K-12 in the News

The article Online Labs Aim to Revolutionize High School Science, by Amanda Morris, emphasizes the importance of technology-rich experiences in today’s high school biology classrooms. The author describes the growing gap between the way high school and college science experiments are conducted, and the possibility of integrating high-tech, internet-based labs into the regular science curriculum. Science requires a high amount of hands-on activities for learning, and many schools and teachers are not able to give students the time, facilities, or equipment to really explore concepts or natural occurrences in detail.

As a new teacher, I am worried that I will not be able to provide my students with all of the wonderful technology I have been able to use in my own learning or in my teacher preparation program. The classrooms I have worked in just as a practicum student have varied greatly in the amount of technology available to students and teachers, including technology for presentations to a group (TVs, projectors, SmartBoards) or individual exploration (computer software, modeling tools, LabQuests). While I was searching for news reports relevant for K-12 schools, I found an article that made me very hopeful.

In the article titled Newer Teachers Get Their Own Store of Goodies, Laura Oleniacz from the Sun Journal describes a scene at a local elementary school in which a classroom was converted into a supply store for new teachers to browse through before the start of school. The store was provided by a grant from a private non-profit organization with the goal of retaining new teachers and helping supply teachers in the face of new budget cuts. The store offers technology tools and supplies that are often expensive for new teachers to buy out-of-pocket or simply unavailable. The supplies included new laptop computers, projectors, digital recorders, and creative classroom materials. Local teachers quoted in the article seemed excited at the opportunity to use a lot of technology in their classrooms – “There’s always a way to use technology to benefit [students’] different learning styles.” It appears like teachers are always willing to accept more technology rather than less.

I am glad there are school districts that recognize the difficulties facing beginning teachers who want to use the technologies they have experience with, but are still unaware of or don’t have access to all the resources available to schools. However, I worry that programs such as this store for teachers within the school are not possible without enormous grants. I almost wish my teacher preparation program at JMU had a course dedicated to fund raising and writing grants, applying for new learning opportunities, and being resourceful in a school or community that is much more limited in funds.