The Paradox

I finally got a brand new Smart Board installed in my room after weeks of walking past it everyday in its gigantic box. It was put up on Tuesday and I spent the rest of the week using it in class and messing around with it after class. I love having it! It gives me so much flexibility with the types of lessons I can teach and the things I can do. I'm a big proponent of incorporating technology in the classroom. Don't get me wrong, teaching on an old-fashioned chalkboard is something that will never go out of style, but if you've got the technology at your disposal, why not use it?

I was sitting in my classroom after school looking around at the plethora of teaching gadgets I've been given and I couldn't help but notice that I'm living in an absolute paradox. I now have a Smartboard, an iPad, speakers, and Macbooks for all my students--the same students who have no running water or flushing toilets at home.  People primarily wash themselves in steam baths (which is another post waiting to happen) and they go to the bathroom in honey buckets, which are essentially empty five pound buckets that they dump outside afterwards. This tiny village, lacking essential things like running water, has better technology in its school than rich schools in the lower 48. I don't really know what to think of it all. What I do know is the fact that no amount of technology can replace good teaching. I'm going to bring that to this school, technology or not.