{"id":7971,"date":"2012-09-25T01:38:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T01:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7971"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:56","slug":"september-newspaper-article-depending-on-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7971","title":{"rendered":"September Newspaper Article – Depending on Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I used a bit of an earlier blog post for this month’s newspaper article, but most of this is new:<\/em>On\nLabor Day Monday, while local schools enjoyed a day off, I was privileged to\nwitness the start of a new year at Cowman School in Vaudreuil, Haiti.\u00a0 <\/span>In many ways the scene appeared like that of\nany school here in the U.S. <\/span><\/span>The\nstudents showed up lugging backpacks, lunchboxes and water bottles and bubbling\nwith a sense of anticipation and anxiety. The teachers warmly greeted the\nstudents and showed them to their classrooms where posters adorned the walls\nand bulletin boards offered key learning points. At eight o\u2019clock a bell rang\nand the students took their seats.<\/span><\/span>But\nthe bell was not some electronic buzz \u2013 it was a handheld bell, powered only by\na vigorous shaking by Mrs. Z, a 70-something missionary who teaches 1st<\/sup>and\n2nd<\/sup> graders. <\/span><\/span>I\nwas on site to begin my new job as a high school teacher for Cowman, this small\nmission school serving a mix of missionary kids and local Haitian\nchildren.\u00a0 <\/span>I came for two weeks to bring\nclassroom supplies, get to know my students and create a foundation on which I\ncould continue to build from here in Indiana the rest of the semester.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>My\nstudents will be learning French and Spanish on site, working on Language Arts\nwith me via email, and taking all other core classes through an internet\ncurriculum called Ignitia.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>I\ngot to see firsthand what a challenge this may present.\u00a0 <\/span>American teachers are well aware that\ntechnology will let you down when the timing is most inconvenient.\u00a0 In Haiti, it is not just high tech gadgets \u2013\nit is anything powered by electricity.<\/span><\/span>Each\nmorning I spent at Cowman, the electricity would cut out completely from 9:30\nto noon, leaving the classrooms without overhead lighting and, more\nimportantly, without fans. \u00a0<\/span>During those\nhours, we utilized a portable diesel-powered generator and a mess of extension\ncords, one running to each classroom.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>So\nyou can imagine how nervous it made me to be in charge of a class almost\ncompletely dependent on a strong, steady internet connection.\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, we were six days into the school\nyear before Access Haiti installed a satellite dish \u2026 in a tall tree behind the\nschool building.\u00a0 One worker scrambled up\nthe tree and wielded a machete to clear away any branches interfering with the\nsignal.<\/span><\/span>So\nwhat did I do with my students during our six school days before the internet\nconnection was established?\u00a0 <\/span>I wrote out\nassignments on an antique green chalkboard.\u00a0\nThe class took notes and wrote essays with pencils on paper.\u00a0 I taught reading and writing skills.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>That\u2019s\nright: I taught without the use of technology.\u00a0\n<\/span>Who would guess that was even still possible?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I used a bit of an earlier blog post for this month’s newspaper article, but most of this is new:But the bell was not some electronic buzz \u2013 it was a handheld bell, powered only by a vigorous shaking by Mrs. Z, a 70-something missionary who teaches 1stand 2nd graders. I got to see firsthand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7972,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions\/7972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}