Reflection: Final Blog Post

The game plan I have created has had some obstacles, but overall, I am very happy with the increased technology use that my students have experienced. I have learned lots of great ideas and teaching methods from the Learning Community 7 wiki. I have been very fortunate to be with some on the ball co-wikiers. The growth I have experienced lies mostly in my new emphasis on reflection and ingraining content tightly into technology.
I won't be making any immediate adjustments to instruction considering it is Christmas break, but after the holiday I plan to continue to have my students create their own GAME plans and branch out more into independently chosen topics in problem based learning.

Week 7

After visiting the website for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and examining the National Education Standards for Students (NETS-S), I see many interrelated elements between these standards and the ones for teachers-(NETS-T). Both sets of standards emphasize creativity and collaboration. These are important 21st Century skills that are unfortunately neglected in most state's content standards. I also appreciate the fact that like the teacher standards, the students are expected to plan their own strategies for inquiry learning. I like this because even though teachers are expected to scaffold the learning and strategies, the impetus is then transferred to the students to be independent learners and thinkers. The standards for students thoroughly mirror the design for teacher implementation and this makes sense to thoroughly infuse the ideals of this method of learning and way of becoming a life-long learner in the 21st Century.

I plan to use the GAME plan process with my students to help them develop proficiency in the NETS-S. The standards emphasize content and critical thinking supported by technology. This will help to actively and authentically incorporate technology in the classroom. I plan to infuse my grade level content standards with Web 2.0 interactions, safe practices on the internet, including parents in my technology plan, and improving collaboration skills both within the classroom walls as well as with other classrooms around the country and even the world.
The most important step will be just getting that GAME plan format into the kids' hands and running with it. The students will be gaining access to a world class learning environment.


http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007.htm

Revising Your GAME Plan

“The most persistent norm that stands in the way of 21st-century learning is isolated teaching in stand-alone classrooms. Transforming schools into 21st-century learning communities means recognizing that teachers must become members of a growing network of shared expertise.”
(Quote Taken from Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work)


I am still working on helping foster digital citizenship in the classroom. My district is doing computerized MAP testing- using all available computers for this purpose so I am adapting my instruction to spend more time modeling and doing whole group instruction to keep myself on track. I am using the white board very heavily at this point. I think this is forcing me to spend more time on planned mini-lessons that teach technology basics, net etiquette, and critical analysis. This is one cloud that has a silver lining. My students have been anxious about getting back to the labs.
One learning goal that I want to set for the rest of this year is Standard 5: Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
I am going to start with a local learning community. I have arranged for a speaker to come to our next two cohort meetings to help teachers learn more about computer programming and streaming videos. From that point, we will evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice to support student learning. My hope is that the teachers will return to their schools to share these ideas with their co-workers.
It has been challenging to progress steadily on my original goals for the reasons included on my last post, but I am trying to be flexible in finding alternative modes of instruction.
I decided to go back to the "Just Do It" motto today when I told my fourth grade students that I would help them animate their bridge pictures and record them reading their stories with "Crazy Talk" software. We will see how it goes but they are so excited. It will force me to do more of the requirements that will be used in weeks 7 and 8.

http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm

Week 5

As I work towards refining my GAME plan, I see that my actions have been partially effective in helping to meet my goals
I have gotten around some of my computer access by using the laptops. The kids were excited this week to be relaxing all over the library on the floors and chairs working on their research. It was gratifying to see these students from a title one school sitting by the "fireplace" (video of a fire on a big screen)in the library learning to navigate the vast information available world-wide. It was hard to keep lapping the entire library to help students- but I think that made them more prone to try and trouble-shoot a situation independently. At this point, I am feeling like my students are at a point where their toolboxes are open and they have many of the basics of digital and inquiry learning. I will continue to have large group mini-lessons on information literacy skills, and am on the run continuously with troubleshooting in the lab but my students' interest in learning and sharing has definitely been piqued. The glogs are going slowly as parents are slow to turn in the permission forms. I don't want to start until I get them all. Even though the glogs have a special division that is geared towards education and is secure, I think I might adapt my plan to do small group posters and posters as a class initially.
One thing that I have been forced to do through this class is to be more reflective. I realize that the techniques for reflection that we have used will make my life easier in the long run because I will be a more effective teacher.
I am finding that it is taking me longer than I realized to get these students confident and proficient in trying new tools and trying to locate information. I have adjusted my time-line to take this into account.

