Teaching STLs

One of the standards for technological literacy is the combining of technology with other subjects. As I was reading about it, I found a part that said to not explicitly teach these principles by themselves to our students, but to incorporate them into our lesson plans with the subjects we are teaching. I decided to try this in my teaching.

When I taught about the combination of technology with other subjects, I tried to get the class to focus on how they can get the students more interested in their subject. I talked about being a "just teacher" like in the movie clip I showed. (A "just teacher" is one who sees everything for just what it is...it's just a student, just a lesson, just a class, just another year.) In doing so, I tried to help them see how they could impliment this STL into their teaching. I gave some suggestions at the end about how to do this:

If the students are interested in something, gear your teaching and lesson plans to fit their interests. (i.e.,-If someone wants to be a green engineer, let them do a project on solar heating or whatever so they can see how technology factors in to their passion.)

If there are a lot of athletes in the class, do something related to sports.

If the kid only likes to skateboard, let him make a skateboard. He'll still learn the tools, get the planning experience, and he won't get an "F" as his final grade because he is going to do a great job. Why? Because he cares.

I'm not saying that we should just let the kids run amuk and get their way all the time, but I bet there are so many things we could do to get them involved. It will take more work on our part in the beginning, but it will pay off big time in the end.