I started teaching in 1991. No one knew it at the time, but the children being born around that time in history would see the world in a whole new way. Children born beginning in the late 1980s are now known as the “Digital Natives.”  They have never known life without computers and other digital technology.

 The first third graders I taught, for the most part, did not have computers at home. My school was one of the few elementary schools that did have a computer lab, but I was one of only few teachers who would even take my kids in there. Computers were then nothing a fun extra. Now they are an integral part of our students’ lives. And somewhere along the line, as a result of that technology, the kids that came into my classroom changed.

It was a slow change, like watching grass grow. If you don’t pay attention to your yard, one day you turn around and the grass is a foot high. We haven’t been paying attention. Over the past 15 years or so when we should have been noticing the changes in the students we were teaching, we have been paying way too much attention to standards, testing, and politics. The kids that will walk into my classroom two weeks from now need a different teacher than my first group of 3^rd graders.

Before this summer, I had never heard the term “Digital Natives”. Now, it’s my goal to be the different teacher that the digital natives need.