Sally Song, a grade 7 teacher, gave teacher candidates an insight on her choice of technology in the classroom. She has been teaching 7 years altogether and has a passion to teach intermediate grades. She finds technology can be used throughout all grades as observed from K to grade 7 herself.
Sally stated things were much different back in the day as she only witnessed a few types of technology in the classroom. Today, she says things have drastically changed and now you see iPads everywhere. Something that resonated with me was when Sally stated that life got easier when she got Twitter. It helped her open doors to get ideas from education chats, teachers, class blogs, and much more. However, she said she got pretty burned out from keeping up with her twitter blogs, apps, and her personal blog. She realized she needed to slow down and eventually it became a pride thing for her -to get followers, do retweets, make videos, etc. Today, she states that you need to make it meaningful and pick and choose what works for you. Do not think you have to do it all.
Sally’s insight really made me think about picking and choosing because I am the type of person to think -I can do it all. I agree, that you should choose what works for you and go for that rather than burning yourself out for no reason. I think once it becomes a pride thing, it shifts away from it as being meaningful to you. As well, thinking about the overuse of technology- technology should not replace core competencies- students need to think for themselves and be more aware. I think technology should be used as a resource to grasp information but the students need to think what to do with that information. -Highly insightful presentation
I got similar points from Sally’s talk. Especially the part about picking and choosing what works for you. Reflection is important, but you need to do in a way that is meaningful to you, and in a way that doesn’t burn you out. I like how you pointed out that yes, technology should be an important aspect of the classroom, but it shouldn’t be over used.
Totally, you need to pick and choose what’s most important to you. IF you don’t you will be burned out before you know it. Tools are meant to make our lives easier, not harder!