Zoe Girl
11-1-14, 9:27pm
Here is one of my gripes, I don't gripe about my families much but today I want to! (I sat with this all week before deciding I wanted to vent)
I was in the office I share with the family liaison, she is awesome and works with families with resources and engagement, I do all the out of school time (OST) programming. It is a good fit. There was a parent we both know hanging out before the Halloween parties and chatting with us. Part of what we hear is the parents sharing issues with the school. The school has a type of project learning model that we can help the parents understand better, and of course they have valid concerns. I got frustrated this time and at least think I did a good job explaining. What she was saying was the general "The teachers aren't teaching because there are computers and i-pads in the classroom". I had just attended a technology in education training on that Saturday to see how I could support school day in my OST programs like homework. It was pretty amazing. They showed that one school had teachers share and create a shared presentation for the entire school in about 20 minutes by using Google presentations. I saw examples of students peer editing papers using google docs, teachers creating easy systems for students who missed a day or needed extra help to review a lesson, and examples of work and projects completed independantly by the 'fast finishers'. The teachers who have been working this technology into the classroom over the last few years reported having higher engagement by students and MORE time to work individually with struggling students because they are more efficient with other parts of instruction. This can be a very thoughtful use of technology and the presenters were quite aware of the risk of just putting kids in front of a computer. For example the peer editing still needs quite a bit of instruction to teach the skills, however once the students are working the teacher can see who is actively in google docs and working rather than hoping the kid in the back is not just writing notes. The opportuity for a child after school to access a lesson if they struggle in homework club is thrilling. Sorry, very geeky excited.
So the complaining parent does not read her weekly 'folder' of information, comes to me to personally tell her about OST classes and yet has signed up for the email version. We have computers for adults in our family center room but she is uncomfortable reading email or going to my website where the calendar and all classes are listed. She has not talked to the teacher or observed how the technology is used in the classroom, she simply wants to say technology is not educating, while she herself is limited by her unwillingness to learn the basic technology that is required. Have I mentioned we have tried multiple times to have adult computer literacy classes and no one signs up? Already I am seeing not just parents reliant on children to speak English for them (we have offered ESL classes as well) but now the children are helping them with basic technology such as email and website access. You cannot even apply for a job without going on a computer anymore.
Okay, whew, that was a load of stuff to get out of my system.
I was in the office I share with the family liaison, she is awesome and works with families with resources and engagement, I do all the out of school time (OST) programming. It is a good fit. There was a parent we both know hanging out before the Halloween parties and chatting with us. Part of what we hear is the parents sharing issues with the school. The school has a type of project learning model that we can help the parents understand better, and of course they have valid concerns. I got frustrated this time and at least think I did a good job explaining. What she was saying was the general "The teachers aren't teaching because there are computers and i-pads in the classroom". I had just attended a technology in education training on that Saturday to see how I could support school day in my OST programs like homework. It was pretty amazing. They showed that one school had teachers share and create a shared presentation for the entire school in about 20 minutes by using Google presentations. I saw examples of students peer editing papers using google docs, teachers creating easy systems for students who missed a day or needed extra help to review a lesson, and examples of work and projects completed independantly by the 'fast finishers'. The teachers who have been working this technology into the classroom over the last few years reported having higher engagement by students and MORE time to work individually with struggling students because they are more efficient with other parts of instruction. This can be a very thoughtful use of technology and the presenters were quite aware of the risk of just putting kids in front of a computer. For example the peer editing still needs quite a bit of instruction to teach the skills, however once the students are working the teacher can see who is actively in google docs and working rather than hoping the kid in the back is not just writing notes. The opportuity for a child after school to access a lesson if they struggle in homework club is thrilling. Sorry, very geeky excited.
So the complaining parent does not read her weekly 'folder' of information, comes to me to personally tell her about OST classes and yet has signed up for the email version. We have computers for adults in our family center room but she is uncomfortable reading email or going to my website where the calendar and all classes are listed. She has not talked to the teacher or observed how the technology is used in the classroom, she simply wants to say technology is not educating, while she herself is limited by her unwillingness to learn the basic technology that is required. Have I mentioned we have tried multiple times to have adult computer literacy classes and no one signs up? Already I am seeing not just parents reliant on children to speak English for them (we have offered ESL classes as well) but now the children are helping them with basic technology such as email and website access. You cannot even apply for a job without going on a computer anymore.
Okay, whew, that was a load of stuff to get out of my system.