The First Steps
At the beginning of this whole process, I found it difficult to figure out what problem from my school could be resolved through the use of technology. In my personal opinion, my current school is currently battling a lot of different problems such as: students not adhering to the dress code, vaping in the bathrooms, lack of self control with the inappropriate language, which includes the usage of the “n” word, attendance, tardies, ditching, loitering, plagiarizing, lack of motivation, and the lack of quality of work, just to name a few. Therefore, choosing a problem that I want to focus on overall was difficult, furthermore, trying to find a solution for it was even harder. However, I was talking to a coworker, and she mentioned, at the beginning of the school year, that her husband’s school uses an EHall pass system in their Middle School to try to limit and control the students in the hallway.
It was then that I realized that I can focus on trying to help alleviate some of those problems with this EHall pass that my coworker mentioned. After Covid, I realized that there was an increasing number of students that began to arrive excessively late to class or completely ditch the class. I noticed that a lot of the ditching usually involved multiple students just hanging out together, meeting in the bathrooms or the hallways, moving around if they would see certain security coming. Also, some students would make it on time to class, but would then ask to go to the bathroom and would be gone for an extensive amount of time. Therefore, I decided to focus on investigating more of this EHall pass to see if this can be a possible solution to this ongoing problem at my school.
Reflections
I haven’t foreseen any challenges yet. If any, possible challenges can be teachers not using it correctly or not understanding it, mostly at the beginning. The research process on it has been fairly easy, and I learned that the EHall Pass is an app and Website called SmartPass. I am very eager and excited to see how it actually unfolds in the school and if truly it is helping with the problem. I believe that it definitely is worth a try and that it has the potential to see if we can fix it. My Principal has been super supportive and helpful throughout this process, answering all of my questions and giving me the resources I need to expand my research on the SmartPass. Currently, nothing negative has come out of this process so far.
The Need
As I have previously mentioned, becoming a teacher who becomes a "Learning Specialist/Instructional Designer" in their classroom by utilizing technology to enhance learning for all students is extremely important during these times. I definitely think COVID was the wakeup call for myself because I was not utilizing technology as much as I probably should or could have in class. Therefore, generating meaningful activities, using technology was an area of very limited knowledge for myself. I met with my kids’ teachers recently, and they have both highlighted how savvy they both are with technology even if they are just 8 and 5. My daughter showed me her slide presentation that she created for her school, and quite frankly, blew me away as to how well she did. I have only until recently learned all of the features PowerPoint has to make a presentation!
Technology is literally taking over our lives in so many different forms and with that, it is going to eventually take over in education as well. Being prepared for that and for my students is really important and essential if I want to be an effective technologically inclined educator. With technology evolving, learning is also evolving, and technology is part of that evolution as well. It is my responsibility to adapt myself to my teaching environment and students and not leave them behind.
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