My name is Era Joy Smith and I have taught with the School District of Philadelphia from 2002-2015. I am pursuing my Masters of Secondary Education with state certification to teach General Science, Chemistry, and Biology.  I have long held a passion to teach the sciences and I am eager to aid in the cultivation of future young minds to delve in and conquer mastery of various scientific concepts, models, laws, theories, vocabulary, and skill sets.  I especially love to pique the interest of students who for whatever reason are not initially fond of learning about science and technology. It is these types of challenges that I especially love; when reluctant students are exposed to something new in the world of scientific possibilities that piques their interest.  I revel in spreading my joie de vivre with students and building that type of joyful culture in my science classroom. I accomplish this mostly by connecting and using real-world examples on how knowledge of science, technology, and engineering skills have been used to develop the world significantly in the past to improve the lives of people today.  I further challenge students to think and dream of ways that they can leave their own scientific footprint on the ever-changing tectonic plates that currently shape our world. 

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     Teachers should use technology in the classroom to better equip their students with the necessary technological tools, skills, and practices needed for them to potentially pursue future STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professional careers.  Today’s 21st century students are living in an exponentially advancing technological society. New and vastly improving technology is constantly entering the technological market at a rate that outpaces the average teacher’s knowledge of the new savvy tech tool. How can today’s 21st century teacher keep up with all of the latest gadgets, devices, or apps that are all suddenly seemingly mandated to use in the classroom all at once?  STEM teachers can become overwhelmed with the daunting task of providing “authentic intellectual quality” teaching to students while simultaneously providing the same level of “authentic intellectual quality” instruction on how to use any new technology mandated for classroom use that boasts to drastically improve student learning. However daunting the technological task ahead, 21st century teachers need to persevere forward and master the new technological systems in order to be strong examples of how our students should persevere forward in this new ever-changing and technologically advancing society.  

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     In this new technology-driven society, teachers need to be mindful that old ways of teaching have been proven through research to be ineffective in preparing students for the professional tasks that lie ahead of them in their chosen careers.  Teachers are tasked to provide their students with “meaningful intellectual work.” Using “The AIW (Authentic Intellectual Work) Framework,” allows for meaningful intellectual challenges of students in ways that better prepare them to successfully achieve their future endeavors in the workplace.  Teachers should make sure that their students are not challenged to just simply comply with their instruction, regulations, or requirements but instead are utilizing their minds in ways that enhance their real-world problem-solving skills and sparks their interest in solving real-world issues and challenges.  Research has shown that increasing student meaningful intellectual work challenges also decreases disengagement and student drop-out rates, thus improving the rate in which productive citizens are graduated into society. The authors of the AIW Framework further purport that as educators “we do not expect children to achieve the same level of mastery accomplished by skilled adults, but identifying the commonalities in the intellectual work they do suggests criteria for intellectual performance necessary for success in contemporary society.” 

 

     Thus, the technology that teachers select for their classroom should allow students to perform the work of professionals, preferably within the student’s preferred field of choice. By doing so, we are providing our students with authentic intellectual work activities that will ultimately provide them with some meaningful experiences that are personally connected to their future goals. These “meaningful authentic intellectual work” activities will provide our students with the “value beyond school” dynamic that so many of them seek. Over my many years in the classroom, I have heard countless students sigh and project a similar utterance of “why do I need to learn this stuff?”  As educators, if we focus on providing students with intellectual rigor as guided by the AIW framework then we will “increase student engagement in learning, strengthen school professional community, boost student achievement as well as prepare [our] students for the intellectual demands of the workplace, citizenship, and personal affairs.” This will be the value beyond the school knowledge that students need in order to be successful in society and to place in the right context their educational experiences. The use of technology in the classroom should only serve to enhance their educational experience.

 

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