So I am reading and watching all of the material for The Matrix, and confirmed what I have known: Miss Beadle (Walnut Grove. Little House on the Prairie. Ring a bell?) had me beat on technology use.
Ok, so that's not exactly true. But I'm low down the scale on most things. At the simplest level, I use electronics to play music. I use a projector/screen. In math, I'm possibly in the adaptation level because I facilitate/assign material but the students do it at their pace.
Where could I reasonably be by the end of next grading period?
Possibly at the adaptation level. Without devices such as iPads it will be hard to move past adoption. But 4th and 5th graders will have iPads so I will look at ways to collaborate on or create projects for topics such as composers, music theory, or a unit I do on ballads.
What steps will I take in order to make growth happen?
The matrix we had, and the accompanying videos, was quite comprehensive. That will give me guidance as I start planning. I will be researching apps and programs available for use in the classroom as well. More than anything, though, I appreciate the focus on the attributes of the learning environment, such as it being active, collaborative, etc. Even Miss Beadle would have understood that with her chalkboards her lessons had to be engaging, collaborative, constructive, and authentic (remember the one with the leaf collections?).
I will pick a series of lessons or a unit for upper grades and think of an end product, such as a video project we can put together at school, and plan that for the first part of next year. I need to acknowledge that students will know how to do things with phones or cameras that I don't. Part of that process will be to let them guide each other, and me, in creating and publishing these products. Is that part of the problem some of us have in integrating technology? "I can't teach the kids how to do or use this stuff?" I don't really have to if some of them can be leaders themselves. The one video had the teacher talking about several different software or media programs I have NO idea how to use. Never even heard of most of them. That's for me to fix, though.
Conclusion
- The TIM and SAMR information has been enlightening, to be certain. I have had fun making the Little House on the Prairie references. I suppose there are classrooms out there where the only difference between the Walnut Grove School and theirs is electric lights and indoor plumbing. I really have been given an outlook on how to integrate technology into quality teaching I didn't have before. I will put in the time and energy to figure out how I can get started on entering this century, not Miss Beadle's.
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