Old School

Technology is different in schools now compared to when I was the age of the kids that I teach. When I was in early elementary school, we would each sit down at a computer in the lab, insert a floppy disk, and play an educational game for a half hour. That was literally it. 

In one of the schools where I teach, first graders are learning how to make their own Word documents and second graders are learning how to use Power Point. Theoretically, this is a good thing. In actuality, it's a nightmare to teach. Half the kids, halfway through the year, still don't know how to even log in to their own computers. Either they don't know how to type or use a mouse properly, they don't know their password, or they have limited English comprehension. Even though you instruct them to stay at their computer and raise their hand if they're having problems, and this is always how all the teachers instruct them to ask for help, they come up to you or shout across the room for you nonstop. If you're lucky, a few bright ones in the group get it and then help a few others that don't. If more than half accomplish the task, I consider it a success. Clearly the young ones really need to master the basics before these more complex tasks are thrown at them. 

Over the years, the kids become incredibly proficient with technology. The sixth graders have mastered several complex programs and can edit their own video projects independently. Another school where I work allows the year five and six students to BYOD (bring your own device) to do their research work. 

Sometimes the reliance on technology becomes a crutch. I had to tell one class during Art that they had to put their tablets away because they kept trying to look up pictures to draw instead of coming up with their own ideas. I also can't remember how many times I've caught children playing games or looking up things they shouldn't have been when they had work to do. Even the teachers - they sometimes make these elaborate plans on the interactive notebook, but then neglect to leave me their password so I can't access anything and have to come up with my own plan. 

With all of this focus on technology, I it was refreshing to spend a recent day at a school where the focus was more on age-appropriate activities for the young kids. All the kindergarten classes came together while the assistant principal played piano and just sang silly songs and played music games with them. For forty-five minutes there were about 80 children involved and and there was not one child that misbehaved. At the end of the day, there was a free period where the children had their choice of where and what they wanted to play. They could wander between the classroom and a larger room with lots of choices like puppets, blocks, dress up clothes, legos, drawing, etc. The rules for teachers were relaxed too - I could float in and out of the room just generally keeping an eye on my kids, and the other teachers on the floor did the same and we had no problems. When the kids are given opportunities to act like kids, they're generally more relaxed and better behaved, and so the teachers! I wish more schools had this attitude.