3-1: How Technology is Transforming My Classroom

This year all educators across the globe experienced an overnight demand for transformation in educational practices. It has been a whirlwind to say the least, but an experience that (I cannot believe I am typing this…) I am grateful for.

I have only been teaching for 4 years. Teaching is a second career for me. I began my career as a paralegal and decided early on that it was not a lifelong fit that would keep me content. I missed the educational environment, and working with youth. I missed learning! So, I went back to obtain my teaching degree and have never once looked back or had one regret.

With that being said the past four years has been the hardest I have ever worked professionally. I was hired to replace a history of teachers (not teaching history, teaching Culinary Arts) who taught the “old school” way. I swear to you, in 2016, they were still using overhead transparencies with dry erase markers to teach 21st century students.

Ok, there were a few digital PowerPoints created but they were basic: black and white or maybe even blue and green, but I could have fallen asleep just looking at them. And, that was it. I was given a text book, a crap ton of old transparencies with smudges and missing writing (some in cursive!) and a memory stick with a few boring as ever PowerPoints.

I was flabbergasted. I knew I had a TON of work ahead of me. The thought of plugging in an overhead projector that used a filament lightbulb and pulling down a white screen was like something from “Welcome Back Kotter,” (which I only know about because my mom watched reruns of it it when I was 5 years old). I could not and would not do that to my students. Last time I checked nobody in my classroom wears bellbottom jeans or platform shoes so why were some teachers still using the technology that existed when those fashions were trends? That’s just ridiculous.

I spent the next 3 years building and updating content and teaching along the way. I used materials out of an army green filing cabinet with a busted drawer and updated things as time allowed using Google Suites, YouTube, and a slew of other resources. It was a grand undertaking. I felt like I was flipping a house. I had to gut everything and start with just a framework and work some magic to transform these outdated classes. But, I was doing it and I was proud.

My four different classes became five. I created an entirely new course and students were loving it. The kicker is that I teach cooking. So many people ask me: “How can you teach cooking and use technology?” On instructional days, we use Glogster, Kahoot, Quizziz, Google Forms, YouTube, WeVideo…and the list goes on. On cooking days we use kitchens and things like chicken and olive oil. It is so much fun. Then came COVID 19.

I had such a good thing going. Now, I was faced with how to approach cooking fully online with no real cooking element. For the three years leading up to COVID, Iwas able to infuse cooking classes with technology during instructional days but now I was faced with the bigger challenge of teaching everything in a virtual setting. Even I was stumped…at first.

Within 72 hours I had a plan. I made a calendar and broke down each planned cooking lab into a virtual learning session. I have to admit, I did use a lot of YouTube. But, I also will admit, I gained a new outlook on YouTube as a teaching tool. YouTube is not just people doing pranks, or demonstrating new products. It is full of experts in tons of subjects sharing their knowledge. You just might have to dig around (which might mean spending hours and hours of late nights watching instructional educational videos instead of things like Tiger King on Netflix-even when that is what the rest of the world seems to be doing) to find exactly the right fit for what you are looking for. But, in the end I again flipped a house with technological magic. In fact, I flipped 3 houses and I am darn proud of them.