One and a half weeks into the school year, and, already, my students are fired up about service learning and technology.  The opportunity came knocking when our 8^th grade American History teacher mentioned to me that he had a “buddy from college” who was originally from the country of Zimbabwe in Africa.  Jhett, the history teacher, asked me if I thought our students would enjoy hearing his friend speak.  “Oh, yeah!” I replied.  “What a perfect opportunity for the kids to start thinking about their service learning project for the year.”  Little did I know then what a perfect fit this would be for technology integration as well.

Today was THE day, and I had my fingers crossed that the guest speaker would at least be good enough to inspire the students.  Not ever having seen him or heard him, I couldn’t be sure.  Matt Mbanga and his wife, Lauren entered the doors of our somewhat isolated, rural school, and brought the world of Zimbabwe with them.  Their youthful good looks and their quiet grace only intrigued the students prior to the visit.

All thirty-eight students (small school!) gathered in the library, toting their composition books and pens, ready to…

“I hate reading.”

“School sucks.”

“Are we gonna do anything today?”

Unfortunately, these are all statements heard from middle-school students in today’s classrooms.  My classroom is not exempt from it either.  In the early adolescent years, students struggle to find their purpose in life and, often, do not find any relevance to that purpose in our school buildings.  With little support at home, many of the students I have taught in my 23 years feel strongly that school is a place that only benefits certain students:  those with background experiences, places to do homework, support at home, and no learning difficulties.  Furthermore, if a student enters middle school speaking a language other than English, his or her frustration level quickly leads him or her to believe that school holds no relevance to life.

As a teacher of fellow human beings who inhabit the same space I live in, I feel compelled to offer all students a sense of purpose and belonging when they enter school.  Therefore, this coming year, I want to examine the impact that service-learning paired with technology, specifically Web 2.0 tools, has on our disenfranchised students.  My…

I’ve been in education for 23 years.  Most people think kids have changed so much, and our world is heading in the wrong direction.  I beg to differ with that theory.  Kids are virtually the same…they just have more distractions.  Currently, I teach 8th grade ELA in a 1A West Texas school.  Passionate about literacy and service learning, I strive to create life-long learners as well as students who are literate about how to change their community.  My students may be technology natives, but I am constantly challenging myself to discover technologies that will create the success that they deserve.  I believe social technologies and Web 2.0 tools have become a key to engaging the disengaged students in my classroom.

At the present, I’m pursuing my master’s degree in Instructional Technology Leadership and, hopefully, can someday teach at the college level, write a professional book,  or pursue the dream of my heart as a librarian (or, maybe, all three!), but, for now, I’ll continue to enjoy my 8th graders.

I am also on the board of the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts and am slowly getting involved in the National Council of Teachers of English.  Recently,…