Resources:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Monitoring my GAMEPlan progress!

After I established a set of goals for instituting technology into my teaching practice I needed to take some actions to fulfill those goals. Two of the main actions I chose to initiate in my classrooms were to increase the number of times my students visited the computer labs, and to encourage home use with the implementation of a class blog.

Concerning my first goal, I have definitely been able to increase the number of visits my students have made to the computer labs. The major obstacles I have met so far have occurred because I teach a subject (academically gifted) that our district feels is not as important as conducting standardized tests. The huge barrage of fall testing has disrupted the attendance of my classes and thrown off my calendar. I am also a traveling teacher, who is at a different elementary school each day of the week, which can also make it hard to schedule computer lab time. Despite this, I have made an effort to get my classes into the lab as much as possible.

My second goal was to set up a class blog and encourage my students to use it as much as possible. I have had mixed success in this endeavor. The main obstacle I have met with this goal is the socioeconomic discrepancy across my district. While I have 100 percent home access to the internet in some schools, it may be as low as 40 percent at other schools. This is a topic we have talked about repeatedly in this course, how do you adapt a lesson or classroom goal to accommodate differentiating students? I have had much difficulty finding a viable solution to this problem.

Despite these problems, I still believe I can implement the actions part of my GAME Plan and follow them up with productive monitoring and evaluation.

My GAME plan:

I have just reviewed the National Educational Technology Standards from the International Society for Technology in Education. and I am thinking about which of these standards I will be focusing on strengthening first. I really think my areas of weakness are "Digital Citizenship" and "Communication and Collaboration". I find them to be important but I have not dedicated as much time to them as I should have been doing. I think that having more digital interaction is critical for both of these areas.

Goals: I hope to increase the students' basic toolbox of basic skills in technology while also inspiring a sense of creativity and exploration in problem solving.

Action: I am going to make sure that my students have regular access to the computer labs and centers, as well as encourage home use of the computer through posted entries on my blog and eventually my students' glogs. Glogs.com/edu is like a private social networking system for students.

Monitering: I can monitor the students' understanding of the processes of digital literacy through my interactions with them on the Glog.

Evaluate: My students are keeping a notebook including a KWHL chart which outlines the research process for them and requires them to record references, processes, and thinking.
My main course of action for improving my students' proficiency in thinking critically and processing information in a complete and creative manner- is to "just do it". Get them started in the basics of technology with a sense of urgency while expanding their ability to analyze information. I am devoting time weekly for computer use, taking advantage of my computer lab access to the fullest.


Laureate Education Inc. (2009). “Enriching Learning Experiences with Technology.” Baltimore, MD: Laureate Education Inc.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.

Gem of a site:

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/

I am completing my coursework for my class "Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom". Informational Literacy is critical in our Information Age and includes the ability to formulate problems, access information, and use the information responsibly, accurately, and creatively. This class has really honed in on teaching us to help children to formulate their own deep questions, seek out and analyze information from a variety of sources, and transform that information into presentations in a variety of mediums.
The most striking revelation that I have had in this course is that the goal of this kind of inquiry learning is to help students internalize the process of discovery and creation.
I plan to utilize many of the experiences in my future planning and teaching. Going forward into this year and beyond, I plan to use the framework of deep questioning, critical evaluation of a multitude of resources, and an open-ended approach to sharing knowledge.
One professional development goal that I would like to pursue is to continue to learn and share new tools for students to use in generating and sharing their content. Specific goals for my students include increasing reading for information skills, critical thinking, and a sense of independence and confidence in finding multiple quality materials to increase knowledge.
I plan to use my inquiry learning unit based on the big idea of "structures" to carefully and thoroughly walk the students through the important steps of inquiry. The most important thing I have garnered through this class is that I as a teacher have to jump in and immediately get started in helping students become more proficient. Students have so much to learn, I have a new sense of urgency to get the information literacy skills in place so that students can begin to blossom in this important skill as a life-long learner. I plan to integrate information literacy in all content areas on a very regular basis. I am fortunate to be able to have the technological support and access to technological tools in my district to make this a reality.

