Teachers Share Tips for Putting New Tech Hardware to Best Use
By Robyn Meadows
It’s not enough to put fancy technological gadgets in classrooms.
So language arts teachers from the county and region gathered at Warwick High School Wednesday to share the impact of Classrooms for the Future on students.
Classrooms for the Future is a technology grant program, run by the state, that has delivered about $5 million in the past two years to the 10 local school districts participating.
The school districts use the money to equip their classrooms with electronic whiteboards, laptops and digital projectors, and for technology coaches to help teachers build classrooms for the 21st century.
(A whiteboard, by the way, is like a large computer chalkboard or projector.)
But without a strong curriculum and some imagination, the technology devices are just hardware.
The 150 English teachers came to Warwick to learn from each other and share countless teaching methods that can come with technology – how they are engaging students and what successes they are witnessing in student achievement.
“I’ve seen improvements (in writing) that I couldn’t have imagined,” said Brian Earley, a Manheim Township High School teacher who attended. “I have students on the lower level who will work their tails off.”
He said one way he already uses technology is to record voice comments on electronic versions of students’ essays. They tend not to read his feedback when he writes it, but speaking it grabs their attention.
Warwick High School teacher Mary Hall and Tara Goodrich, a teacher from Central York School District, created a collaborative project that involved their students analyzing “Romeo and Juliet.”
The two teachers, however, had never met in person until Wednesday, when they told other teachers what their students were doing.
Using a computer software program called Moodle, students from both schools could respond to questions on the play online and and comment on each others’ responses.
As a way to excite the students about the play, they focused on the theme, “the origins of violence.”
“Romeo and Juliet” has it all, gang violence, child abuse, Hall said.
Kids who never talk, talked.
“This was the only time (one student) was awake all year was during these discussions,” Hall said.
Tammy Ficca, who teaches speech at Manheim Township High School, gave a presentation on podcasting, an Internet-based video broadcast.
Student speeches are podcast, so the students can watch each speech and see where they need to improve.
One female student watched herself on a podcast and noticed she kept flipping her hair, so she worked on eliminating the bad habit, Ficca said.
Students watch the podcast of their speeches on iTunes, an online program to download music, videos or podcasts from the Internet.
Leslie Arnold has been teaching language arts at Solanco High School for 30 years. Solanco School District received $427,158 this year to equip classrooms with technology.
Arnold said her whiteboard is up, and she’s still learning its ins and outs.
She says she’s loved what technology can do for students since the birth of the Internet.
“I tell my kids that the classroom as you know it won’t exist one day,” she said.
The teacher’s mentality of what a classroom should sound and look like is transforming as well.
The old thinking was that “everybody needed to be quiet and listen to learn.”
“Three years ago, if I told a kid who was talking while I was teaching to repeat back what I said, they would have had no idea,” Arnold said.
Not anymore. Today’s students are digitally savvy. Their brains multitask.
They can repeat back to Arnold what she said.
Warwick plans to hold future sessions for teachers on technology in science and social studies classrooms.
CONTACT US: rmeadows@LNPnews.com or 481-6025
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