The teacher I
interviewed is a Physics teacher in the district of Fair Lawn who is born and
raised in New Jersey. He teaches
students ranging from sophomores to seniors and has sections in Honors and A.P.
Physics. Currently, he is teaching four classes at Fair Lawn High School.
His Literacy with the NETS Standards was adequate; he has
been to a few workshops that touched on them, so he knew of the overlying idea,
however he did not know the individual standards. As he read the standards that I gave him, he began to remember them. When I brought
up the topic of him implementing them into his classroom activities, he smiled
and pointed to some of the equipment he uses for demonstrations; old power supplies, a ring shooter,
and a few blocks of wood with resisters clipped to them. He has integrated so
many demonstrations via technology into his lessons that DIRECTLY apply the
physical phenomena that the students are learning; he’s been well ahead of the
NETS game.
When I pointed to the third teacher standard (Model Digital Age Work
and Learning), he showed me the electronic grading system that the district has
implemented. This program allows students, faculty, and parents to easily and
efficiently keep track of students’ progress. He also referred me to the
website that his “Physics Bowl” league uses, and how they post the scores of
how students did to compare to local towns (this also ties into the fifth
teacher standard).
When we began talking about how the student Standards are
implemented in his classroom, we quickly realized that they were not. The
students did not use any digital tools in the classroom (with the exception of
basic calculators) for their work; it was all done by hand on paper with
pen/pencil. I began showing him some simulations (I actually went to this blog
to pull up the “Scale of Universe” post) and interactive tools that he could
integrate into the classroom. Although that applet is not immediately relevant to
any topics that the A.P. Physics students, we agreed that it would be a great
experience for the students.
I feel as though this sparked a fire within him,
because we kept looking for more and more online tools and resources that the
students can use; I was surprised to see him take to the idea so quickly! I am
very excited to see how he integrates them into his teaching style, maybe now I
can get him to stop using the “old-school” overhead projector!
As a Future Educator, I believe that implementing these
standards into my lesson is a fairly easy task. In fact, I always imbue my
lesson with some form of technology, both teacher and student centered.
Hopefully, I can show my future colleagues how simple it is to reach students
by using the vast amount of digital tools and resources available to me.
Joe,
ReplyDeleteIt's good to hear your that your teacher was excited about the standards. It's nice to see some "old school" teachers as you mentioned, want to change their methods to keep up with the new standards and new generations. I've noticed that a lot of the teachers interviewed in our class were not always aware of NETS but were usually interested in what they were. I think it's really important for teachers to continuously update their lesson plans, especially regarding technology, because it would be unfair to students if they didn't.
Rob,
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, very well said. The trend seems to be that the students dislike a teacher's classroom the most when they are stuck in that "old school" teaching style and don't bring anything new to the table. I'm not going to lie, I feel the exact same way, even in my college courses!
-Joe