April 19, 2014
Dear Educational Technology Faculty,
This is my 13th year of teaching. Often, as I imagine most teachers do, I think about how my teaching has evolved. The first three years were the toughest. I really had no clue what I was doing or what real teaching looked like. I spent countless hours preparing notes, assignments, quizzes, and tests. I exhausted all my prep time contemplating on what more I could do to help students understand. I provided tutoring daily with the idea that this was how learning occurred. At the end of each of those three years, I was mentally and emotionally exhausted. Failure rates were still relatively high and I didn’t think I could survive thirty years of teaching. I find myself talking about those first three years with new teachers. I see them struggling and I want to help. Eventually they ask how I can remember the early years so clearly and, for the few teachers I think may benefit, I tell them this story. During year three I had a young man in class who wasn’t the ideal student. He missed class regularly and was hanging around a rough group of kids. For whatever reason, he took a liking to my Geometry class. Even though he would not attend class, he would find time during lunch or before school to stop by and try to get caught up. Everytime he showed up I would teach him as if he were a class of one. I kept the same expectations and he proved to be an above average math student. With about two months left in the school year, he stopped showing up for school altogether. I asked around and learned he had nearly been beaten to death in a fight after school about a block from campus. I was well aware of the company he kept, and I always knew something like this could happen. I had 120 other students who needed my help and I shifted my focus to them. During the week of finals, he unexpectedly paid me a visit during lunch. His head was shaved showing a large six to eight inch scar. He didn’t stop by to ask me to pass him or to provide details of the traumatic experience that landed him in the hospital. Instead, he paid me a visit to tell me that he was dropping out of school, and before he left he wanted to thank me for all I did for him. That single moment had a profound impact on the next ten years of my teaching career. After the initial shock and awe, I remember days later coming to an understanding. What I became cognizant of was despite all of my best efforts and intentions, student achievement was not determined by the amount of work I did. The advice I pass along to new teachers is to not only be prepared, but to design the classroom environment so that the focus of the classroom shifts from the teacher to the student.
The monumental shift in ideology proved difficult. It was, and still is, a struggle to consistently shift the focus of the classroom from the teacher to the student. I did not have enough tools in my tool bag to present information in a student-centered instructional setting the majority of the time. Approaching year ten of my career, my frustration level was at an all time high. Even though student success rate (on standardized tests) in my classes were the highest on campus (80%), the challenge to continually improve student achievement was ever present. In the back of my mind I always had the urge to go back to school, and as each school year passed, the faint voice telling me to go back to school was growing stronger and stronger. Given the time constraints involved (coaching, tutoring, family life) I knew I needed an online program with flexibility built in. The search for the ideal program ended with the University of Texas at Brownsville’s Master’s in Educational Technology program. With acceptance into the Master’s in Educational Technology program began a new chapter in my teaching career.
The Master’s in Educational Technology program encompassed two very important aspects. First, the flexibility of the program meant I could navigate around my very busy work schedule. There are times when I spend almost 70 hours a week at school and setting time aside to attend class would be next to impossible. Second, the program focused on the use of technology in the classroom. Technology in the classroom is a topic I was extremely interested in. I could only see myself completing a time and resource consuming program if my interest was held. I thought finding an online program to fit my needs would be the most difficult part of completing my master’s degree. This was proved false often especially during the first semester of study.
There are three projects throughout the program of study that have forever changed my perception on teaching as a profession. I completed EDTC 6320 Instructional Technology during the first semester, fall 2011. As a requirement of the course, I attempted to convince the Northside Independent School District, a district of nearly 100,000 students at the time, to switch from textbooks to tablets. The scope of the project was grandiose, to say the least, and the completion of the project was a borderline miracle. Successful completion of the project included presenting my project to the superintendent in charge of textbooks and gathering feedback on videos outlining the use of tablets in the classroom from teachers and students. Every one of these events was a humbling experience. The videos, a chore needing hours to complete, were reviewed positively but each person who viewed the videos recommended change which required a complete reshoot of the video. The reshooting of a video over and over again put me on the verge of a breakdown. However, the frustration during this time paled in comparison to the frustration felt after speaking with the superintendent of textbooks. The superintendent was kind enough to review my proposal and we spoke over the telephone soon after. The most jarring statement he made was that the district was at least ten, and probably, twenty years away from switching to e-books. I learned patience when working with videos, and I learned how to accept constructive criticism from colleagues and students, but the most disheartening lesson I learned was that change in education happens slowly, especially with respect to technology.
