Week #2 Understanding how technology is used to support ELA instruction.

I recently took the opportunity to interview an ELA teacher to learn how technology is integrated in her teaching to facilitate young learners’ language and literacy development. After all her students were settled and working I got a few moments to chat with Mrs. Buch. It was already obvious to me that she was for integrating technology in the classroom and I had already witnessed one instance in which she had used it to foster student learning. Still, I still had some questions that I wanted to ask her about. I wanted to know exactly what technology she uses, how she plans her lessons to integrate technology and what challenges she has chanced upon. Mrs. Buch explained to me that since integrating technology in her classroom is important to her, she tries to include technology at least once a day. She does feel that technology is a tool that can and should be used to promote better learning of students however she did warn me not to abuse technology so that the students forget what it means to learn in the traditional text book manner.

Since she has a smartboard and individual computers she can integrate technology both to visually show students about what they are learning and to allow her students to create projects based on content area. When I asked her which of the two is more important she told me that she feels it is important to have a balance. I then asked Mrs. Buch about the one challenge that has come up since she started integrating technology. Mrs. Buch explained that the hardest part is making sure the activities are well balanced and learning based. She told me very clearly that a teacher must plan very carefully so that technology integration promotes higher thinking skills. She also told me that it is insufficient to solely use technology to show students on the computer but rather it is vital to also allow students to be creators and innovators.

When I asked her about what set her belief that technology in the classroom is beneficial, she didn’t wait a minute and responded.  “With technology students that don’t necessarily star can become the stars.” She then proceeded to tell me the following story; in a high school class she was teaching she had a student who was having major problems at home. This student figured out a way to make music by getting the computer to play certain letters by certain powers and it changed the musical tone of the note, and she actually wrote a piece. He stayed in every recess. When I asked her what she was working on, she wouldn't tell me. Then one day she asked if she could put her HyperCard stack on my computer because it was hooked up to speakers. I said "sure" and at recess she put it on my computer and played the music that literally stopped the room. For months after that she had kids begging her at recess, every recess, to teach them how to make music. And for that particular kid, it was the world because she really was not successful academically and was having lots of problems. This experience really changed her for that school year. After this story, Mrs. Buch went on to say, I realized that if technology can do this to a kid out of the classroom, there must be so many lives that can be changed when technology is used in the classroom as a learning tool.

Since then, Mrs. Buch tries to integrate technology in all subject areas. The area in which she uses it most is obviously during Literacy instruction. Mrs. Buch gave me a short tutorial on her laptop, in which she showed me some software and websites she uses to help students as they learn to become independent readers and writers.

I thanked Mrs. Buch profusely and allowed her to get back to the job she did best.