Our guest post is brought to you by a compassionate educator who seeks to empower EVERY learner to be heard, author of Tech with Heart, Stacey Roshan. She is passionate about discovering and bringing innovative tools into the classroom to create a safe learning environment for all students to find their voice and build confidence. Her work has been featured in major media outlets such as USA Today, The Washington Post, CNN and PBS Newshour. 

Prepare to be inspired!

Guest Post by Stacey Roshan

“Some of our smartest students might be our quietest—how do we give them an opportunity to be vocal in classroom discussions without calling them out or making them feel uncomfortable? Some of our unsung superstars may need time to think about their answer before speaking up—how do we shift from a culture of calling on and praising the student who raises their hand first? How can we shift from a first is best culture to one that sends the message that everyone's voice matters—and that everyone has the potential to excel in the classroom?”

Our personal journeys are powerful. In Tech with Heart: Leveraging Technology to Empower Student Voice, Ease Anxiety, & Create Compassionate Classrooms, I take you through some of the classroom experience from my lens. My personal experiences as an introverted student who struggled with perfectionism have had profound impact on the educator I have become. As a teacher, technology has opened up brand new opportunities in my classroom — to develop a more inclusive classroom environment, empower student voice, ease anxiety, and to allow me to bring a deeper level of compassion to my teaching. 

For me, embracing technology in my classroom design has allowed me to:

• create more time for one-on-one interaction with my students.
• quickly see where students are struggling.
• give all students (even introverts and those who need more time to process) the opportunity to share their voice and show their learning.
• reduce stress in the most rigorous classes I teach, both in the classroom and in homework assignments.

One of my biggest goals in writing Tech with Heart is to spark a conversation around whole-child wellness. The reality is that many of our students seem to have it all together on the surface but may be struggling internally. How do we recognize this as teachers, schools, and parents? For my style of teaching, technology has been a huge answer. 

Some of the themes and conversations I hope to spark in writing ​Tech with Heart include:

1. How can we embrace technology to give all students a powerful voice in the classroom (from the introverts who may prefer crafting a reply from behind a screen, to the student who needs time to process and plan a response, to the student who is vocal and eager to be the first to raise her hand and chime in with her thoughts)?

2. How can we reduce student anxiety and stress in the classroom? We are at a point where powerful conversations about mental-health and whole-child well-being are taking place. How can teachers embrace edtech to decrease anxiety in class and on homework and, in doing so, re-energize the classroom experience?

3. How do we provide a safe learning environment for all students to respond without fear of making a mistake? And how can we, as educators, embrace edtech to help us avoid making the mistake of equating speed with intelligence?

4. How do we free up the time and space in our classrooms to get to know our students as individuals — to bring a new level of compassion to our teaching and to help build confidence by tapping into each student’s individual strengths and learning style?

5. Stress, introversion, and perfectionism can be hard to spot. How can we spread awareness and help administrators, teachers, and parents look for signals and think about teaching practices in new ways to better identify some of these feelings?

6. How can we bring new levels of empathy and compassion to our teaching through the intentional integration of technology into the design of our lessons? How do we integrate reflection and metacognition into our teaching routine so that we can empower students to own the learning?

8. A tool is only a tool until it is part of a solution — what questions do we ask ourselves in selecting which edtech tools to use in our classroom and how do we go from idea to implementation?

9. What conversations can we be having around what “caring for the whole child” means? And are we making enough time to observe and listen to student needs?

10. How do we change the way we talk about being “the perfect student?” How do we shift the focus from outcome to process and emphasize that mistakes are an essential part of learning? What type of tech tools can be used to create assignments and a classroom environment where students understand that what is more important than their final answer is the process by which they came to their conclusion?

-Stacey

Wow! Thank you, Stacey!

If you haven't checked out Stacey's book, Tech with Heart, do yourself a favor and click HERE! Scroll down to "FREE Preview" and read the first few chapters absolutely FREE! It's a beautiful story and an empowering message. 

Follow Stacey on Twitter at @buddyxo and check out her website techiemusings.com.