The second influential project occurred Spring 2012. EDTC 6321 Instructional Design introduced the Systematic Design of Instruction by Walter Dick, Lou Carey, and James Carey. For this project, I was required to use the Dick and Carey model to create a student-centered instructional unit. The depth of the project was unlike anything I have ever attempted to accomplish. Every possible aspect of the learner, instructional objective, and instructional strategy were analyzed. Within each step there were opportunities for revisions and tweaks requiring yet another look at each component within the Dick and Carey model. Despite the tedious nature of the project, the result was a very successful unit that I continued to work on in future classes. As a matter of fact, after making additions to the project, I intend to utilize the unit in the fall of 2014. The unit remains relevant not because of my genius. Rather, the Dick and Carey model provided the template I would need to follow for all future instructional units. I can’t honestly say that I continue to use every aspect of this seemingly endless method with each lesson I teach. However, I do continue to use the framework of the Dick and Carey model to ensure each lesson is created with the needs of the learners at the forefront.
The final project I think back on fondly is not a project you will find amongst my artifact reports. In fact, the project required minimal effort when compared to all other projects within the program of study. EDTC 6340 Applications of Technologies required all students to keep a blog of Web 2.0 tools studied over the course of summer session one in 2012. In total we reviewed around twenty five different free Web 2.0 tools. Immediately upon beginning my blog, I wished this was one of the first courses I had taken. The websites available for creating and enhancing instruction appeared neverending. Because of this class, and specifically this project, I have added Edmodo and Twitter to the classroom as well as encouraged students to utilize websites such as Prezi, Screenr, and Google Docs just to name a few. Furthermore, my daughter has now shared countless Web 2.0 tools with students and teachers that have magnified her learning experience.
Reflecting on these three projects and the program of study in general, I can sum up the lessons learned with three rules. Rule one, stay humble and patient. Change is difficult for everyone. Changing the way students, administrators and colleagues think is going to be a challenge. Expect resistance, but stay the course, humbly. Rule two, continue learning. Do not be afraid to try new things and understand not all tools will work with every topic. Remaining flexible and open to new ideas will lead to a more positive outlook on the teaching experience. Rule three, trust the process. Each class within the program stressed a process. No process was exactly the same, but the goals were comparable. Find a process that brings out the best you have to offer and trust it. The process can be tweaked or revised, but if you stay true to the process then good things will happen.
I do not have a good grasp on what the future may hold. The 2013-2014 school year has been a return to the dark ages. This school year the entire Geometry team was chastised for providing students with an alternative assessment to show mastery of Geometry vocabulary. Students were asked to take pictures of real world examples of thirty recently covered geometric terms. Pictures were to be placed on a PowerPoint presentation with a caption including the definition of the term and a description of how the picture represents the geometric term. Students had time in class and a total of two weeks to complete the project based on the guidelines provided and a rubric. The projects in my class were a bit more creative since we previewed numerous Web 2.0 tools students could use in place of PowerPoint. News of the assignment reached the academic dean and she immediately made her impressions felt. The value of the assignment had to be changed from a summative assessment to a formative assessment. I asked the academic dean to view just one of the assignments turned in to grasp the effort required and the effectiveness of the lesson, but she refused. After a five minute argument she ended the conversation with this, “You people were warned of this when you were hired. Only real assessment pieces would be allowed at this school. We are not going to inflate grades with powder puff assignments.” My patience is definitely being tested. This point last school year I was commended for utilizing differentiated instruction and group work as a means for delivering instruction and assessing student achievement. Now, I find it difficult to enhance instructional units when every assessment is extremely traditional. Still, I remind myself of the three rules. I try to stay patient and understanding. I continue searching for new tools to add to my toolbag and I trust my process. I avoid the high frustration levels I felt earlier in my career by relying on the lessons learned over the past two plus years. The successes I have had in the Master’s in Educational Technology program form the foundation I need to stay the course.
Sincerely,
Vincent Briseno
Copyright © 2009. The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College
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