Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Part of the Market Study

Below is a copy of the email that I sent to all the English teachers from my high school. I know it may seem odd that I didn't branch out to other schools (yet) but my reasoning is that since I went to high school in Provo, like right up the street from BYU, it would be fairly easy to interview some teachers for our video and that way we can get not only ideas from students but we can understand the problems that many teachers are facing. I'm hoping that by having teachers in our video it will be more relate-able to our audience, not just a bunch of students making demands and whining about what's wrong with their classes (it wouldn't be that anyways). So here's the email, I'm hoping at least some of them still love me enough to write back.

Dear English Teachers of Timpview,

My name is Mallory Stevens (previously Peterson) and I'm an English Major at BYU. Many of you I had as teachers while I was at Timpview, and many of you I didn't.  Right now I'm working on a collaborative project in my Shakespeare class and we're trying to get together a sort of how-to guide for teachers who are looking to incorporate technology into their classrooms. Sort of the basis we're working on is that if teachers don't bring technology into the classroom, their students will. I'm not talking about having your students bring laptops to class but about encouraging teachers to play on their student's technological strengths to help them study difficult material like Shakespeare. In my own Shakespeare class my professor has encouraged us to use blogs, social media, and online articles to help us understand difficult materials. The benefit of this is that students can't slip by without doing their reading, they can't just depend on spark notes because what they're being asked to do requires actually reading and following up on that reading. I have a lot I could say about this but that is the basic idea. What I'm wondering is if any of you could just help me pinpoint some of the problems you have in your class room (whether they're technology-based or not) so we can know what teacher's concerns are as we continue to work through this project. The problems can be anything from students texting in class to them not doing their reading/homework, just anything that comes to mind. I'm anxious to hear back from you, I know you're all great teachers and I really value your opinions.

Best Wishes,

Mallory Stevens

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