A Teacher's Journal: The Road to Irrelevance?

I really do think that public schools are becoming somewhat irrelevant and obsolete to our kids. We literally "unplug" them each time that they set foot into our doors----and more importantly, we disregard (disrespect?) the ways that they've chosen to create, communicate and collaborate. While they've embraced social networking tools and online applications, we've resisted making them a part of our instruction.

Teachers tend to operate from the belief that students have the responsibility to adapt to our instruction, rather than the belief that we have an obligation to adapt our instruction to our students. In fact, we sometimes get belligerent when our students seem bored in class, taking it as a personal insult rather than a reflection of instruction that doesn't match the interests of the kids in our class.

I'm not sure that this "resistance to change" is a result of lethargy, though. Instead, it's a result of the lack of time and effective professional development about how to best integrate new technologies into the classroom.

For me, embracing a new instructional practice----whether it uses technology or not----takes hundreds of hours. I have to read about the practice and have my interest piqued. Then, I have to see it in action in other places. Then, I need to design a "first stab" at making the practice a reality in my room. Then, I need to tailor it to meet the demands of my own setting and my own lessons. Then, I need to fail a few times and hunt out solutions from peers who are using the practice effectively.

All of that takes a massive amount of time....and with technology, the adoption process is only longer because many teachers aren't drawn to digital tools to begin with! "Mastery" is always more challenging when the tools are new.

I think the barrier we face is one that we've wrestled with forever: In our country, professional development isn't valued or supported. Time away from kids for teachers is seen by the general public as wasted time. Until we can change that flawed perception, we'll struggle to get teachers to embrace any new instructional practice because they recognize that "growth" means unpaid efforts long after the school day has ended.