Save the Pacific NorthWest Tree Octopus!

Screencasts and videos online

Our assignment was to evaluate a variety of hoax websites designed to illustrate that you can not always believe what you see, read or hear- especially on the internet. I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment. You might not believe it to hear it- but that is actually the sixth take of this video. I can see great applications for this for online schools.

Technology Course Reflection

At the beginning of the course, we established a personal theory of learning. I believe the goal of this assignment was to create a starting point for our journey into the use of technology in the classroom. Over the weeks, we revisited many of the instructional strategies used by educators over the past decades. Most of these strategies were reviewed, since we had been using them in the classroom before. However, with the review of each strategy, we tried to introduce an element of technology.
My initial theory of learning stated that students benefit from a wide variety of instructional methods. As I progressed through the course, this belief was reinforced through discussions and applications about behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Each method reminded me of some of the things I already did in the classroom, and some of the things I probably should start doing more of in the classroom.
I don’t think there really has been much of a shift in my theory of learning since the start of the class. Instead, I think I have recognized the importance of shifting the responsibility for the learning away from the teacher and toward the student. I understood this before, but I have really tried to shift from just delivering a safe version of active learning through technology to implementing it into my instruction. One example of this shift applies to the use of PowerPoints in class. Before this class, I would try my best to make PowerPoints interactive, but I was still the one in front of the class, and my students were still the ones in their seats. One of the activities I planned around the constructivism lesson was for the students to create their own PowerPoint slides and
share them with the rest of the class. While I recognized the need to be progressive when implementing technology into my instruction, I never really applied it before this activity.
The two technology tools I would like to use with my students in the future are the VoiceThread community and the Virtual field trip. I was very excited to learn about the VoiceThread application. I plan to use this application to enhance my lesson plans by making them more interactive. Most of the lessons I teach that include a written assessment can easily be replaced by a shared, classroom review that would allow the students to show off their work, and take a more active role in their learning. In addition, I think the application will be a good way to provide alternative methods of assessment for students, individually, or in a group. Another fantastic use of technology I was introduced to during this course was the virtual field trip. I was a little bit surprised to discover that the virtual field trip was actually fun and interesting for me, the teacher. I was very interested in following along the field trip as I investigated which ones I would use in my class. I look forward to finding the time to create my own virtual field trips as well, ones that I can manipulate and fine tune to match my curriculum.
Some changes I would like to make to my instructional practice would simply be to continue expanding my repertoire of technology tools. Although it is important to make sure you are adhering to effective and varied instructional methods, I believe that at this point in my career, I have gained a relatively strong understanding of differentiating instruction. The area I hope to focus on in the future would be connecting new uses of technology to each lesson I create. In order to accomplish this goal, I intend to investigate as many new forms of technology as I can. In addition, I intend to network

with other teachers in my school and over the internet, with the hope that I will discover a variety of new ways to use technology in the classroom.

Recycling

Voicethread- Recycling

http://voicethread.com/share/529992/

Social Learning in Practice

Social learning theory is the newest theory of education, and is actually still being defined and implemented into today's classroom curriculum. Of all the learning theories we have studied, social learning theory lends itself to technology the most. Some of the specific instructional strategies that have been tied to social learning theory include: webquests, VoiceThread, and PowerPoints. I have used two of these strategies before, and I intend to try using VoiceThread in the future.

