Adapting to change in classroom central theme at conference
CALEXICO — Today, education and the way lectures are conducted in classrooms are constantly evolving, and adapting to these new technologies and strategies will be essential for the educators of tomorrow.
As such, San Diego State University — Imperial Valley Campus held its first Future Teachers Conference on Saturday to be better prepare current college students for what education could look like in years to come.
Liberal Studies Coordinator and Conference Director Stacy Bodus said the inaugural event provided the students with an opportunity to network with future colleagues and seek advice from others as to how to be as best prepared for their first day in the classroom.
“They often don’t have practical experience and don’t know what to expect, so when they get to the classroom they have all these questions,” Bodus said. “I wanted to create a space in which they can network and can connect with people who are already in the community that can help them get those questions answered now.”
The event consisted of three windows of multiple sessions, networking opportunities and featured Imperial County Office of Education Superintendent Todd Finnell as keynote speaker. In his remarks, Finnell focused on the impact of technology on the world around them.
The overarching goal of his speech was to make the students aware that with the evolution of technology they will need to prepare the future generation of students to be ready for a world that doesn’t exist yet.
“It’s important for people who think they want to be teachers to know that teaching today and into the future is different than probably what they experienced,” he said. “Many of the things that we are trying to prepare them for we can’t even imagine because everything is evolving so quickly.”
One of the multiple sessions offered for the conference included “flipping the classroom,” a seminar given by Frank Wright Middle School math teacher Pedro Quintanilla.
Quintanilla introduced the students to Nearpod — a digital teaching service that helps teachers get immediate feedback on how their students are doing throughout the lecture. The service gives them a better understanding of what areas may require additional attention, he explained.
During the session, Quintanilla would ask the students to do a task on a tablet or phone and within seconds could tell how many of the students were taking part in the session and how many had a correct answer.
“We can check for understanding right away and make it interactive, you can get feedback within 10 seconds and talk it over with your class. It helps keep students engaged,” Quintanilla said.
He estimates that in any school there are about one to two teachers who do 100 percent digital instruction, a number he believes should be much higher.
“We need to get more teachers using technology because kids can’t go from doing everything on Social Media outside the classroom and all of the sudden come into the classroom and be completely different,” Quintanilla said. “For new students coming into education, I would suggest getting very familiar with technology. As long as they make that commitment and take that little bit of risk and get very familiar with the technology, kids are going to be more engaged and connected in their classes.”