What? A few days ago I attended a conference at the Meydenbauer Conference Center in which Governor Christine Gregoire spoke to the crowd. At one point she mentioned that about 60 (or 70?) percent of our WA State budget is untouchable according to the Constitution. Part of that budget is alloted to Education.
So What? This reassured me that no matter how tough the economy may get, our schools will at least have minimum funding because they're protected by the law. Since that conference, I've been thinking about how critical it is for schools to have sufficient funding for their classroom resources. We've talked all semester about the marvelous things that various technologies can do for students, teachers, parents, and community members associated with our classrooms. We've discussed classroom websites, gradebook tools, SMARTBoards, Interactive Boards, response systems, Ipads, flip-cameras, podcast recorders, document cameras, and the list goes on. But of what use are all of these ideas if the schools we may be teaching at lack the funding for these resources? Must we collect
boxtops-for-education" forever in order to get what we want and need for our classrooms?
Now What? If this class has taught me anything practical about the cost of incorporating technologies into our classrooms - it is that there are countless AFFORDABLE, if not FREE resources available at our fingertips. I've learned that it's not so much about having money in our pockets, but awareness, connections, and determination to get what we want and need. In other words, a teacher who has more than enough funding for their classroom but no creativity may not necessarily have more supplementary resources for their students than a teacher who lacks funding, but is full of ideas. Just like doesn't always buy happiness in the outside world, so it doesn't necessarily buy success in classrooms. A smart teacher creates free websites, utilizes free online tools, borrows resources, tries out special technology promotions, and applies for various grants.
I hope to be such a smart teacher, whether I have sufficient future funding for my classroom or not.
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1 comment:
Inna, I really like this article because it is so true. I think, as future teachers, it will be our biggest responsibility to put work into being creative and taking time to see what's out there for our students. Like you said, there are so many free resources for teachers, we just need to be dilligent to put the time in and find them and be creative with how we use to complement our lessons.
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