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Students, Technology, and Sanity

By Kate Petty

Education changed more dramatically over the past year than ever in history. We went from a system that had remained static for over a century to a model that looked completely different over the course of one weekend. Covid 19 caused our classrooms full of students working individually or in groups using paper and/or devices became teaching to a computer screen and working exclusively with a digital framework.

Last year, every single K-12 teacher became a first year teacher. Everything we knew about content, delivery, and especially classroom management must be thrown out the window. It is exciting. It is scary. It is a brave new world to be sure.

We also learned what our continued role looks like as we move forward in education with 1:1 in classrooms. Every student has a computer in their pockets- they can Google anything and get answers to their questions in seconds. This will never go away. A teacher's role has changed from being the giver of information to the facilitator of information. Our jobs now are not to tell students things, but to show them how to ask questions and find the answers to their questions.

This site is designed to share the good, the bad, and the ugly as we traverse through a lot of unchartered territory. My hope is that by sharing what worked in my classroom, I'll be able to give some great tips. By sharing what bombed, I can help teachers avoid potential pitfalls.

If you have a great or horrible experience or plan you'd like to share, please email me at pettyapps@gmail.com to guest post.