Most Effective Teaching Strategies...

I am definitely a visual learner. I find it very effective when teachers have visual aids to assist with their lessons. I find that I am not as focused when a teacher is just blabbing on and on without anything for the students to look at besides the teacher. However some teachers are exceptional at engaging a class without any technology/visual aid, but those teachers are few and far apart.

The classes that I remember the most are the ones where the learning was more interactive and less 'lecture like'. I think a teacher should have a balance between lecture lessons, interactive activities, and stories about their own life/childhood. I always seem to remember every single detail of a teacher's childhood story, but for the life of me I can't remember a single thing from the lesson they taught.

The main key in teaching teachers is to be patient! They haven't been exposed to technology their whole lives like the average teenager has. It is also a good idea to have a steady teaching pace. Don't just spit everything out at once and expect the teacher to understand. Also don't teach at a snail's pace, teachers will catch on sooner then you think. It is definitely important to actually show how to use certain pieces of technology; not just tell the teacher what to do and leave.

Technology Expertise...

Even though I would love to become an expert in using every single piece of technology out there, these are my top three.

1. Smartboard - Everytime I see a teacher use a smartboard, they think of the smartboard as just a plain old projector. But the smartboard is so much more than that. I have only seen a glimpse of what the smartboard is capable of and would really like to become an expert at using one. The make classes more interactive and interesting.

2. Blogs (or other website hosts) - Nowadays, it is extremely important for teachers to have their own class websites. I think that blog platforms are the best type of site for teachers to create their own websites on. I am familiar with how to set up blogs but I am definitely not an expert. I really want to help teachers design their own websites since it is such an effective tool for students.

3. Prezi - I have never personally used Prezi, but have seen many presentations that used this particular site. The concept of Prezi is very innovative and exciting and I would like to learn how to make informative/interesting presentations that are not distracting using Prezi.

Technology in the Classroom...

There are many pieces of technology that teachers use (or attempt to use) in the classroom. Do they really help the learning process or are they just a nuisance? I've analyzed three pieces of technology on how they affect the classroom environment.

1. Smartboards - What can I say? I really like smartboards.  They are definitely one of the more recent additives into the classroom, but yet greatly appreciated by students and teachers. That is if the teacher actually knows how to operate one of these beastly machines. Smartboards make the learning process easier, it's as simple as that. Note taking is a breeze with the smartboard, everything looks neat and polished (unlike the usual scramble of notes on a chalkboard). If a student happens to miss any particular part of the lesson, they can easily find the notes online. The smartboard has endless possibilities, but it's up to the teacher to actually use everything that the smartboard has to offer.

2. Prezi - I think Prezi is one of the coolest presentation hosting websites to ever roam the planet. It allows a student to create vivid and professional looking presentations with a lot of zooms and motions. But to be completely honest, Prezi is distracting and has the potential to give the whole class motion sickness. Whenever I'm watching one of these presentations I am completely fixated on the what's happening on the screen and don't hear a word the presenters are saying. It's great to an extent, but a presentation can only have so many zooms, jumps, and warping text.

3. Clickers - A clickers is a small portable device that allows students to answer multiple choice questions and has their answer sent to the teacher's main computer or smartboard. Clickers in theory are a great idea, they seem to be working for universities, however they way classrooms use are using clickers is not quite there yet. Every time a class wants to use clickers, they must be distributed to all the students, all the the students must sign in, ect. It would be much better if everyone would have has their own clicker that they brought from to class to class. It would save a lot of time. I do think that clickers enhance the learning experience because they make lessons much more interactive. For example, taking class polls allows students to see what all the other students are thinking. Clickers are good but they could be used much more effectively at my school.

Should schools change for 21st century?

The world is constantly changing. Technology is rapidly advancing. The children of today are completely different from the children of yesterday. Why is it that schools should stay the same when everything else is changing? Well the answer is pretty clear, they shouldn't. If we want today's children to strive in the future, we can't be teaching them like they are living in the past. The 21st century is completely technology based, and who knows maybe in the 22nd century paper will be obsolete and every single thing will be digitalized. Schools must start to adapt to the 21st century, everything depends on it.

The top priorities of school should be what is best for their students, no what is "easier" for the school. Just because changing the whole schooling system would take a lot of time and effort, does not mean that they shouldn't have to meet their current students' needs. Wasn't the whole reason school was created to adapt to a changing world? Students today are more tech savvy than any of their parents, so why are they still reading from textbooks and taking notes from a chalkboard? Why are students forced to memorize a whole textbook when all that information is constantly at their fingertips? Not only should more technology be added into schools but also the methods of teaching should be completely reconstructed. If only this adaptation started when I was in middle school... things would be so much better.