Using Modern Educational Technology Makes
Your Lessons More Exciting
By Jason Noone
Jason Noone was born in Chechon, Korea, a small town about 4 hours north of Seoul. He was
adopted by an American family and came to the United States when he was 2^12 years old. He is 5
feet 3 inches tall, which makes him the shortest male in his classroom, and shorter than many of
the female students. For most of his students, who are African American, Latino, and Caribbean
American, he is the only person of Korean or Asian ancestry that they know. In this essay he dis-
cusses his background, his experience as a teacher, and ways that he uses modern technology in
his classroom.—Alan Singer
In 1998, I had the opportunity to go back to Korea for the first time since I left as a young
child. I visited the ophanage where I came from and met the Christian missionary who took
care of me when I was born. At that time, Korea was going through extremely difficult eco-
nomic woes. I was abandoned in a public place. The missionaries believe I was left with the
hope that I would be taken to the orphanage and have a chance for survival and a decent
life. My American parents made all of the arrangements to adopt me through the mail. I
guess you could say that I was a mail-order baby.
I was raised in a middle-class, overwhelmingly White, suburban community. My parents,
who are both of European background, were activists who participated in the civil rights
movement of the 1960s. They always tried to give their children a broad vision of the world. I
chose to teach at a high school in a minority community because I want to make a difference
in the world and I feel I can do this as a teacher. My school has a bad reputation and it is un-
deserved. I received a warm welcome by students and staff when I student taught here and
was pleased to be offered a regular position.
I have had students say to me, “You are picking on me because I am Black.” I respond,
“Most of the students in this school are Black. I am the minority here. How do you think I feel
when you say things like that?” I always challenge stereotypes and have had a lot of success
getting students to think about their assumptions about people. In our society, many students
learn to hate other groups of people. I understand why some of my students are angry, but if
they are going to succeed in our world they will have to change these views. Friends ask how I
am able to relate to students who are so different from me. They do not understand that
teaching is like being on a stage where you perform. If your performance is good, students are
engaged and respond. It does not make a difference who they are or who you are.
As a teacher I have a reputation for overplanning my lessons. I even write down my
questions. I especially like to use technology in the classroom. I find PowerPoint is a great
interactive tool. I use it to make presentations and I teach students to use it to present
their reports. For a recent observation lesson, I used a television and VCR, the overhead
projector, PowerPoint, and music all in one period. I was a little surprised that I finished
everything, but I have no question that modern educational technology makes your les-
sons more exciting.
I maintain a Web site with my classes that I update weekly (socialstudiesgenie.50megs.
com). I post homework and extra-credit assignments. Students like to use the site to do pub-
lic opinion surveys. Last year we polled everyone about their views on downloading music
from Napster. I also am the Web master for our department Web site, which we use to post
messages for staff and parents.
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