| This school year started full of excitement. I could, I can, finally try with my students all these tools and ideas I had been having in the previous couple of years. And so here I am getting my students connected to people outside of the school walls: pen pals using Edmodo, class blog, video conferencing, sending boxes overseas… I have also used so many tech tools to get them to receive immediate or very quick feedback on their work (Google forms with Flubaroo, Edpuzzle, comments in Google Docs, Kahoot, Socrative, Google Classroom…). Yet, yesterday I get asked by some of them to go back to the exercises in the workbook, work on paper, no more online tools, use the textbook. “This is not working for me”, they say. “I hate coming to class now”, another one said. WHAT?! |
Change is hard sometimes. Doing what needs to be done in order to make progress can be such an effort that I can understand them preferring the simplicity of the textbook learning. I am not sure what I will do tomorrow or next week with this class. I am so tempted to stop my experimenting and give them what they are asking for.
They really want to do well in their assessments. Less than full marks is not enough to some of them. That is how they have learned to measure their progress.
They are not motivated by all these “authenticity”.
Should I keep pushing? I wonder how others have made it work. Is this a good time to stop?
I know the intuitive appropriate answers to these questions but do share your thoughts and experiences. Today I really need the encouragement!