Educating in the 21st Century  

  My name is Sidney Downham and my degree is for Secondary English Language Arts with a license addition in Reading and Computers in Education. I am an alumni of the INSPIRE LLC and I have worked collaboratively as a college course undergraduate learning assistant. 

 

I focus on an equitable, engaging, creative, and challenging environment. It is important to allow students the freedom to be creative in their writing while aligning their expectations with content state standards.  Our students are capable of far more than they are often given credit for and in my classroom, I like to challenge them. I believe each student should have the space and respect for their individuality and various identities including their funds of knowledge and funds of identity. I welcome each student into my classroom and strongly believe that we are all educators and learners in some aspect.

 

I believe that technology is a vital and evolving tool that has a time and place in each classroom. As an English teacher,  I see great value in in-person 1:1 communication through the traditional discussion circle. However, I  believe that it is an important skill for educators and students in the 21st century to both understand and know how to utilize technology as it changes throughout time. In my classroom, I use multiple different types of technology to engage, challenge, encourage and collaborate with my students. There is a time and place for traditional class discussions and for technology use, in my classroom, I try to balance both equitably.