To Everything, There is a Season

In the first half of class on Friday Cohort B met with a panel of former MAC students. The teacher who spoke first teaches at my alma mater, Detroit Country Day! In my last blog, I discussed the 1:1 program the school implemented when I was in middle school. I was excited to ask our visitor about how that program had improved since my high school days. From what she said, it sounds like they have made huge strides. First of all, the school is now wireless. Having to figure out how everyone was going to plug in their Ethernet cables and still sit in a reasonable arrangement always took up quite a bit of time. Sometimes we were allowed to take notes on the computers without an internet connection. This prevented the distraction of the internet, but I still spent many class periods playing Minesweeper. It sounds, however, that she has personally developed ways to make sure students remain on task. She said that if they are using their computers for class work she makes them produce some sort of final product before the end of class. While she can’t prevent the distraction completely, she does what she can. After class, it was fun to talk with her and have her fill me in on what teachers are still there and how everyone is doing. I will definitely try to keep in touch with her as I move through the program and look for jobs in the future.

It was also very interesting to learn about the Catherine Ferguson Academy in Detroit from another one of our visitors. I had never heard of the school, but it seems like they are doing wonderful things! Pregnant and parenting teens are a high-risk group and the fact that there is a school dedicated to helping these students graduate is incredible. They are also moving toward a project-based curriculum and some of their students are doing work with tiny houses. I have yet to Google the protests that occurred when the school was at risk of closing, but I intend to look into it more after my papers are completed. I would love to visit this school in the future. Our visitor also discussed that they have an urban farm on campus! They grow their own food and keep their own goats and chickens.

The discussion in the second half of class got pretty heated. Perhaps it was sleep deprivation, but the song Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds popped into my head and stayed there for the last hour. I realize that the lyrics are from the Bible, but I do not intend for this to be a religious message. As my fellow MACers were sharing their opinions, I saw a divide in the class between those who were desperate to cling to education without recent technology that we are used to and those who are open and excited to learn how to incorporate new technological methods into the classroom. My opinion is completely defined by the quote, “To everything, there is a season.” Things are changing. We can’t stop it. So we may as well embrace it.

Our instructor made a point during the discussion that resonated with me. She said that when she was teaching in the early 80s the internet was in its infancy. Most teachers and students did not have access to the resources we have now. That was 30 years ago and look how far things have come. We use the internet to do research in every class. She then asked us to think of those 30 years as the “lifespan of the teacher.” Where will we be 30 years from now? Things will be radically different and we have to brace ourselves for that. This begins with keeping up to date with the latest technologies so that we are able to make informed decisions about what will work best in our classes. Things will continue to change and we will have to adapt.