Guest Blogger Entry: Tech in the Elementary Classroom

This guest blog entry was written by Melissa Guillen who is the Resident Principal with AppleTree Early Learning in Washington, DC. Melissa was previously a bilingual teacher at an elementary school within DCPS. She is originally from Peru and is passionate about bilingual education.

To my dear teachers- Para mis queridos maestros:

What does student engagement mean? Does it occur when students pay attention? Does it mean students are on task? In my third year of teaching I was fortunate to have differentiated Professional Development; this meant, I could choose an area of focus based on my needs and prior knowledge.

Our school hired a Technology Instructional Coach that year, and although we had been provided SMART Boards the year before, to most us, the interactive white boards, microphones & iPads looked like foreign objects that we could use, but not to their maximum potential.

I chose Technology Instructional Coaching because being a teacher at a Title 1 school in an urban setting, I saw the remarkable differences on how wealthier children interacted with technology in meaningful ways throughout their educational days and our students had begun to think of technology as solely a tool for play. I wanted to provide the same opportunities for meaningful interactions with technology to my students, I had the tools, it was my duty to put them to action to achieve Educational Equity.

I had slowly self-taught myself how to use the smartboard, but I had not taught my students how to meaningfully interact with this amazing tool to own their learning. During my instructional technology coaching I learned how to use the Smartboard as an independent student-led center for both language arts and math (in English and Spanish) and then the magic started happening.

Many questions raced through my head: How do I keep the students from fighting about who gets to solve a problem first? How can they self-correct their work? Will they be able to get unstuck if they get stuck or will I be hearing multiple requests for help as I do guided reading? There is a big difference between using a smartboard for play and using it in a well-structure manner to grow in your learning. This is something that needs to be explicitly taught to students.

STEPS TO SUCCESS:

1. Using removable hanging hooks and turn taking cards solved the issue of who would go first, a list took care of ensuring each player had a fair turn.


2. The team captain passes out a dry erase marker and a dry erase board to each team member to make sure they perform the smartboard exercise along with the person doing the exercise in the smartboard.


3. Students put their boards up when they are done, this serves a dual purpose: The smartboard student is able to check his/her work using the dry erase boards of their team members while also ensuring that their team members have performed the exercise correctly, bam!

My concerns were put at ease with these systems implemented and I witnessed meaningful student engagement. Our Smartboard was not meant for playing without purpose, technology helped us learn, this is what empowered educated adults know and this is what every student deserves to experience regardless of his or her zip code.

We even had a local high school create stools so that the students could reach the smartboard with more ease. Now I know, that this is what high student engagement looks and feels like, let the magic begin!

This guest blog entry was written by Melissa Guillen who is the Resident Principal with AppleTree Early Learning in Washington, DC. Melissa was previously a bilingual teacher at an elementary school within DCPS. She is originally from Peru and is passionate about bilingual education.