Technology and Behaviorism

I teach 5th grade and have students in class each who are just starting to grasp the concept of personal effort equals results in the grade book. Up until 5th grade, much of our instruction is hands on with little independent work. I struggle a lot with instilling in some of my students that their effort in homework is vital to them learning and build for future success. I will highly recommend this course text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, to each of my colleagues for their summer reading. It contains excellent strategies that combine technology with our goals of students working independently and learning to take personal responsibility for their effort.

The strategy of providing an Effort Rubric so students can begin to make these connections early is fantastic. We can start the first week of school by building a rubric with our students and having them have input on the rubric themselves. We can of course guide them in the right directions with their choice of categories and expectation levels. Using a Microsoft Excel program to track their individual progress is an excellent way to combine teaching 21st century skills while reinforcing the effort with earn you results message.

Clearly, our students today are digital learners, immersed in all things technology. As soon as the bell rings they reach for their iPods (I love the fact my spell check just told me that I spelled iPod wrong, without the capitol P), game stations, or cell phones. By embracing this and using multimedia in every area of our curriculum that we can, we are bring their word into the classroom and will a chance to be even more effective in meeting learning objectives. I get an entirely different reaction in class from students when a plan a unit review session with a game show on www.iknowthat.com, versus having them take out a sheet of paper to answer question on page 289 in the textbook. All students are engaged, participating, and interacting with the material.