This topic has been on my mind a lot lately. As a grade 3 teacher in a k-5 school, I have the middle of the pack kids. I watch the kindergartner’s waddle down the middle hallway, with backpacks bigger than them, and I poke my head into their classrooms as they sing the “count by twos” rap. I watch the first graders becoming real readers and writers, and marvel (and something laugh) at their written pieces hanging proudly in the hall. I scope out the second graders closely- who behaves during assemblies? Who is wild in the cafeteria? Who is kind and includes others at recess? I watch carefully because I know someday many of those kids will be mine.

And then I get them.

I teach them the difference between a computer and a monitor. I teach them how to right click, move the “blinking line” down, make capital letters. I teach them to save their work by clicking on the blue “Ipod” icon in the top left corner. I teach them how to retrieve their work from the public drive. How to insert images. How to do a safe, effective internet search. I teach them how to create digital bar graphs and pie charts. I teach them how to use power point. I teach them how to blog, and leave kind, helpful comments. I teach them about internet safety and online etiquette.

And then one day, they leave.

I watch them walk down to the other hallway- the BIG kids hallway, and as I watch them round the bend, I wonder, will they get to use any of those tools next year? An overwhelming amount of 4th and 5th grade teachers resist technology- it’s too much.

Recently there was an uprising in my class as they realized that our class blog might cease to exist next year. “Can’t we keep it?” “What will happen to all of our stories?” “What if I want to keep working together with someone on a story who’s in another class?” In all of my research on class blogging, no one has have ever mentioned what happens to class blogs when the school year ends.

I totally understood my student’s concerns. But the thought of managing two classroom blogs with a newborn (yay!) next year was overwhelming. I found myself appealing to the 4th grade teachers, pleading them to please take on a blog- I would even make it for them and transfer my kids over to their classes. I would even train them! One enthusiastic teacher was ready for the challenge- but another, 2 years from retirement, rolled her eyes (lovingly, of course!). Here I was asking her to take on another one of my crazy ideas. The third teacher, never responded.

The thing about teaching 3rd grade is that you have the “in-the-middle” kids. They aren’t babies, they aren’t big kids. I get them when they’re just starting to really become cool individuals, and they leave me just as they are becoming savvy- at life. And so it’s hard to watch them walk down that big kid hallway knowing that they may not get to utilize all those awesome tools they are capable of.

I have to keep working on changing that. I have to keep asking that eye-rolling teacher to try it. I have to stay after that teacher who ignored me. If I get at least one of them on board, maybe she can convince the others…

What am I doing that’s so drastically different than anyone else in my building? I’m embracing technology, because the kids are ready for it.