traditional lectures with students taking notes with pen and paper.  More and more frequently I am hearing talk of technology in the classroom.  But what exactly does that mean?  I’ve been living abroad in Costa Rica for the last two and a half years and I can’t help but feel a little behind. From my little school with no computers, no wifi, and no projectors, the rate at which technology is being incorporated into classrooms back home seems even faster. The technological wave has hit.  Now it’s not just the one “Smart Classroom” in a school (which is what I remember), but it’s common for teachers have Smartboards, for students to have iPads, etc. So as I prepare myself to make the transition back to New York and into a classroom embracing the 21^st century, I have to ask myself… what exactly does this classroom look like, and am I ready?

Well, the answer to that question is probably quite simple:  It doesn't matter if I am ready. The Social Media Revolution has taken over.  As a teacher, it is my responsibility to help students learn and to prepare them for their future.  And the future now looks quite different than it did even just a few years ago.  As a teacher in this day and age, I am signing up not only to be a teacher, but to be a lifelong learner:  a learner who explores new technologies and how they relate to students.  Technologies in the classroom can engage students in new and exciting ways and give them the skills they need to be successful--and it's my responsibility as a teacher to figure out how to do so.  

But what does using technology in the classroom actually look like? Like I said, I am coming from two and a half years of teaching in a school that might seem like a time capsule from the past for some of the more tech savvy teachers out there! In Costa Rica there is a phrase "detrás del arbol" (literally translating to "behind the tree") which is used to describe people who are out of the loop.  As much as I don't want to admit it, I myself have become victim to being behind the tree, and need to do some exploration to find out what a modern classroom looks like.  In A Vision of 21st Century Teachers, teachers share some of their tech methods in the classroom.  Some of the many excellent examples were blogging, creating digital music mixes, collaborating to make mixed media presentations, using a camera to capture math in the real world, and creating digital books.  My favorite suggestion was using technology to take virtual field trips. Imagine my future classroom, where students come in not only to learn Spanish, but to explore the world and its cultures right there from their seats! Probably the biggest takeaway from this video is the rationale for why teachers use technology in the classroom.  It gives students confidence, it prepares them with skills they will need in the future, and it allows the teacher to meet the needs of students with different learning styles.

Virtual Field Trip to Carnegie Museum

This brings me to my last thought on this topic: has education really caught up to the technological world we live in?  The educational system is still evolving, and in some ways it is still very far behind.  The Future of Learning, Networked Society-Ericsson explores this topic beautifully.  The traditional role of the teacher used to be one of complete knowledge, the person with the answer to all questions.  But now, the answers are all around us.  With a simple Google search, students can find the answers to what they are looking for.  The teacher's role needs  to evolve to match this new environment. We need to teach young minds how to ask the correct question and to search for the correct answer.  Learning also needs to be differentiated.  Why should learners still be receiving the same education, taught the same way, and at the same time?  Our classrooms are diverse, with gifted students, heritage students, and students with learning disabilities.  Our teaching should reflect that, and technology can help us achieve a classroom that meets the needs of  all our students.   It's time for an evaluation  of our classrooms and what we are really preparing our students for.  That sentence opens a Pandora's Box of discussions to be had, but that's a topic for another day.  For now, I need to catch myself up to the 21st century, embrace the technological classroom, and get creative with my future lesson plans.  Because I am signing up to be a teacher of today's students and our future leaders, and I'll be darned if I don't prepare them for their future because I am, as Costa Rican's say, "behind the tree" on technology.

Until next time!

The Future Señora
Pura Vida