Thursday, June 22, 2006

Excuses: Would we accept these from our students?

Loved this recent post on the Bump on the Blog which referenced Jim Holland's article, When Teachers Don’t Get It: Myths, Misconceptions, and other Taradiddle. His comments echo much of what I believe and he states it quite eloquently.
As always, our aim is to model lifelong learning...and to be honest with ourselves. Would we accept these excuses from our students? So why do we accept these in ourselves? Do you find yourself saying any of these statements about integrating technology into your classrooms:
"I don't have time"
"We don't have any good software to use"
"I am not a computer person"
"My students can't behave - they don't deserve to go to the computer lab"

And he finishes with these thoughts:
So, let’s not beat around the bush and put a pretty face on what we call our schools’ technology instruction. If it’s free time in a computer lab, call it high-tech recess. If it’s prescriptive drill and kill software, call it a substitute teacher. If it’s a lack of knowledge, call it refusing to learn. If a class can’t behave well enough to earn computer lab privileges, call it classroom mismanagement. But if it’s a teacher who does whatever it takes to use whatever tool is available to give students every opportunity to learn — call that success — a teacher who gets it.

It's the summer - time to rejuvenate, time for learning and time to get it.

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