Last Friday, my 3 week professional experience came to an end. I was exhausted but excited and had an absolutely amazing experience. My mentor was a very experienced teacher and was very detailed in the feedback, suggestions and advice that she gave me. Her major focuses were on my classroom and behavior management and implementing explicit teaching strategies which was fantastic. Although my mentor was happy for me to incorporate some ICTs into my lessons, this was much less of a focus for her. So while I feel confident that I have utilized ICTs to enhance student learning, I am somewhat disappointed that some of the plans I had going into professional experience did not eventuate and these were probably the ones that would have transformed student learning the most.
Three factors involved in this situation included lack of, or very limited resources in my classroom, my Mentor’s beliefs in using ICT in the classroom and the reality of what was just not possible under the current ICT policies of the school.
ICTs that were available to me included 1 lesson a week in the computer lab, an IWB in the classroom and 2 iPads. I used each of these resources many times over the 3 weeks. My mentor was very skilled at using the IWB for teacher instruction and uses the Smart Notebook collaborative learning software. She has resources saved in her Smart Notebook for just about everything that needed to be modelled and demonstrated, particularly in numeracy. Unfortunately, she wasn’t a fan of having the students use the IWB. I had a couple of lessons planed that involved the students engaging with interactive games and manipulatives on the IWB however my mentor did not approve of having students come up to do this.
The two lessons that I was excited about and had planned to transform student learning, did not eventuate due to the current policy of the school. While I had looked into the ICT policy of the school and the department, what is hard to find out until you try it, is what sites are blocked from access. I had arranged as part of their geography unit about connecting with others in other areas, a Skype hookup with another class in our city where students could communicate and ask questions of each other. Unfortunately, Skype (and similar applications) was blocked and would have taken a lengthy application process to unblock. Obviously if I was the actual teacher, I would have pursued that, however as a student teacher, I had to take the advice of my mentor that it wasn’t going to be possible in my 3 weeks.
The other use of ICT I had planned was to use Plickers. Prior to beginning my professional experience I made the Plickers cards, made them early years friendly by putting an extra piece on the back with the A-B-C-D in larger letters and set up my class list online. Sadly again, the site was blocked. Similarly to the Skype issue, an application could have been made to unblock but it wouldn’t have occurred in my 3 weeks. There is an option to use a mobile phone, however I am aware of some schools recommendations in their code of conduct about not using personal devices in the classroom. So….. my two exciting lessons, became my two disappointments.
I think ICTs in the classroom in the future will be very exciting, I just don’t think some of our schools are quite up with the technology presented in this course.
Jodie Howard 