It was a worst case scenario for a substitute: four days in a row, the challenges of varying exceptional classes without knowledge of the students’ needs or learning styles, the behavior issues that are spawned by lack of consistency, no roll and no lesson plans. It was my best week.

Day one was about establishing some order and assessing the students simply and quickly. I needed something for them to work on, to continue learning in their teacher’s absence, and I had to find where they were to know how to move them forward, even if just a nudge. I downloaded, printed and handed out worksheets with varying levels and operations of 6th grade mathematics (even though they were seventh graders). The students’ abilities fell well below those suggested standards, so day two was about basic multiplication, followed by basic division on day three.

On day four, I had convinced the students that I was there to help them learn and they began to appreciate it. Most were interested, engaged. I realized they could not move forward without a solid grasp of the multiplication tables, and I needed to grab their attention for an hour of flashcards, to embed the basics. I plugged my laptop into the projector, opened a math Web site, chose a flash card game that had a colorful interface and time element, and divided the class into two teams. The results were inspiring. Students were excited to call out the answer, to help their team. The game cycled each table three times, so students digested the facts, faces grew more confident with each cycle, even as the base numbers grew to seven, eight and nine.

I am earning my M.A. Ed. in instructional Technologies at the College of Education at USF because I am optimistic about the potential technology in the classroom has to help create engaging, relevant and effective learning environments. I am reinvigorated to see instructional technology’s capacity to address different learning styles and pace, to more effectively instruct students who need the individual attention to reach their full potential.