It has been a little over a month in a half since my
last blog and a lot has happened since then.
I am already in my fourth week of my year long student teaching
placement at John Glenn high school (JGHS) in Westland, Michigan. I have been placed with veteran teacher
Michele Anderson in her U.S. history class that is composed up of mainly
eleventh graders with an occasional twelfth grader in her class. I would classify the use and role technology plays
at John Glenn as mediocre at best. The
building, which opened in 1964, still has no wifi which makes using laptops
difficult. I am forced to leave my
laptop stationary in one spot in the corner of the classroom next to the only ethernet
cord in the class. The classes are all equipped
with Dell desktops that are literally 11 years old, which is crazy old
considering the recent technological advances in computing the last few years
alone. Additionally, all classes have an
LCD projector that is used in collaboration with Smart boards. Most of the teachers seem to have a love-hate
relationship with their boards sighting their potential uses and daily
malfunctions and misuses.
The grading and attendance is all
done at JGHS through an on-line program called Zango that is accessible from
any computer. From my experience with
the program thus far I have found it to be exceptionally slow and not very
user-friendly. Through speaking with my
mentor and other John Glenn teachers I have gathered that the program is really
unpopular and more of a pain then a time saver.
Located in JGHS's library is a laptop cart with over 50 laptops and 33
desktop computers available for all students who need to do research or just type
up a document. The student body seems to
be more connected with technology as are most twenty-first century
students. Almost all the students have
cell phones and are always on them during passing period, with cell phone use
being restricted while in class. My teacher Mrs. Anderson uses her Smart board
nearly every class as she displays her PowerPoint on it during lectures. I look forward to gaining more insight on the
use of technology and its role at JGHS as my student teaching internship continues.