Week 3 - Task 1 - Dinosaur Extinction

In many classrooms throughout schools and districts this technology initiative is going to take a lot of getting used to. Besides the direct technology components it proposes a new way of thinking and a new way of approaching teaching as a whole. Some districts and teachers are well on their way on their quest to conquer this while others are being left in the dust. For some educators that have been teaching for decades and are stuck in their ways of teaching this is going to be especially difficult. Rose Porpora, from Chatham High School, is a prime example of what I am talking about. Ms. Porpora shared that she feels she is “trying to hang on to what I think is the most important part of what [she does] but [her] time is over it’s too much for [her] this is not the educational arena that [she] entered into.” I do not think that you have to lose the direct connections to the material and the face to face interaction and processes that she referred to but there has to be a realization that flexibility with integrating the new technologies and 21^st century learning ideals is not only essential but at this point an inevitability.
I feel very fortunate that I have grown up and have gone to elementary and high school during the infancy of introducing technology into education and in everyday life. I believe that it has made me more adaptive to changing technological environments and made using various technologies a part of my everyday life.  I think that these standards and ideals will allow me to be much more creative as I develop myself and my pedagogical career. I plan on staying as informed as I can about emerging technologies and getting as much information and guidance as I can from educators that are exemplary in their efforts to achieve the standards. I feel that I am very creative and a critical thinker and after getting my bachelors and being in the working world for five years I know how important it is to have and to pass on these skills to others. I am a big advocate for this type of learning so for me it is a very exciting time in education.
I really enjoyed watching the overview of Frank Drapers class and their Hydrology Project. Mr. Draper did not have smart boards or a classroom where each student had individual access to a computer the whole time. He just simply used what he had to his advantage to create “authentic tasks”. He had them use simple web pages, interact with each other, interact with their community, and had them make personal connections to the material.  I think that he provides a great balance between the material, integrating the technology he has access to, and 21^st century learning in this project. His viewpoint is, “when [his] students do real work, authentic kinds of tasks where they’re doing something that is real for the school or for the community they now understand why this is important to learn this stuff, how valuable it is to their own life, and to the broader community. - When you have students do meaningless work your pretty much saying they’re not real important but when I give you something meaningful to do you’re an important member of the community and I value what you’re doing. It’s a different mindset of what schoolwork is about.”

It would be fantastic to be able to choose a district that already has all of the, “bells and whistles” technologically like Chatham High School. Though, the reality right now with the competitiveness of getting jobs in the teaching world needs to be highly considered. When I start to look for districts that I am interested in I will be looking for organizations that have a solid game plan and commitment in place to achieve the required technology and 21^st century learning standards. I feel that with a plan and my creativity I could do my part to help get a district and its students where they need to be.