Hello and welcome to my blog, classmates!
My name is Brittaney Cover, and I have taught high school English (English 9, English 10, 10 Honors, and British Literature) at a parochial school in Westland for the last three years. In addition to that, I am also an assistant director for our drama program. I just adore teaching and learning from my students in both capacities. Next year will be year 6 for me, and I have a feeling it will be the best yet.
Interestingly enough, I am moving into a brand new classroom this upcoming school year, complete with a Promethean Board and 30 Microsoft Surface Pros, which includes one for myself. They are gutting it entirely this summer. I picked out new carpet, paint, student tables, chairs, bookcases, teacher desk, cabinets, etc. Exciting, right?! However, here's the very real kicker: I am the only one at my small school receiving this (at least this year). I originally felt utterly alone when it came to transforming my teaching practices and assignments to fit the digital classroom structure. However, I soon realized I wasn't alone at all: I have an Instagram community of supportive teachers from all over the country who want to help. They have already given me great advice and pointed me in the right direction. See, that's what is so great about technology/social media: it provides a platform for teachers to reach out to other teachers from all over the world in an accessible manner. We need each other's help/support and shouldn't be ashamed to admit that.
I wholeheartedly believe in integrating "new literacies" into the English curriculum, in addition to traditional literacies of the past. I don't think teachers have a choice anymore, if they want to ensure students are adequately prepared for their digital futures. As stated in the text, almost all jobs today require knowledge of technology of some degree (Hutchison and Colwell). I think the inclusion of technology in the curriculum can provide an audience for students, which like the text says, students are used to having on social media, and will therefore, make assessments more authentic for them, which in the end, only increases intrinsic motivation. I especially love the idea of moving reading response to the online blog format next year. in order to accomplish this. According to Hutchison and Colwell, "students become more aware of their writing and [hone] writing skills as they [are] more conscientious of writing that their classmates [will] also read" (13). This is just one way I will be able to use "new literacy" skills to support traditional literacy skills. "New literacy" skills can provide a platform for either accomplishing the traditional literacy skill or as a means to share it with others for collaborative learning.
Unfortunately, my students haven't had much access to technology in the past. We have a computer lab, but it is filled with classes during most periods of the school day. We also have laptops you can check out, but it would often take 10 minutes or more just to log on (and even then, sometimes they do not work, and they have to grab a new one, and then we are back to square one, again), and when your class periods are only 45 minutes long to begin with, it's hard to accomplish much. This is why I am so ecstatic about my classroom setup next year.
Still, I found ways to make it work. I would have my students bring in their phones, and we would use various technology tools that could be accessed on those devices. For instance, we would use Polleverywhere.com, which is a site that projects a question to students, and then the chart updates automatically with their responses, to start class discussions, as it made it more engaging for me them to visually see how their classmates felt about a particular topic/text before diving into it. I have used Remind101.com not only to keep in contact with students/parents, but also as a platform for them to submit their work to me. For instance, after reading "The Pardoner's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales, I asked my students to take pictures using Snapchat on their phones that captured the theme, rising action, important symbols, etc. and then asked them to screenshot them and send to me via Remind101. I knew it was important to work with what I had for the sake of my students' best interests.
Next year, though! Oh, the possibilities are endless, and I just can't wait. My school currently uses Office 365 and that will allow my students to digitally submit their work to me. Something I am especially excited, concerning my classroom next year, is about is how this will change the classroom environment and the role of the teacher/students. According to Hutchison and Colwell, students will be collaborating, using digital tools etc. and "the teacher may need to act more as a facilitator and enabler rather than always providing direct instruction" (3). In addition, there will be "more increased opportunities for students to make choices about how they receive information and demonstrate learning." I love the sound of this. This is much more interactive. This is how 21st century kids learn.
Right now, my students passively receive information/lessons through technology instead of discovering, processing, or applying their learning for the most part. So, it is not active, which is one of the "attributes of technology integration that leads to effective learning environments" (Hutchison and Colwell 26). I want to change this now that the technology will be available to me. I love the idea of creating a long-range plan for technology integration (which I think is one of the assignments for our class) because it makes the task feel less daunting. Plus, it will keep my lessons focused on the instructional goal, as opposed to using technology for the sake of technology alone.
Obstacles will come, I know. Integrating "new literacies" in the classroom in a meaningful manner will not be pretty at first, but I don't expect it to be. I anticipate encountering issues with the internet server, still. I may have to deal with a slow internet from time to time or the server going down entirely. This means I will need to have alternative plans in place. I am also a little worried about students becoming distracted with the content at hand and that student activity will be difficult to monitor. However, my hope is that providing highly engaging lessons/assignments will take care of most of that. We shall see! I am looking forward to this wild ride!
