YAY for Human Contact!

Why would I be willing to try process drama in my classroom?  Honestly, I would be willing to try it simply for the fact that my students will have to interact with one another outside of the realm of text messaging.  I have witnessed several examples of poor social skills in my student observations, and in my opinion this is ridiculous.  Kids rely on technology far to much for communication and we are losing the common social skills that generations past have taken for granted.  For instance, kids need to learn to react to each other without the protection of an electronic device.  Using an emoticon does NOT give you the right to be nasty to someone else.  I really think that students struggle with this!

Anyway, back to process drama and Pirie's quote the "[one] function of drama [...] is its compelling invitiation to widen our focus beyond the individual, to include interactions with others and with contexts " (p. 51).  I agree!  Kids need to interact with each other and the texts in a way that is concrete and real.  Sure they can do it via the computer, but I like the added challenge of forcing students to be in the same room to complete a project.  Imagine that?!  It's also important for works that were meant to be seen and not read (like Shakespeare's plays), and students need to understand how both the text and the stage directions work together.  It would also force them to understand tone and purpose as a lot of what they will be doing is left up to their interpretation.  So of course I would try this in my classroom because the benefits far outweigh my concerns!

It's Been a Long Week

Ok, perhaps I'm just being cynical, but what is the benefit of doing literature circles online?  It's cute in theory, but the same thing can be accomplished with good ol pen and paper, and considering the problems that technology can introduce in the classroom (technical difficulties, distraction, cyberbullying) is this really worth it?  I think that this was just a desperate attempt to reach students that is pointless in a real classroom.  Sorry, but I'll be sticking with the good old fashioned way of doing things for this particular activity.

The Logistics of Technology

What I've noticed while in field is that sometimes the difficulties of using technology outweigh the benefits.  For instance, I watched several students waste class time when their laptops wouldn't work properly, and several teachers experienced technical difficulty as well.  I just don't know if it is worth the hassle in all instances.

That being said though, in the yearbook room I saw students flourish with the help of technology.  Students were engaged, creative, and excited about their work.  However, this goes back to a point that I made previously in that maybe technology is best left to the classes that are designed around it rather than as an addition to a "traditional" classroom.  Thoughts?

Unlimited Possibilities?

The Kist book brought up some points that I really want to discuss further.  I found this chapter to be particularly challenging in an ethical sense.  For instance, I have had several co-ops tell me to delete my social media accounts because the kids will use them in inappropriate ways.  I also had a co-op whose personal account was hacked by a student afters school, and he spent time changing his password and updating his security settings.  Why would I want to encourage this kind of negativity in my classroom?  I understand that it can be valuable, but I just don't know if the value is worth the risk and the time I would have to spend monitoring my students outside of class, even if the account wasn't their real identity.  It's a great source for networking, but as far as the standards are concerned a pen, paper, and markers would do much the same thing.

In the book, Liz created a curriculum that was "available for students to interact with [...] whenever they want" (101).  Problem!  Students don't ever want to do work, especially outside of class.  In fact, I witnessed what happened when a teacher assigned homework.  Less than half the class brought it back to school the next day.  If it isn't done in class, then it doesn't get done.  So yes, this may work for highly motivated or tech-savvy kids, but for the general population, at least as far as I've observed them, they would receive zeros for anything assigned outside of class.  Again, this works in theory and I would love to try it, but it would have to be in a super specific population of students and I just don't know how feasible that would be.