LM August 2016.pub

are we taking a bicycle or a rocket ship?” Interestingly, Magiera wasn’t always the biggest advocate of technology. “Just bells and whistles” is how she once felt about digital learning tools. In one blog post, Magiera wrote that she once openly mocked her friends when they first got iPads, asking

home. The lesson learned by the new technology convert? “The tool is only as powerful as the user.” The results were telling: improved attendance, better behavior in the classroom and 10 fifth grade students scoring Above Grade Level compared to just

why they would spend money on “giant iPhones that can’t make even calls.” She somewhat hesitantly applied for a grant to get her class tablets because she thought her students needed better devices to be competitive. Not only was she surprised when she won the grant and 32 iPads arrived in her classroom but she wasn’t exactly sure how to utilize them “It was trial by fire,” Magiera said. “We failed a lot. The first couple of months were a big disaster. We had to build the blueprint from the ground up for the concept of what was possible for our students. Sometimes we had to regroup and try a different way. We had to fail forward, to transform teaching and learning.

one of the same group the year before as fourth graders. Still, she emphasizes that the hardware and software are not the most important advances. “It’s really not all about the technology at all. It’s about taking new approaches to create improved learning opportunities for students. You can do that with cardboard, duct tape and paint. It’s about thinking critically about educational problems, of practice and being willing to take risks.” she said. “I have been in one-room schools in Africa and Asia without fully functioning electricity and yet they were able to surpass some of the most connected US districts when implementing innovative student learning strategies. It’s definitely more about a mindset.” One person who helped Magiera develop her can- do mindset was her fourth grade teacher, Miss Buckman. She was living in Orlando where she was

“It’s really not all about the technology at all. It’s about taking new approaches to create improved learning opportunities for students. You can do that with cardboard, duct tape and paint. It’s about thinking critically about educational problems, of practice and being willing to take risks. I have been in one-room schools in Africa and Asia without fully functioning electricity and yet they were able to surpass some of the most connected US districts when implementing innovative student learning strategies. It’s definitely more about a mindset.”

-- Jennie Magiera

but we had support and a safe space to take risks.” In the end, she said professional development and the chance to collaborate with teachers from other schools that had received the same grant helped her find the sweet spot when it came to balancing things such as learning how to manage and use the devices, teaching students how to use them to troubleshoot problems, giving students assessment and feedback, becoming aware of the applications available and how to evaluate and select them, and accommodating students who didn’t have technology available at

the only Asian student in her class and as a result was, by her own description, introverted – a tag that clearly no longer applies. “Miss Buckman walked in the first day of school and told us she was a 97-year-old with a fountain a youth and a pet dinosaur named Jeff,” Magiera recalled. “She said that in her class you could be whoever you wanted to be. I lit up and for the first time in school finally felt I could be myself. I know firsthand that a teacher can change a life.”

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