Drugs... and Technology

The information I learned as we studied the drug, alcohol and tobacco problem in our schools was startling. I grew up in a place where there just wasn’t a lot of people going out on the weekends and drinking, at least before high school. If there was stuff like this going on in middle school I was totally oblivious to it… but after hearing some of the statistics about drug and alcohol use before high school I began to wonder if it may be that I was just oblivious. When I heard this information I began thinking of the fifth grade students that I will be student teaching and I wondered…. could some of them be exposed to or engaging in the use of alcohol and drugs already? ‘No way!’ was my initial reply (to myself J). I’m going to be teaching in a school that runs a pretty tight ship, kids don’t get away with much and the things they are getting in trouble for are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, but only time will tell- I am realizing that I have no idea what these kids are really dealing with at home and socially. Talking about this topic gave me a loud wake up call that I need to consider how I would approach such an issue with my students, even if they are in elementary school, if the topic came up.

The discussion on technology at AMS really got my blood pumping. I know that the discussion leaders were playing devil’s advocate a bit in their discussion prompts, but the perspective of using technology on such a large scale- to the exclusion of hands on learning with physical manipulatives and… PAPER really drives me crazy. I can’t help but think of the school across the street from our convent in St. Joe where there are 2 smart boards in the whole school and the rest of the teachers have an overhead projector and that’s all. No laptops. No clickers. No internet in the classroom. Yet quality education goes on there every day, even in the 8 classrooms that don’t have smartboards. I hate to think that some people would say we are doing a disservice to these students just because they don’t have technology readily available. However, they CAN think, problem solve, create original projects, look words up in a dictionary when they need to, and effectively communicate with adults and peers. Not to mention that they are being formed with God as the center of their lives and if that isn’t quality education, I’m not sure what is. At the end of the day, I see such great possibilities in using technology in the classroom, and if it is available I fully intend to make use of it every day, but I am also very confident that if I end up teaching across the street in St. Joe, I can be a great teacher and form excellent, highly motivated, intelligent students without these tools.