From time to time, teachers engage in conversations about the challenges of teaching in the public schools. I wanted to share my response to a teacher who vented to colleagues about the frustrations of blocked sites that inhibit the teaching and learning process. I thought this would make a good wiki page because perhaps I will elaborate on this at some point...at any rate, I want it somewhere else besides my email! ;-)
I know that what has worked for me in the past is reaching out to the network administration (and/or whoever the decision makers are) and advocating my case in a positive way, focusing on the student learning outcomes involved. Even if you don’t get immediate results, if you keep working with them, through your positive expectations and focus on the students (avoiding laying blame and understanding the many compounding factors affecting school networks) you will eventually find you have allies.
It can take some time but it’s so worthwhile to bring people on board – then they become advocates, too. When you focus on student learning, people often find it hard to disagree with you. Believe in them – they may not have the support or resources to do their job as they’d like either. Maybe they just need someone to help them see the teacher and student perspective a little bit more.
Try visiting with your network admins face to face and find out what factors are affecting their decisions, show them student work or invite them to your classroom to see how you work with students in a way that supports responsible use. Provide a lesson plan to your site administrator that shows how the standards are connected to this learning tool. Include a justification for using the given site or sites like it. He or she may be able to use that to specifically request that your needs be addressed.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.