Article Review #1: Dobo N. ( 2014, October 15) After 20 years, a teacher reinvents her classroom using technology Retrieved from http://hechingerreport.org/20-years-teacher-reinvents-classroom-using-technology/

Summary

In the article, After 20 years, a teacher reinvents her classroom using technology, Dobo(2014) examines the ways in which a veteran teacher begins to incorporate technology in her classroom. 

     Valyncia O. Hawkens has taught for 20 years and constantly has to deal with classrooms that have learners at different academic abilities.  The main questions that she has to deal with yearly is how to create a classroom environment that adheres to each of the students needs.  After twenty years in the profession, she had yet come up with a solution to this problem.  She decided to take a fellowship and began studying other classrooms and the methods that were used.  While viewing other classrooms, she began to see how technology was used in each of the classrooms.
     Hawkens took the information that she was presented and began her own method of instruction.  She created a blended classroom that utilized technology.  The classroom that she created didn't require her to stand in front of the class and direct instruction the entire period.  Many of the classes began with a quick lesson for the students to complete.  When students were done, they were allowed to get laptops and pick an activity that they could work on.  The students who were struggling with the opening activity, would stay at the front of the room and receive direct instruction.  This allowed her to create a classroom in which students were able to move at their own pace, and those that struggled would not be left behind.
  Hawkens created a classroom of blended instruction.  The instruction combined online activities with in-person instruction.  Hawkens was able to monitor the students activities and go from group to group to assist them individually.  Hawkens also said that with this type of instruction, behavioral problems decreased in her classroom.  The reason for this was the freedom that the students were given to work on their projects.  The students could choose to work alone or in groups, and also had the ability to wear headphones or not while working.  Because the more advanced students did not have to wait for other individuals to complete their work, the downtime and boredom of the classroom began to diminish.



Reflection

I found this article to be extremely informative and relevant to my own teaching experiences.  Although the classroom in the article is a fifth grade classroom, the difficulties that are faced in dealing with mixed ability classrooms is relevant throughout the educational system.  I found the structure of her classroom to be one that has met the needs of all different learners.  While reading this article, I constantly thought of my classroom and what how I would incorporate her methods to my lesson.