Change Project

 Narrative:

When I enrolled at Rhode Island College, I went in with my mind set on becoming a radiology technician. Little did I know that after a full year of college that was going to change. I never thought about the idea of becoming a teacher. Why? Maybe because I always thought that I wasn’t a good of enough student. Both my older sisters had been accepted to Classical and it was a big deal so when I did not pass the entrance exam, I felt like I had let my entire family down. I saw myself as the black sheep and it became worse when my younger sister also passed the entrance exam and attended Classical High School. I had attended Hope High School or how others refer to this school “hope-less”. During my time at Hope I had the most amazing teachers who changed the way I viewed myself. 

My parents migrated to the US from Guatemala in hopes of a better future for themselves. My father lost both his parents at a very young age and my mother never had a good relationship with her parents. All they had was each other. My parents worked sunrise to sunset before having children. In 1991 they had my oldest sister. In 1993 they had my second oldest sister and in 1994 they had me. They went from working sunrise to sunset to now balancing life with three daughters. After having three children back-to-back my mother knew that daycare would be too expensive for them, so they had to make the tough decision of only having one source of income and her becoming a stay-at-home mother. With this came lots of sacrifices for them. My mother returned to work when all of us were in school already, but this meant that now both my parents would go back to working sunrise to sunset. Because of this my parents hardly ever attended any events at our school. Their priority was to provide the necessities which were a home, food, and clothing. It was not at all that they did not care about our education because they did. They asked us every single night how our day was, what did we learn, and always encouraged us to do our best to be someone in life. When I began high school, I recall having one specific teacher who tried her best to have two-way communication with my parents. I tried explaining why it was difficult for them. Not only the language barrier part but also that they worked until late daily. I would go home and tell my parents that my teacher wanted to talk to them and for my parents that meant that it had to be something bad. My teacher was finally able to schedule an appointment with them and talked about the importance of having that communication with the classroom teacher. This was a huge eye opener for my parents. They began to understand the importance of it and the importance behind two-way communication with teachers. After this a lot changed for me. With my parents more involved and with more communication with my teachers I began to change that mentality that school was not for me. Like Pierson said, every child needs a champion. I had my champion at school but now I had also gained a champion at home. 

My Tech Identity:

            According to Scott Noon there are four tier models of teacher training in technology. The first stage is preliterate. In this stage one does not yet make use of technology for personal or instructional means. The second stage is technocrat. In this second stage one experiments with technology but is unsure of its overall dependability and usefulness. The third stage is techno-traditionalist and in this stage, one uses technology proficiently to accomplish traditional classroom tasks. The last stage is techno-constructivist. In this stage one uses technology to completely change approaches to teaching and learning in the classroom. Scott Noon believed that teachers move through a linear progression in their technology skills from preliterate to techno-constructivist. I would identify as techno-traditionalist. I know how to do the basics but there is definitely a lot more I can learn and incorporate in my teaching and learning in the classroom. I believe that technology is a tool and not a learning outcome. I want kids to be able to use technology to raise awareness, find answers to their questions, make a difference, take action, and drive change. 

Prensky believed that there are two groups: digital natives and digital immigrants. He believes that kids’ brains are different from their parents because of their relationship to digital technologies. Boyd on the other hand, believed that students should not be called digital natives. She believes that people born in the age of tech are not automatically masters of technology. She believes that we need to teach students how to interact with tech and media. Boyd believes that the youth deserve to be taught about the internet, critical thinking, that gaps and inequalities need to be addressed in media, and that media is connected to all other realms. I very much resonate with Boyd when I identify myself as techno-traditionalist. I was born in the 90’s and there was already so much modern technology but just because I was raised in that era did not mean that I had the exposure to certain technology. I remember attending Hope High School and we had a computer class where we learned how to use a computer and certain programs. I remember being amazed at how much I did not know, and I am grateful because I believe that’s what set me up for success when I went to college. I could navigate the internet and use Microsoft word. As my college year went by, I learned how to use other programs thanks to peers or professors. Just like Boyd believed that people deserve to be taught. As my sisters and I began to learn more and more we began to teach our parents. My parents would most definitely identify as digital immigrants but its because no one had taught them. I would identify them as technocrats. They now experiment with technology, but they are still unsure of its overall dependability and usefulness. We taught them how to navigate a smart phone and a bit of social media and they learned. They learned how to make voice calls versus video calls, they learned how to share things on social media, they learned how to look for familiar people, and they also learned to send messages and use emojis. 

My Why:

            As an emergent bilingual student communication was always a barrier between my teachers and my parents. My parents spoke only Spanish, and all of my teachers were English speaking individuals. When I became a teacher, I made a promise to myself. That promise was that I would give back to the community that I grew up in. Right now, I teach 1^stgrade at the elementary school that I attended as a student. When I took this position, I knew that I had to give more to my students, my students families, and anyone else involved to help bridge the gap between home and school. I knew that I had to pick myself up like baby George and think of the significance of growth in my school to home connection just like Welsch taught us. But in order for me to do this, I first had to think back as to how my teachers kept my parents up to date with behavior, academics, and announcements. How was my growth and achievements communicated to my parents? In my elementary school days, I remember just taking flyers home with announcements regarding events or parent teacher conferences. I remember one of my teachers saying, “if you don’t do your work, I will have to call your parents”. This made me understand that they would only call my parents if I wasn’t complying with my schoolwork but I was always a quiet and independent students so I knew that my parents would never be contacted. This made me believe as an educator that phone calls home should not only be for negative reasons. Parents should be notified of student’s successes and achievements big or small. I believe that parent communication does not have to be all negative reports. I believe that students should not be told “I am going to call your parents” in order for them to complete a task. I believe that effective communication is essential for building school-family partnerships. It constitutes the foundation for all other forms of family involvement in education. Family involvement is the next change project that I want to target alongside parent teacher communication. I believe that students learn when they are encouraged by both their teachers and their parents to become successful. 

Action Plan:

            There are many forms of parent teacher communication that I have used and will continue to use. They are:

• -       Class Dojo
• -       Newsletters
• -       Parent Square
• -       Growth & Glow Cards

One app I would like to begin to use is Bloomz. Bloomz is a free app, and it allows teachers to post updates, upload documents, track students behavior and share feedback with parents, it allows you to schedule events, volunteers, and parent-teacher conferences, and it allows you to have two-way communication with parents. 

            In order to put to action my plan I want to begin by having parents fill out a google form during orientation to find out what times work best for parents. This will allow me to put my families into categories as to when I can message these parents and expect a response. I want to respect my students’ families time and I do not want them to feel like I am going to bombard them with so many notifications. 

            In order to make this successful, I would like to host nights where it will allow me to teach my students families how to use and navigate these apps. I believe that everyone is capable of learning if someone is devoted to teaching them how. We tend to assume that our families already know how to navigate everything given to them and when we do not get the response we expected we tend to make assumptions about the families we work with. With time, I would love to create a website for my classroom and use that as our primary source of communication. But I look forward to putting my plan into action and hosting parents to teach them how to navigate these apps and the importance of parent teacher communication.