So technology has its place in the classroom these days. After all, how do you get caught up on your grading without showing a movie? Lord knows between all the parent phone calls ("How come you didn't call me to tell me my HS senior is failing your class??!!"...uuhhh Because they are a HS senior and if they can't pass my class they shouldn't go to college??), the administrative tasks (like entering attendance for weeks at a time because your over expensive system has lost it, by the way), all that other crap you just don't have time for any grading. I know mine piles up in manilla folders for what seems like forever!
You can twist just about any movie to fit your curriculum, if you are creative enough..which I am. There are even prebuilt websites with assignments and alignment to the national standards. I think membership is like $10 a year or something! Have I joined? No. I'm fighting technology, but make random efforts, when I need to catch up on grading. I'm old school. I keep a paper grade book, paper attendance, and always try to have a back up plan for when technology is going to fail. Notice I said WHEN... because it will. There are no "ifs" in technology. Either your school network will be down, the wireless will be weighted down with student access computers or the internet site you expect to use will make you crazy. It's a 100% guarantee that there will be technology drama when you least want it.
Let's not just talk about movies...let's talk about "real" technology. My school does not have anything to show a movie on but a DVD player, or a MacBook Pro. Everything can be done on the laptop...who needs a dvd or vhs player? Well...besides me??!! I'm still hanging on to those VHS recordings of my favorite movies to show...because I'm too cheap to replace them! I bought them once already!!! We have lcd projectors hanging in every classroom. We have ELMO technology, Promethean Boards, which I have but don't know how to use (which is a shame...it's so cool I hear), and the old school overhead projector.
The thing about all the fancy technology that is out there is....it's no XBox 360 or Nintendo Wii so kids don't care. When I was a kid we played space invaders with a single button remote on Atari (and all the ghosts looked pretty much the same), there was no internet, cell phones came in a bag and still had a CORD, and we watched film strips. Kids these days have no idea how far we've come.
When I became a teacher I used to spend my days and nights figuring out ways to perform a 3 ring circus in my classroom so kids will be entertained at school....then I remembered...this. is. school. The point here is to learn something. It's not my job to be a clown! I have just about one in every class anyways; sure would hate to swipe their glory with my act anyways!
Here's the thing about technology. You feel obligated to it, because 1. the school bought it. 2. kids like it, and 3. That movie day sure is a great grading day, but it IS going to malfunction and it will really screw your day up. I know the love/hate relationship will live on as long as there is technology in school. I'm accepting it. It's sort of like agreeing to disagree and driving. You know...that a-hole is going to do the most a-hole thing a driver can do, and is going to do it front of you. Technology is the driver in front of you that slams on their breaks because they think you are tail gating. Somedays you have to just flip it the bird and move on.
Trench Teacher...out.
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