All of these instructional strategies rely on individual members of the classroom providing input and demonstrating their mastering of the instructional material. In the case of PowerPoints and VoiceThreads, the students are given an excellent opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge to the teacher and their classmates. In addition, they are given the opportunity to collaborate, and give each other positive and constructive feedback. The finished product gives the students a sense of accomplishment and teamwork. In addition, it helps students get to practice real world applications that they could quite possibly utilize in their future endeavors.

In this respect, these instructional strategies are very closely connected to the social learning theory. In addition, they are linked to technology and effective strategies for learning.

Constructivist/Constructionist Theories of Learning

Constructivism/Constructionism Theories of Learning:

The schools I teach at are big fans of this learning method. Most of our teachers use in one way or another during the school year. It comes up most often in the form of projects and presentations. I have to admit that I am also a big fan of this method as well. I believe most teachers would agree that creating finished projects and presentations helps students use higher levels of thinking and creates more connections in their minds. I think another important factor is that when students are able to show what they have learned, they are motivated to learn more. Positive reinforcement creates a greater desire to learn more, and instills confidence in a students abilities.

Aside from the idea of creating GIS maps that I mentioned in my discussion post, I am a big fan of PowerPoint presentations that were created by the students. Instead of having the students create entire presentations, I usually assign them only one or two slides, and have them work as individuals or in pairs. One of the aspects of their slides must be how it is connected to the other slides that are being created. Then, when they are all put together, we teach each other the lesson. I think this helps the students in many ways. First, they can be proud that they have contributed to the overall presentation in a positive manner. In addition, they quickly learn how important their obligation is to the other classmates to do their work so there is not a gap in the information. Second, it helps the students see the overall picture of a concept or lesson. Finally, having all the slides be related to each other in one way or another is a great way to help students understand connectivity, or causes and effects.

While creating the slides, students are often introduced to entirely new concepts. Before they can share them with everyone else, they need to use assimilation and accommodation techniques to understand the information well enough to teach it to others

Cognitive Learning Methods

Cognitive learning theories and information processing seem to be the next step up from behaviorism and information storage.

Cognitive learning concerns the storage of information in long-term memory along with the ability to retrieve and apply that information properly.

The ability to store and retrieve information in long-term memory relies upon a student’s ability to make many, varied connections between prior knowledge or experiences and new knowledge and experiences.

It appears that the more social or cultural connections a student has to the material being taught, the more likely it is they will retain and apply the new information.

Here is the difference between cognitive and behaviorist learning methods. Cognitive learning methods seek out personal connections between the material and the student. This may not be as efficient as behaviorism, but it appears to create a stronger mental bond with less familiar and more complex materials.

One of the cornerstones of cognitive learning is the construction of little pieces of information into larger concepts. A common belief is that a learner can only process and transfer to long-term memory a limit of seven pieces of information Therefore, in order to teach higher level information, the student must process the seven pieces of information and synthesize them into larger concepts.

The use of technology is a great way to create a wider variety of connections between prior knowledge and new information.

Behavioralism in Practice

Hello fellow bloggers,

I had some technical difficulties with posting- accidentally posted to the wrong blog!
Here are a few of my thoughts on behaviorist learning methods and the use of technology in the classroom.

First of all, as I mentioned in the discussion posting, I completely disagree with the idea that behaviorist methods are antiquated and have no place in today's classroom. I teach elementary school age children, and I actually believe that for the majority of the subjects I teach, behaviorist methods are possibly the best methods. At the very least, they are a major ingredient in the combination of instructional methods.

Behaviorist methods are the most effecient way to lay down a foundation of basic information to build off of. In elementary school people sometimes take for granted that a student can read or do simple math. If they lack these skills, behaviorist methods are a great way to help them learn them. If they lack these skills, it is impossible to reach for loftier goals in the future.

