Bittersweet Truth

When I say that I really loved this course this semester and it has been possibly one of the most motivating classes I've ever taken, I truly mean it. I always thought I was a little more tech savy than my fellow coworkers but from going through this course, I realized I still have lots to learn and am excited for the new opportunities I can give my ELs from reading our coursework, fellow peers' posts and blogs, and exploring new technology. 

Okay, so that was my good uplifting news of this last post, because sadly I have to address a concern that I've read multiple times from others this semester and I've said myself many times. There are HUGE challenges of integrating technology into our classrooms that as teachers are WAY beyond our control. My Google Alert from this week delivered me an article from eSchool News entitled '9 Fast Facts About Teacher's Classroom Challenges'(Read It!: 9 Fast Facts). It delivered 9 fast facts from data collected from surveys about the integration of technology into our classrooms and each one really hit home for me. Of course, I want you to read the whole article but let me give you a quick rundown.

• Larger class sizes prevent less time for helping students.
• Some schools are just starting to integrate technology and if they are, they are very far behind where they need to be.
• Teachers use more game oriented educational apps than learning apps.
• Teachers are not trained to properly integrate technology, they are just told to do so!
• Teachers are using their own money to buy what they need including technology.

I think after reading this article, it definitely gave me a bittersweet truth or almost ending to this course. There are so many things as teachers I think we want to do for our students but just can't because of lack of funding, resources, heck even time! Sadly, teachers are the ones who care the most and can do the most but unfortunately have the least amount of say when it comes to curriculum, funding, technology, etc. We want to be the super heroes for every child but we just possibly can't. 

But! By taking these courses and I think making goals for ourselves to integrate technology into our ESL classrooms little by little and pick 'one' project at a time to succeed at before moving on, I think we can get a lot farther than we think we can. Also by doing this, we can show the decision makers at our school districts the benefits of technology integration and prove to them how investing in these technologies not only for our students, but PD for our teachers to use it will better us all.

So I leave you for my last post with words of encouragement! Teach on and push to become the best integrated tech teacher you can! Pick one goal and work on it, even if it takes you the whole year to master, it's still one step further! Ask questions and mess up! From our mistakes, beautiful things can happen and teachers can do the impossible.