Confessions of an Educational Technology Assistant

Imagine standing at the edge of a jungle, tangled in the overhanging vines. You’re trudging through thick, gooey mud, burdened with a heavy pack, all while trying to admire and research the amazing beauty all around you.

That’s how I was feeling when I decided to leave the classroom. I didn’t want to leave teaching or learning, but I had to get away from the burdens and entanglements. My students, my school family, and the process of learning were the beauty, but I was bogged down and tangled up with paperwork, unhappy parents, and administrative duties. I could not take on one more thing, and technology became “one more thing.” I viewed it as one of those creeping vines reaching out to bind me up. It seemed that even the technology that was supposed to make my life easier, was actually filling up my extra time, making my life messy like a sheet full of words with no margin. I got (and still do) more emails in my inbox everyday than I ever got letters in my mailbox; by the time I got the formatting right and got my printer to work for that perfect handout, I realized I could have done it faster by hand (and, shhhh, sometimes I did…); when I finally had time to post grades, the internet would be down; and I could go on.

Don’t get me wrong. There was a time I was gung-ho about educational technology, and up to my last day I taught with my iPad and projector daily, and used videos and interactive games; but, (and here’s my dirty little secret) I had come to the point that I was done learning any new technology. I knew what worked for me and any time I tried to research, I just felt overwhelmed. When we had professional development on technology, it seemed like a fast paced couple of hours demonstrating all the recent apps for every possible subject that left me breathless. I walked away with a few sheets listing all the latest apps and websites thinking, “When will I ever have time to go through all these?” Technology was just one more thing I did not have time for.

Now imagine being picked up out of that mud and being dropped smack in the heart of that dark, menacing jungle, because that’s exactly what happened. I left the classroom but still needed to buy groceries. My search for a part time job landed me in the middle of that technology jungle as an educational technology assistant, tasked with researching educational technology and helping teachers implement it. I felt completely overwhelmed. My first day on the job, my coworkers were throwing around phrases like “we could Nearpod that,” or “I need to put that on my Symbaloo,” and “we could gamify that lesson.” Too ashamed to admit my ignorance, I began researching every strange word they said and getting them to show me what they were working on.  Talk about a learning curve, mine was huge. I quickly realized that I was indeed “behind the times.” But as I hacked my way through the jungle, I began to feel frustrated. It seemed everyday I would come across something that made me think, “If only I’d known about this a year ago! This would have made my life so much easier!” I was astounded to learn how much is out there, free for teachers to use; however, if the experience of most teachers is like mine, they just don’t have the time to discover those gems of technology.

All that led to the birth of this blog idea. What if I could share what I’m learning with teachers in a way that would not be overwhelming to them? What if I could help them lose some of the burden and give them some tools that free them up to focus on the beauty of teaching, rather than the difficulties? What if I could help great teachers be greater and stay in the classroom, inspiring and leading the next generation? Thus the idea of the 4:1 challenge.

My challenge for you is to do nothing at first. Yes, you read that correctly. Do nothing except read the weekly blog for four weeks. Each week I’ll tell you about a technology tool that I wish I had known about when I was in the classroom. Each month will highlight certain types of tools--tools for assessment/grading, tools for lesson planning, tools for organizing, etc. After reading about the three to four tools I recommend, I challenge you to choose one, just one that you think best fits your style of living and teaching, and try it out. I will try out each tool and tell you the pros and cons from the point of view of someone who’s been there. I will try to choose tools that work with multiple devices, iOS and Android, and will do my best to include tools for 1:1 classrooms, as well as classrooms with limited technology. I want to help as many as I can, so please share this blog--email it, facebook it, tweet it--whatever works for you.

Let’s start learning together!