Evolution of Education

I work as a substitute teacher. It’s a pretty solid gig with respectable pay, decent hours, and it’s usually not too difficult. I sub for all subjects and all ages, which is much easier than it sounds. The older kids are self-sufficient and often I’m just instructed to have them continue their work from class.

 

A big change from when I was in elementary school is that the younger kids do most of their assignments on their chrome books. When I was in school, there was a singular laptop cart on every floor that the entire floor shared. Every kid at these (mostly charter and private) schools that I work at has their own laptop.

 

At first, that might come across as dystopian and lame. I thought so too, initially. Why can’t our kids focus on the board? Why do they always have to be on screens? Yada yada.  

I’ve really come around to it. First of all, selfishly, it makes it easier to sub for those classes than if I had to lecture to them at the front of the class. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized that having a gamified digital lesson where students can move at their own pace is probably a lot more effective for most kids than watching a lecture that they may or may not be paying attention to. I’m sure that this type of learning would have been a lot more effective for me!  

Thanks for reading!

Rudolph