Technology has never been more prevalent to understand than now. It has permeated every single aspect of our life and as educators, we can utilize the integration to not only enhance but support our instruction. The above toolkit outlines a few of the tools I intend to use in my classroom. For instance, one is Canva, a PowerPoint service that creates fun and engaging powerpoint. Another is an app called Forest which is a focus app that restricts phone usage. You can set timers for up to 2 hours and during that time you ‘plant a tree” and if you use your phone…your tree dies. It redefines time usage and turns focus into a reward-type game. The last tool I want to highlight is Talking Points. It is a texting app akin to Remind that translates all messages into families native language. As technology improves, I believe that we can improve our language learning/teaching so that all of our students have access to all the same tools. We can not expect our students to utilize technology in meaningful, educational ways if we ourselves do not understand them ourselves.
The connectivity between home and school can impact students in so many different ways. I want to help bridge the divide between teachers and parents and utilizing a technological solution as opposed to killing a few more trees is both sustainable and more accessible to both groups. We have no idea the home situations for anyone, anywhere. Some may not have access to the internet or technology at home, others may not comprehend the content presented to them, or they do not possess the skills to complete the work. It is our job to show them the skills and tools necessary to complete not only our work but also skills they can use for the rest of their lives. Technology was created to make our lives less complicated, so as teachers we should utilize technology to make our classes and content not easier but rather simpler to ingest.
