For the past 4+ months Marcus and I have had the kind of professional development experience that most educators dream about. We have met some of the most inspirational educators and advocates for all ages of students. We have met with representatives from the Indiana Department of Education. We have planned lessons with some of the hardest working individuals that Indiana has to offer. We have traveled to Indianapolis multiple times. We have even made a trip out to California to fly drones on a beach and make a video with a GoPro in one of the tallest buildings in Los Angeles. We have worked countless hours, on top of our normal teaching job, to create something that is original and powerful for teachers and students alike. In due time, you will get to see some of the work that our group has created. But for the present time, I will let you in on one little secret...each lesson plan hinges on one major hook--technology!Technology is all around us. It is embedded in our every day lives. I bet as you are reading this, it is probably on your desktop...or your iPad...or your phone. Heck, it may even be from a link shared on Twitter. Regardless of how you read this post, it is online and it is accessible everywhere. This is how students live their lives. They have profiles on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and SnapChat just to name a few. Some may even have Google+ profiles. And so do you! You also have a Google Drive. You have your own YouTube channel. And you also have your own Gmail account. Did you know that?!?!
So how can we leverage these technologies to better engage our students? It takes time. It takes time to be able to think "outside the box". It takes working with one another to look at a lesson plan and discuss "How can this be better?" "How can I get my students engaged more in class?" You must use technology for more than how it has been used in the past. I will let you know, it is not by just having a student word process a paper. That is not the best use of technology in your classroom. How many years have we been doing that? I know I was doing it in high school 20 years ago. (Oh man, I just dated myself.) Instead, have them start their own blog for your class. Have them write for a worldwide audience! Everyone reads the school newspaper. But does everyone read a student narrative on Julius Caesar? How can this lesson be better with technology? Marcus did a wonderful job incorporating Sphero balls and mazes in a lesson from the book, Flowers with Algernon. He made the comment that his students have never been so engaged. (If you want the whole scoop then you need to speak with him on the lesson.)So this brings me back to the point, "How can we get our students more engaged?" The ultimate solution for this teacher is technology. This is the world we live in now, folks. It is the world our students need to be prepared for. And it is the world in which we should be preparing them to be successful.
