{"id":3392,"date":"2010-11-11T05:54:24","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T05:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floc.org\/?p=3392"},"modified":"2018-10-08T08:15:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T08:15:03","slug":"as-technology-advances-students-still-need-good-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/as-technology-advances-students-still-need-good-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"As Technology Advances, Students Still Need Good Teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-3392 gallery-columns-1 gallery-size-large'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/as-technology-advances-students-still-need-good-teachers\/img_0162-11-2\/'><img width=\"764\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/img_0162-11-764x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/img_0162-11-764x1024.jpg 764w, https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/img_0162-11-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/img_0162-11-768x1029.jpg 768w, https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/img_0162-11.jpg 1935w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 764px) 100vw, 764px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><em>(Catherine Jacques is FLOC\u2019s Curriculum Specialist and serves as Site Supervisor for the Tuesday Night Reading program.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What did your classroom look like throughout your K-12 education experience?\u00a0 My classrooms spanned the gamut: conference-style tables with chairs, individual desks with and without attached chairs, independent learning stations, lecture style seating, etc.\u00a0 You name the classroom type, and I probably spent at least a semester trying to learn in it.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday night I attended the Slate.com Design A Better Classroom event along with some of our volunteer tutors.\u00a0 Hundreds of other interested parties and I\u00a0 came to two major agreements.\u00a0 First, a beautiful space with all the perks is likely to inspire students and make it easier for teachers to be innovative in their approach; second, a beautiful space with all the perks is FAR less important than a good teacher. \u00a0If every student had an iPad, they could download textbooks and play with graphing software, but they are not likely to learn more without a teacher who uses exciting and innovative teaching methods.<\/p>\n<p>As the experts listed the benefits of a high-tech school with cutting-edge architecture, I smiled to myself as I thought of the ways in which I see our tutors accomplish these objectives every day without the fancy space or iPads.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Students need to move.<\/strong>\u00a0Every week our hallways at FLOC are full of kids playing hopscotch, basketball, \u201chot lava\u201d, bowling, soccer, and many other active games they\u2019ve made up.\u00a0 The catch is that all of these games revolve around math facts, vocabulary, parts of speech, phonics, word problems, etc.\u00a0 Our students know that learning doesn\u2019t have to happen at a desk or in one defined space.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Students need personalized instruction.<\/strong>\u00a0Take a look at a class of 4<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0graders in D.C. Public Schools, and you are likely to see great diversity in their learning styles and content knowledge.\u00a0 Just because they are all in 4<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0grade does not mean that a one-size-fits-all approach will be the most effective.\u00a0 At FLOC, our students work on exactly what they need to work on.\u00a0 There is no wasted time in their instruction, and no need for complicated schedules and tracking.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Students need exposure to technology in meaningful ways.<\/strong>\u00a0Students and tutors get on computers to play math and vocabulary flash games, read newspaper articles, do independent research, and type their written work.\u00a0 We have no smartboards used as bulletin boards or computers with a sole word processing application.\u00a0 We also know that a pencil-and-paper spelling test is just as good as one done on the computer.<\/p>\n<p>Our schools can\u2019t differentiate instruction in this way without making huge changes to staffing structure, schedule, curriculum, and use of space.\u00a0 We need innovation in school design and better use of technology in the classroom as much as we need better teachers.<\/p>\n<p>So how does FLOC do what schools struggle to do?\u00a0 Answer: Our one-on-one tutoring model. Our volunteers accomplish what master teachers struggle to do simply by virtue of their flexibility.\u00a0 There really is no substitute for one incredibly dedicated instructor (master teacher or enthusiastic volunteer) completely focused on the needs of one kid.\u00a0 In fact, last year our tutors freely donated nearly 12,000 hours of their time, worth nearly $250,000.<\/p>\n<p>FLOC would love to get iPads for every student, but they aren\u2019t necessary.\u00a0 We might do great things with lots of technology, but we can do great things with a whiteboard and a dry erase marker as well.\u00a0 Our space may be traditional, but our teaching methods are anything but \u2013 and that is what makes all the difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Catherine Jacques is FLOC\u2019s Curriculum Specialist and serves as Site Supervisor for the Tuesday Night Reading program.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>As Technology Advances, Students Still Need Good Teachers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As Technology Advances, Students Still Need Good Teachers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Catherine Jacques is FLOC\u2019s Curriculum Specialist and serves as Site Supervisor for the Tuesday Night Reading program.)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/as-technology-advances-students-still-need-good-teachers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FLOC-For the Love of Children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-11T05:54:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-10-08T08:15:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/img_0162-11.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"388\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"256\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"StaffFloc\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5088,"href":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392\/revisions\/5088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floc.org\/flocold2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<br />
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