Summative Clinical Reflection

Jeffrey Scott 31 March 2014

My clinical observations of a technology-rich classroom came to a total of ten hours over a two month period. I witnessed various forms and uses of technology (all of which are recorded in my journals) and I was, overall, very impressed with the experience. Here, I will reflect on the experience as a whole. I will focus not specifically on the technology, but instead on the teacher, the students, and the classroom environment as affected by the technology used. The teacher was very relaxed in her role, and as a result, so were the students and the environment of the classroom. This is in part due to the curriculum used in the class, which was almost entirely online. This online learning allowed the teacher to act more as a guide, or even an employer, while the students worked on laptops for most of the class. She reviewed with them and helped them understand key concepts, but the majority of the class was spent in online work, while the teacher walked around to help. As a content- and technology-focused class, this meant that the teacher had to be equipped with vast amounts of knowledge and skill, but less required were techniques in classroom management or discipline. Compared to an elementary classroom, this is a very different environment which requires a very different teachera teacher ready to answer questions at a moments notice and willing to guide his or her students in the right direction without dealing out absolutes or giving away answers. This requires a more mature environment led by a teacher that expects maturity from the students. The same goes for the students: they must be mature enough to treat the teacher and the technology with respect. For instance, they arent allowed to have water or food near the laptops or any of the equipment. Their areas have to be clean, and they have to be ready to work. Most of the things they do in class cant be done at home, such as their clay skeleton project, which means they have to be efficient and keep up their own standards, lest they become at risk of failing the course. Another item to note is that this is an electiveit is naturally less stressful than a regular classroom. They have class projects and online curriculum, but not many rigorous class discussions or mountains of

Summative Clinical Reflection

Jeffrey Scott 31 March 2014

homework. These students are expected to come to class, do the work, and prepare for tests. It may be hard to replicate this, but the easygoing nature is certainly something to strive for. I mentioned the teacher playing the role of an employerthis implies that the classroom environment is more like the workplace. In more than a few ways, this is an overstatement; for instance, though there is less instruction involved, there is still direct instruction present in the classroom. But it is a working environmentthere is always something to do from bell to bell, and everyone is meant to be focused and completing their work. The technology reinforces this idea of classroom as workplacethe to-do list is present in the online curriculum, the semester project, and the equipment and materials used throughout the semester. Rarely have I seen such a preparation for a future in the workplace as in this class, and I attribute this to the technology. When all of this takes a presence in my own future classroom, I hope it is as effective. Though I will be teaching English, a drastically different subject, I hope the same ideas can be of use. The technology in this classroom changed the class itself, and for the better.