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.
