I've been hashing over a couple of things in my head over the last few weeks. I think that this is the place to try to clear my thoughts.
I have been observing what I am doing differently in my classes and the direction in which my classes have been going. At the beginning of the semester, I felt as though I had to speed up my style and add a lot of new dimension to make my teaching part of the 21C. I was trying to keep up with the people around me (yes, Anne :)) who seem to have it all together and know exactly what education should look like now that we are in a technologically driven age. But I now know that I do not necessarily agree with this vision. This is not to say that what is happening in the classroom across this campus isn't awesome. In fact, I am quite impressed and sometimes overwhelmed by the brilliance that seems to be happening in this direction. But I have begun to question "Is it too much, too soon?"
I had a discussion with a parent at parent/teacher conferences about the technology push at AHS. She asked a very good question. "Are freshman ready to handle, not only the academic expectations at Arapahoe, but then add a new element of technology?" I really had to think about this.
Initially I thought, "Well, yeah!" They are constantly on their cell phones, text messaging, sneaking their IPods on in class, etc. But are they really ready to give up a plain old discussion of literature in my class? Can a blog take the place of an actual discussion? I'm not sure I buy into that. Yes, I think blogging is an important new tool that people should consider using outside of classtime. Yes, I think that having students use the mediums that they feel most comfortable with is a great way to enhance their learning. But what will happen to the classroom I love to be in? What will happen to the class where I sit and talk and discuss and learn with my students as we engage in live, face to face discussion. I don't want that to go away.
This sounds as though I don't want to evolve. That is ABSOLUTELY not the case. But I don't want to lose the personal connections I make with students every day.