Phase IV: Problematizing my ImagineIT Project
This fall, our cohort did a book study with “What Should I Do? Confronting Dilemmas of Teaching in Urban Schools” by Anna Ershler Richert. In this book, there were many dilemmas that were mentioned within a school environment that may not be easily solved. These dilemmas include teaching in an urban settings, students, curriculum, and/or assessments.
When looking at my ImagineIT project, I feel that I am in a very unique situation that many teachers do not have the privilege of experiencing. Without my administration support and trust, my ImagineIT would never come to fruition. In over ten years of teaching, I have never had an administration that supports and trust teachers like I do at Goudy Technology Academy. My administration has given me full reins and support in my entire ImagineIT project. I don't have to worry about state-mandated curriculum and assessments when implementing my ImagineIT. We believe, as a school, that there are multiple pathways for students to learn and that each of our students need to develop the growth mindset we envision in them. Making is about developing one’s full potential. I want my students to have a growth mindset that leads them to expend their energy to learn, to take risk and through repeated failures to achieve success, which leads me to my two dilemmas that I see myself facing in my ImagineIT, project.
Dilemma 1: Students – Fixed Mindsets
“This is impossible!” “I can’t do this!” “This is too hard.” “I’m not smart enough to figure this out.” “This is going to take me forever! Ugh!” These are the common phrases that my students have when encountering something that is challenging. Most of my students have this fixed mindset, where they believe that their capabilities are set, as though these abilities were out of their control. When my students face these challenges, they end up giving up without trying or just sit at the computer screen aimlessly pointing and clicking. Many of my students do not even raise their hands to ask questions, they would rather just sit there and pretend they know what they are doing than struggle and grow.
Dilemma 2: Teaching in Urban Schools (Technology Maintenance)
In most schools in the United States, there is a defined position for a Technology Coordinator and a Technology Teacher. In some other schools, you may even have a team of technology assistants that help support the school. In Chicago Public Schools, the technology teacher is usually wearing several different hats of the technology coordinator, teacher and technology assistant. My job entails me to not only teach three different grade levels and one Makers class, but to support the entire school in all their technology issues, maintenance, and professional development. At times, this can be a heavy burden on what I can accomplish in a day let alone in a week.
Goudy Technology Academy is a neighborhood school with emphasis on technology. As a school, we have done a great job of procuring the latest technologies and giving students an experience with a wide variety of technology devices. With the amount of technology, we have in the building, maintaining all the different devices and equipment can often times be a full time job within itself. My ImagineIT project demands that are equipment are optimized for the best performance without losing efficiency. Often times, there just isn’t enough time in the day or funds to properly maintain functioning technology. I have 38 students in my Makers class, which ranges from fifth grade through eighth grade. It’s the only class in our school that has four different grade levels of students in one class. In the Maker’s class, I have 31 laptops and 7 desktops running all sorts of high performance software like Google Sketchup. The computers are shared amongst other classrooms and often times the computers come to me with problems before the start of the class. As I try to facilitate 38 students, I am also troubleshooting 38 devices for our Maker’s lab all within a 45-minute class period.
When looking at my ImagineIT project, I feel that I am in a very unique situation that many teachers do not have the privilege of experiencing. Without my administration support and trust, my ImagineIT would never come to fruition. In over ten years of teaching, I have never had an administration that supports and trust teachers like I do at Goudy Technology Academy. My administration has given me full reins and support in my entire ImagineIT project. I don't have to worry about state-mandated curriculum and assessments when implementing my ImagineIT. We believe, as a school, that there are multiple pathways for students to learn and that each of our students need to develop the growth mindset we envision in them. Making is about developing one’s full potential. I want my students to have a growth mindset that leads them to expend their energy to learn, to take risk and through repeated failures to achieve success, which leads me to my two dilemmas that I see myself facing in my ImagineIT, project.
Dilemma 1: Students – Fixed Mindsets
“This is impossible!” “I can’t do this!” “This is too hard.” “I’m not smart enough to figure this out.” “This is going to take me forever! Ugh!” These are the common phrases that my students have when encountering something that is challenging. Most of my students have this fixed mindset, where they believe that their capabilities are set, as though these abilities were out of their control. When my students face these challenges, they end up giving up without trying or just sit at the computer screen aimlessly pointing and clicking. Many of my students do not even raise their hands to ask questions, they would rather just sit there and pretend they know what they are doing than struggle and grow.
Dilemma 2: Teaching in Urban Schools (Technology Maintenance)
In most schools in the United States, there is a defined position for a Technology Coordinator and a Technology Teacher. In some other schools, you may even have a team of technology assistants that help support the school. In Chicago Public Schools, the technology teacher is usually wearing several different hats of the technology coordinator, teacher and technology assistant. My job entails me to not only teach three different grade levels and one Makers class, but to support the entire school in all their technology issues, maintenance, and professional development. At times, this can be a heavy burden on what I can accomplish in a day let alone in a week.
Goudy Technology Academy is a neighborhood school with emphasis on technology. As a school, we have done a great job of procuring the latest technologies and giving students an experience with a wide variety of technology devices. With the amount of technology, we have in the building, maintaining all the different devices and equipment can often times be a full time job within itself. My ImagineIT project demands that are equipment are optimized for the best performance without losing efficiency. Often times, there just isn’t enough time in the day or funds to properly maintain functioning technology. I have 38 students in my Makers class, which ranges from fifth grade through eighth grade. It’s the only class in our school that has four different grade levels of students in one class. In the Maker’s class, I have 31 laptops and 7 desktops running all sorts of high performance software like Google Sketchup. The computers are shared amongst other classrooms and often times the computers come to me with problems before the start of the class. As I try to facilitate 38 students, I am also troubleshooting 38 devices for our Maker’s lab all within a 45-minute class period.