Sarah Banholzer

November 15, 2018

Period 4

How AV Teachers are Modernizing Their Classrooms

We have come a long way from teachers using chalk and a blackboard to teach their
students. Teachers at Amador have been modernizing their classrooms in a number of different
ways. From group projects to teaching the curriculum, technology assists teachers in making
their classrooms up to date with the twenty-first century.
Amador teachers have begun experimenting with different technological medians to teach
their classes. One technological advance in the classroom has been the introduction of
podcasts. Instead of constantly lecturing to their students, teachers will sometimes have their
students listen to podcasts to learn the material, adding a change of pace to the class.
“My ninth grade students this year made a children story podcast after we finished reading
Warriors Don’t Cry. It was an exciting way to look at their creativity in a way that a multiple
choice test or an essay could not,” said ​AV English teacher, Mrs. Kamali.
Teachers have also begun having their students use more technology in the classroom. With
a number of ChromeBook carts moving around the Amador campus, teachers are able to have
their students utilize these ChromeBooks in different ways.
“I enjoy [using Chromebooks in the classroom] because it gives the student a number of
possibilities to be assessed. A number of different edts can occur and it shows their creative
side with using the Chromebooks. Obviously, with group research, it’s extremely helpful to have
the chromebooks to be passed around from teacher to teacher so that we can have
research-based projects occur in the classroom themselves,” said ​AP Psychology and U.S.
History teacher, Mr. Bower.
With so many technological advances in the world today and the growing number of tech
companies in the U.S., it is now more important than ever for students to have the ability to use
technology in the classroom.
“​Modernizing the classroom keeps both the material interesting and relevant, not just for the
student but for the teacher as well. If [teachers] are not willing to evolve to keep their lessons
relevant to our society and the technological advances that are available to us, the subject and
the material becomes boring.​” said ​AV Computer Science teacher, Mr. Kiyoi.
​Math classes are even evolving in ways to add more technology into classes. Math students
are now able to use a program called Desmos, on their phones or computers, to graph functions
and see how they change under different circumstances. Another program used by math
classes is Logger Pro, which allows you to graph data from videos.
Students seem to enjoy using technology in the classroom because of its usefulness in group
projects and its move away from traditional teaching.
It seems that Amador teachers are keeping up with the times by modernizing their classes
with technological advances that will benefit both the teachers and the students.