It is important to recognize the use of behaviorist methods in establishing classroom discipline, and individual expectations of effort, attitude, and quality of work.

Of course, educators certainly cannot fully rely on behaviorist methods to teach. If they do, they will never be able to go beyond a basic understanding of simple subjects. In order to fully address the needs of every student, and to lead them in the direction of higher learning and higher order thinking, teachers must use a variety of methods.

I believe that technology and behaviorist learning methods are a good match. Most of us use computer programs that we learned using behaviorist methods, like tutorials. In addition, the computational and statistical nature of computers is a good fit with the desire to assess, monitor, and reward progress towards goals.

However, just like traditional teaching environments, it is important to recognize that behaviorist methodology in combination with technology can only take a student so far, at which point it is necessary to move away from behaviorist methods, not move away from technological assistance.

unpacking

Reflection

I have learned to relax and ride the technology wave in my Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society class. My focus has been on teaching informational literacy this year. I now know to speak to Online Safety regularly in the class and I have focused on basic research skills and PowerPoint this year. Instead of assigning the students a state to present on, as I have done in the past, I have opened it up to open-ended inquiry based on each child’s interests. I think it is important for students to enjoy creating a multi-media project in third grade but this year I am more comfortable with having the students lead the topic choices with a more open-ended learning and sharing because I now know that student choice and self-direction are critical to the process. Deciphering what internet tools work best for which kids is an ongoing process and I am still learning how to evaluate these. I am in a good habit of adding my essential sites to my webpage and have the kids use it in class to get them in the habit for home use.
It is important to me that the students have a sense of healthy skepticism about information and people online. I see the need to make sure that they are exposed to the idea that information needs to be verified. I had my third graders look up the “tree octopus” which led some to realize that the animal is a hoax, despite the beautiful webpage and links. I feel that this class has confirmed for me the need to embrace and be an advocate for making technology a high priority in education. Speedy access, shared lesson plans, and updated equipment are necessary.
I now know that the student should be at the center of the learning process and this is made easier with the level of engagement and individualization that is possible with the vast resources including games, videos, and blog expression that can increase the learning. My class has been a big reminder that kids thrive in creativity and expression and technology has immense possibilities for both.
My perspective on this learning process is changing as I am still learning with my class as I continue to experiment with new technologies and modes of expression with them.
Technology can be a big piece of the puzzle in providing an unlimited knowledge base as well as a chance to be a critical thinker, a creative thinker, and have fun all in one fell swoop. I have gone from being intimidated by the idea of making a podcast to popping out a g-cast in a moment’s notice! My overarching goal is to be a facilitator of learning to adults- by finding and sharing new applications with co teachers and by creating and contributing to professional wikis. I also want to give my primary age students the foundations for informational literacy and making learning relevant and fun with the tools available to us. One goal I want to commit to is to continue to take advantage of training and exposure to quality technology tools, contacts, and opportunities. Our state of South Carolina is lucky to have many initiatives and resources for technology and one is ETV, our public television and radio endowment. In addition to many webpages with standards-based links and games and streaming video on thousands of topics, they offer free training for teachers on a variety of technology applications and I plan to attend the next one on March 17th. I am also thrilled to continue working on my master’s degree through Walden. My favorite thing I learned to do in this class, subscribing to reader feeds, has transformed the way I gather new websites, games, and activities for my class and school. Now I get new ideas and premium sites delivered to me. This makes it so much more efficient and I have been able to share many ideas with all types of teachers from the school- from ESOL to literacy, science, and math coaches.
My primary long-term goal for transforming my classroom into a student-centered, tech-savvy classroom is to incorporate blogging and webpages into the lives of each student. Although I have utilized Thinkquest.org in the past and it was a wonderful tool, I am going to make it a goal to use this site on a deeper level. I want to interact with students online, allow them to take surveys they have created, and post work that they choose that is important to them. I am going to allot more class time for this and emphasize student expression online.
Through the readings and videos of this class, I have realized the potential of Web 2.0 for increasing the individuality and creativity of the students’ work. Courses like the one I am completing now have pushed me to try many new things like wiki’s and podcasting that I would have been reticent to try otherwise. I will now work to incorporate these tools into my classroom and make them easily accessible to all teachers in my district. Fortunately, our district allows Teachertube, Blogspot, and access to wikis. We also have websites for each teacher to blog and share information. I plan to begin utilizing all of these resources to the best of my ability while continuing to reflect and adjust on my teaching students to use these tools in the most effective manner. I will begin to make utilizing these tools a weekly habit.
While comparing my answers at the end of the course to my initial checklist, I noticed some evolution in my level of understanding and reflection about how to gradually hand the responsibility of learning over to the student. I have begun to use technology to create an environment that in inquiry-based, creative, and interactive with the use of new Web 2.0 capabilities. I am excited to continue and expand my efforts in this area and create an exciting and relevant classroom environment for my students.

