At the start of this course, I considered myself somewhere in the middle between being a digital immigrant and a digital native. I was a techno traditionalist. I have a smart phone/laptop/personal home computer. I am able to navigate through social media sites, create a power point and use my Elmo and Mimio Board daily in my classroom. I email and text constantly as my main form of communication between my colleagues and parents, with my skating students and friends and family. I knew how to use some of the devices at a basic level rather than the more advanced levels. This project demonstrates a more recent shift that I had made to a more techno constructivist position. Creating classroom accounts on Instagram and Remind to share with my students and their families was the first step in the direction of a becoming a techno-constructivist. I was also successful in creating my blog that consisted of adding images, text, video, and other external links using many tools that I had not previously used. I am able to explore and understand more advanced tools. The two apps I explored for this project that support the home school connection also supports my goal of exploring resources from the Digital Toolbox to expand my knowledge of relevant digital materials that can be integrated into my classroom as well as my professional and personal life.
Final Narrative Reflection
Who am I ? Where did my journey as a teacher begin and where has it taken me? I started my narrative by writing all about my excitement for my first job as a 2nd grade teacher. I couldn’t wait to use all I had learned from my coursework and student teaching…...I was fresh out of college and eager to be an enthusiastic and engaging teacher who had tons of great ideas to share with my students. As I reread the opening to my narrative I realized this was not where I had actually started and I was not that teacher. In reality I had been stuck on the subbing Ferris wheel in the Warwick School Department for the past 6 years…….I thought the longer I stayed on the ride the greater my chances would be to get hired full time. I was feeling frustrated with not having my own classroom, tired because I was working 2-3 jobs to support myself, and felt as a teacher who had been out of college for 6 years; my ideas and instructional strategies were stale. I wasn’t always able to use what I had learned because I was always following other teacher’s lesson plans. I contemplated changing careers but despite feeling defeated my core beliefs as a teacher were still strong. I needed to take action. I enrolled in a Master’s Program at PC and earned my certification as a Reading Specialist. I immediately started interviewing for jobs and I was offered a position as a Reading Specialist in 3 different school systems... I accepted a position with South Kingstown. My career as a reading specialist at Peace Dale Elementary was short lived and after only 1 year in my dream job I was bumped out and assigned a 2nd grade position at Wakefield elementary. Although I was disappointed, I was excited to finally have my own classroom where I could create,plan and teach based on my core beliefs. I was eager to start my new adventure!!
Over the next few years I was learning how to juggle my career, the birth of my son and the demands of ever changing curriculum. I worked with amazing teachers and taught funny, inquisitive and sometimes challenging 7 year olds. Each year I grew more confident in my teaching. Time was flying by and I soon realized I had just spent 7 years in room 13. My son Riley started 1st grade this past fall. I was filled with mixed emotions. I was in a new role as a parent of a student not the teacher. I was hoping his classroom would provide him with opportunities to show what he knew and encourage him to ask questions. Wesch and I both agree children need to be in a community that values them. I was hoping this community would be present in my son’s classroom. I look forward to asking my son about his day. His typical response is: “fine”, Turkle would applaud my efforts in trying to engage my son in a conversation but this was a difficult task. Turkle states that in today’s society we are essentially sacrificing conversations for connections. I needed to find away to get his attention. I began checking his class Instagram and asked him specific questions about pictures that were posted. Wesch would applaud my use of technology to drive this conversation. Wesch embraces this sudden shift in technology. He describes media by saying, “Media are not tools or means of communication, but media mediates relationships.” I was excited that my son’s teacher was using technology to communicate with her families but became frustrated after Riley’s 1st report card came home. And there it was…..a giant C+ ….I was thinking OK maybe it was in Math but then I saw it was in reading. I was a reading specialist….how could this happen? I was so upset his teacher didn’t reach out to me.... Where was the communication? These 2 very different experiences I had with Riley’s teacher got me to think about my communication with parents. I sent out a classroom newsletters and I would email or call parents with any concerns. I was giving my parents the communication that I lacked from my son's teacher but was not providing the type of communication that benefited all my families. I needed to make these interactions as productive as possible. But how?
I believe the home-school connection is so important in a child's education. We should all have one common focus and goal, and that is the success of a child. A strong connection between teacher-parent and student fosters learning for everyone and in the end makes a positive difference in the school experience. In our school, classroom newsletter are expected by all teachers. I started out strong and communicated with my parents weekly all the on-goings of our classroom, but I started to notice my newsletter's were becoming less frequent. I was struggling with finding time.. I wondered if parents were even reading them. Was I sending home a newsletter just to pacify my principal….was it reflective of my belief?
Both parents and teachers have an important role to play; their roles do not replace but rather complement and reinforce the other’s role, thus providing the student with a consistent message about reading and learning. Thinking of parents and teachers as “partners” refers to this mutual effort toward a shared goal. It also implies shared responsibility of parents and teachers for supporting students as learners (Christenson & Sheridan, 2001).
We've all heard of communication as being a two-way street. As teachers when do we reach out to parents? Is it only when a student is struggling with academics or their behavior is interfering with their learning? Are we expecting parents to initiate communication first? Actions speak louder than words….. maybe as teachers we need to take that initial step towards communicating with all parents both positive and negative information. Do both parties assume no news is good news? Technology has changed the way we teach..in these changing times, teachers must develop and expand their skills to maximize effective communication with parents. Today, More than 90 percent of families own a mobile device, I am hoping regular updates on my students learning and growth can encourage families to engage in more learning-related activities at home.
I started to explore new types of technology that would be more accessible to my digital native families. I checked out Blogger but realized I would be using it just to use it not actually producing anything that reflected my beliefs. The time it would take to maintain a blog and my apprehension towards blogging would not benefit my students and their families. In today’s society many people use social media in their daily lives. Creating a classroom Instagram account is a great way to share information and photos of daily classroom life and upcoming school events. My son’s teacher had a private classroom account and it was a great way to initiate conversations with him. I was able to ask more specific questions about his day based on the pictures that were posted. I’m excited to try out Remind as another form of communicating with my parents. It offers teachers a FREE and safe way to send out information (texts, pictures, documents, links). This website and app allows teachers to communicate with parents and students who have a smartphone without using their real cellphone number. Teachers create their Remind account and parents sign up for the reminders with a code. I wanted to give my parents the opportunity to have an active link to the classroom. Having Instagram and Remind has the potential to grow parent’s interest and involvement. It could help with participating in home activities and support student’s quality of learning. I am excited to see how my parents will respond. These apps will support my transition from techno-traditionalist to techno-constructivist. Throughout this project and my journey of who I am and what I believe I’ve made some realizations from my experiences in the classroom and as a parent. I’ve realized that we’re all on the same team and we need to be supportive of each other. All parents have a genuine desire for their children to be successful at whatever they’re doing. I believe teachers have that same desire.
So in the end……….
If you give parents communication they will
- become more involved with their child's learning.
- when they become more involved with their child’s learning they will get ideas from the teacher on how to support their child.
- When a child sees their parents being involved,, they will show a more positive attitude about homework and school.
- So, with clear expectations and a supportive team behind them, kids are more likely to perform and do their best.
- When kids are motivated to do their best, teacher morale is improved.
- And chances are when teacher morale is improved, teachers are free to focus on the task of teaching children.
