Professional Turmoil

This previous Friday, my Digital Multimedia and Global Citizenship class ran the Professional Development at my school, where the teachers are shown tools they can use in their class to make it more interactive with students. It was ironic that my class was presenting, because essentially, the students taught the teachers how to teach! Overall, it was a great experience and I learned a lot of skills in presenting. Furthermore, my class got very positive feedback from the teachers that we presented too. 

For my part of the presentation, I taught my teachers how to use a website called Stoodle. Stoodle is an interactive whiteboard that can be accessed and changed from any device that has access to internet connection. It has tools like drawing, erasing, using different colors, basic shapes, a "moving an object" tool, and many of the functions that would be needed in presenting. The teachers enjoyed my website a little too much, as they goofed off, much like I would in their class, and just drew whatever they wanted rather than the material that I, the teacher, suggested they draw. It was interesting to see a classroom from the side of the teacher, where I am cramming knowledge and notes into the heads of students who don't want to be there and don't care to learn.

From this experience, I believed I learned more than the teachers did. Although they gave great feedback after our presentations, the teachers interaction with the apps and websites presented to them was minimal, as they showed little interest in using their new tools in their classroom. I, on the other hand, developed an appreciation for the student who sits quietly, takes notes, and completes the assignments given. In the future, I will strive to be more like this student, and less like the teachers that I taught. Its a hard job, being a teacher, and I don't want to be any more of the problem they have to deal with between 7:45am and 2:45pm.