“In the years before Google Classroom and Edmodo, I used Facebook as a means for students to ask questions about their papers on weekends and school breaks,” according to Kirsten Jennings, an English teacher at East Coweta High School. “Educators have always tried to use technology to connect to students and give them a sense of comfort and support. It helps students persevere through challenging assignments when they know I’m just a message away as they struggle with new skills,” she said.
“Now, instructional technology has dramatically improved, so every student has access to tools like Google Classroom, Remind, and Edmodo to communicate with teachers and collaborate with peers as part of the 1:1 Chromebook initiative,” Jennings explained. “I continually use technology as a means to communicate with students and parents, especially with teaching AP writing and working with students on the ominous junior paper.”
Jennings has been teaching for 16 years, including the past 15 years in the English department at ECHS. After earning both an undergraduate and graduate degree from the University of West Georgia, she is ABD in her doctoral program in Instruction and Curriculum at Northcentral University.
Currently, Jennings utilizes student blogging to extend the learning community beyond the classroom or school setting. “Through Edublogs and Rap Genius, my students are able to give one another feedback and work collaboratively to annotate documents,” she said.
In addition to technology enhanced writing instruction, Jennings uses social media in the classroom to address social activism. “By teaching my students digital literacy skills, I help them connect responsibly to others who are passionate about the same social concerns. Last year, one student even parlayed her social media activism project into a local community service internship. Technology connects students to a larger audience and gives them a meaningful way to take a more active and informed role in our society.”
“I’m working to discover more innovative ways to bridge the learning students do in the classroom with the lives they live outside the walls of EC,” Jennings stated. “I want to create truly informed citizens who responsibly use available technologies to impact the world in which they live and to communicate with others around the globe,” she said.
In addition to giving students a broader audience and offering them avenues for activism, Jennings recognizes the power that technology has to involve students in deeper levels of learning. “My AP class is very rigorous, but technology helps me engage students using a variety of learning modalities,” she explained. “Using Chromebook apps and extensions, we will create unique Glee-style karaoke mashups of rhetorical terms and argument practice. Thanks to these digital tools, the students will be able to study their terms, enjoy a little music, and have plenty of fun at the same time.”
