Yesterday was the last day of the summer semester, and we were fortunate enough to have a group of former SecMAC students come to talk about their experiences in the program, in their current placements, and in their use of technology.
The most surprising thing is that they all want to use and develop neat things to do with technology in their classrooms, but they might not be able to. For example - one school has a lot of technology equipment, but it none of it is functional (either out of date, or there is no administrative support to do so)! It is eye opening to hear that, although we are being trained in this program to use the latest and greatest teaching technology, we might not be able to use it! Or, there is a chance that my grand ideas about having students research water politics in Bolivia might take much longer than expected, because students might not know how to do research (This of course makes sense, but I had gotten used to the practice of researching done by college students, so I would have to modify that lesson to include how exactly to do research online, and how to get information that is within their ability leve)
The discussion made me think that even thought I have many ideas about how I will use technology in my Spanish classes, which is such a bummer! I think I've come across in this blog as super excited about how to use what I'm learning in my classrooms, and the thought that I might not be able to do is disheartening. It
The former students did give me some ideas in terms of coping with whatever my situation may be. One technique that I will likely use is called http://www.zamzar.com/, and it is a tool that allows you to download YouTube videos. The benefit of this site is that you can get around the probably YouTube ban on the school's internet, and it will play without internet as well to avoid any connection issues. Another technique that I will use is the Librarian / Media Center Specialist. This faculty member would be useful when teaching the students how to properly search on the internet, or how to use the technological tools that the school has.
So I leave for this summer break thinking about the technology in my placement, how I can take advantage of it while I'm there, and how I can cope with whatever is thrown (or not thrown) at me in the years to come. This course is teaching me invaluable techniques for the classroom, and I am determined to use some of the tools I have blogged about in my own classrooms!
Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible' - Audrey Hepburn