Technology in the classroom

I have had the opportunity to observe in two different classrooms. I observed a kindergarten class in the suburbs and in a third grade classroom on the West side of Chicago. The differences were astonishing but not completely surprising. The kindergartner classroom in the suburbs had a smart-board and seven computers in the classroom. One was for the teacher and the other six were for the students. The room was divided into centers and one of them was devoted to computers. Everyday the students were exposed to the computer centers. There were two kindergartner classrooms in the school and they shared one aide and the classrooms also had a parent volunteer each day. The children also had access to a smart board, large television and dvd player in their classroom.

The third grade classroom on the cities west side had one computer in the classroom that was for the teacher. Her computer was extremely old and very slow. The classroom had one very small television that was never used because it was too small for the entire class to see. There was no smart board and the teachers used the chalkboard to teach their lessons. There was one computer lab in the entire school(k-12) and the teachers had to sign up to use it. From what I saw it was mostly used by the upper grades. There was rarely anyone in the lab to help students. The teachers were allowed to take the students to the lab if it went along with their lesson plans and curriculum. On average the students only went to the computer lab three times a semester.

One of the third grade teachers in the Chicago classroom was asking me what classes I was taking. She mentioned how she remembers taking her technology in the classroom class. She mentioned how she learned all these cool things that she looking forward to using in her classroom. Now that she is actually in the classroom she hasn't been able to use any of it because her school doesn't have the technology. As frustrated as this made her she assured me that the students were still learning and the teachers just have to be more creative. This was more then discouraging to me as a future teacher but its also reality. I don't know where I will be lucky enough to find a job and I will have to teach my students with what resources I'm given.