THE Journal

As a new teacher 10 years ago, I remember feeling the enormity of the job I had undertaken. My first class was the only fifth grade class in the school, and it consisted of 31 students of varying abilities. The school looked exactly like the elementary school I attended when I was a child, except now there was a computer in my classroom.

I began that year as I have ever since, with a sense of excitement and expectation. I knew that my job was to impart knowledge to my students and have them leave fifth grade prepared for the rigors of middle school. I was fresh out of graduate school and full of ideas about how I would accomplish this task. I had the student textbooks and teacher manuals, and was armed and ready to go.

I spent a lot of time that year teaching from manuals and using them like “bibles of teaching.” The students learned to take notes and were ready for that aspect of middle school. I certainly did give them a lot of information, but how much of it they retained, I wasn’t sure.

Use of the computer was very limited that first year. I remember putting a student in the hall with the computer to play games because she was unable to participate in the family life program. Other than word processing, that was about the only use it had in the classroom.

Beginning to Use Technology

The school closed after that year and we moved to a brand new facility the following fall. The new school was quite a change. Not only did we have two computers in each classroom, but we also now had an entire lab full of brand new computers that were networked and, by the end of the year, connected to the Internet.

We could sign our class up to use the computer lab two or three times a week. Although I concentrated on word processing and keyboarding skills at first, eventually I grew a little braver and ventured out onto the Web. We participated in such projects as a year-round scientific expedition called the JASON Project, as well as in National Geographic projects, such as communicating with the Iditarod in Alaska.

Despite the school’s infusion of technology, my teaching had not changed much. Staff development sessions focused more on familiarizing us with the different types of technology available, rather than on how to integrate that technology in our instruction.

I still taught my students as if they were all on the same level, even though there was as much as a two- to three-year gap in abilities. I fully expected that my students who were behind in math would catch up. After all, they needed to know this material next year. There was no time to go back, review and still cover the fifth grade curriculum.

Unfortunately, the gap just grew wider. The students who were behind become more so. And although those who were ahead were doing very well, they were probably not as far ahead as they could be, because I was limiting their exposure to more advanced math concepts and skills. But I was imparting information and covering the curriculum, so I still felt like I was doing my job.

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