Interactivity #5

The teacher I interviewed is a sixth grade English teacher who works in a school district close to Montclair State University. She works at one of the technology focused schools in the district. The students have to take a technology class as part of the their core curriculum; the technology classes are given the same weight as their science, English, math and history classes. Despite working in a technology focused school, this teacher did not know about the NETS-S 2007. She felt that the standards were interesting, but appeared to be more like guidelines than requirements, in comparison to the NJCCCS.

Although her school district has not begun to implement the NETS-S, she did acknowledge that because of the focus in her school, each teacher is required to incorporate technology into their lessons on a regular basis. It is more likely that the technology teachers know about the NETS-S than the English department. Further, she acknowledged that students are already involved in many projects that are suggested on the NETS-S website. There is a commitment to technology and proficiency with technology within her district.

I was a little surprised at the response of my teacher. I had assumed that she would be aware of the NETS-S because of her specific school within the district. On the other hand, there are already technology requirements within the NJCCCS and I know that this teacher works very diligently to work these standards into her lesson plans. I was not at all surprised to the description of the school district’s dedication to technology and the advancement of their students in this area. It is very clear that technology is going to continue to have an impact on education, so having the training and competency in this area is necessary for teachers.

As a future educator, I would want to bring up the NETS-S to my district or colleagues as a positive addition to the NJCCCS. Where the NJCCCS gives the standards that we, as educators, must meet to be successful in our career, NETS-S gives suggestions for how to better complete that. It’s important to remember that technology is a key part of learning, and I feel that any of the NJCCCS can be met with the aid of technology. Therefore, it is necessary to give students the ability to be independent, creative and intelligent/informed about their technology choices. Just from taking this class, I have been exposed to countless ways to integrate technology into the classroom to make my lessons more interesting and applicable to student’s lives outside of the classroom. Truly, NETS-S gives additional guidelines and suggestions to accomplish these things. I have updated my Lesson Plan Analysis from my previous Interactivity to add the NETS-S to the NJCCCS. Overall, I feel like the lesson improves the more a teacher can identify why and how they’re designing their lesson plans.