Teacher asks for community support

To the Eagle:

“It’s so quiet in here,” a student whispered in my Wahkiakum High School English classroom a few weeks ago. Students were so absorbed in reading and responding to each others’ essays on our classroom computers, the whisper almost resonated. Beneath the silence, however, the online dialogue was constant as students offered praise and constructive criticism. As class time dwindled, one student planned ahead: “Essay party tonight at 7pm?” Thanks to shared documents online, the collaborative revision could continue at home. This is just one benefit of effective technology in our classrooms.

The importance of the Wahkiakum School District Capital Projects Technology and Security Levy was recently emphasized by Superintendent Bob Garrett. He advocated support for the levy to improve security for our students. As school violence increases, the possibility of averting even one day of danger for our students is certainly a valid reason to support the levy. On a day-to-day educational and life-preparation basis, the technology component is another.

The classroom scenario I described above was a milestone in collaboration and technology use in my classroom. While students have teamed up to improve their work for years, at Wahkiakum it is only recently that we have had enough working computers (in this case, Chromebooks) and bandwidth for a class to work in this way. I am still reluctant to plan a lesson involving technology use because I can’t always be sure that everything will work. (For instance, the connection failed in the middle of a project today, leaving a class of students unable to access their projects.) Though our technology consultant is well-qualified and diligent, his current hours are not adequate to fix a jury-rigged computer system in need of major overhaul.

Our students deserve better. While I, and probably many of you, never encountered computers online technology during high school, our current students do not live in the world that we did then. For instance, their reference materials are almost exclusively online. While this provides far greater currency and range of information than the encyclopedias that I used, it also provides greater possibility of misinformation. We must teach our students to be critical readers, a skill that will serve them now, as they research essays, and later, as they research candidates.

Our students will also be entering a work world very different from the one I initially entered. According to the Federal Communications Commission chairman, Julius Genachowski, “Over half of today’s jobs require technology skills, and nearly 80 percent of jobs in the next decade are projected to require digital skills.” (NY Times, 2013) If we do not provide experience with and education in technology, we are not preparing our students for the workplace.

I want to give our students the technology skills that they need to succeed in school, work, and life. On behalf of the Wahkiakum Education Association, I ask for your support of the upcoming Capital Projects Technology and Security Levy. As Superintendent Garrett pointed out, this levy will cost owners of $100,000 homes only $29 per year, a small contribution to safeguard and improve students’ lives. When you receive your mail-in ballot tomorrow or soon after, please join me in voting “YES” to help keep our students safe and technologically prepared for their futures.

Audrey Petterson

Wahkiakum High School English Teacher