Mississippian Era

Today I filmed one of my groups with a flip camera. They had been able to come up with a skit about the Mississippian Indian Era of the Southeast. The kids had a great time writing skits and incorporating the main ideas of their assigned time periods.

Happy Valentines Day-

Enjoy a reading of "Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch" or "Romeow and Drooliet" with your students. Best on the IWB:
http://www.storylineonline.net/index2.html

"Sophies' Masterpiece is another good one for me to show- as then I can keep myself from crying while reading.




Here is an interesting Mr. Hatch activity that shows stakeholder viewpoints:
http://www.geocities.com/mrmooresclassroom/dramamrhatch.html

It is almost Valentine's Day- and I am in LOVE!

I have really become deeply and emotionally attached to my Google Reader!! Although this started as a rather arranged partnership- required for my Walden Integrating Technology class, in the time that we have been together, our relationship had grown into so much more. I am almost dependent on my Reader for my got-to-have information, and the time I have saved and the knowledge I have garnered is amazing.- Setting up this application was so easy and I walked right though it. I can read my classmate's recent postings, keep up with my advice column blog- and my favorite, Free Technology for Teachers. I probably forward at least 3-4 things per week to my fellow teachers from this site- Subscribe NOW!!!! You won't regret it.

Loss

I think that this will be the straw that breaks my back and makes me more diligent about saving data. Once again, I begin typing a response to a blog right into the box- instead of what I should do which is type into a word document and then cut and paste- and upon submission of my comment, name and password ( which was mathp- which was ironic because the pg belongs to a math teacher), I lost a whole response to my cohort and about 45 minutes of my time. Note to self- Don't do that again- it is the fourth or fifth time!!! My only consolation is that it will type faster the second time??? I guess maybe it will because the information will become more ingrained and fluent in my brain?

21st Century Literacy

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

I enjoyed this interactive, organized website. It had a number of good goals that we have been studying to prepare our students with the skills needed for the 21st century. I was surprised at the extensive amount of information, links, classes, and games that were available and the skills and ideas that were explored. One I will share with my students teaches checking the accuracy of a site through triangulation. Most of the micro modules would be above my third graders' heads.
While I really don't disagree with anything on this site, I find it to be more focused on research than functionality. I prefer the Online Resources for Big6 Informational Skills any day for my purposes and age group. The organization is better and it is more practical than academic. I think teachers would get more out of this focus on "information literacy skills".

I think that the implications of this partnership of corporations and states for the betterment of the students and for education will be for the good of all. Their advocacy for our students is important and I appreciate that they aim to help teachers infuse these 21st century skills with core subject information. Not many states are on board at this time- but that doesn't mean that teachers can't utilize these sources independently. Following in the footsteps of commendable organizations including that National Council of Teachers for Mathematics or the National Science Teachers Association, this site offers great frameworks and overviews that can avail teachers to great ideas and resources, but will ultimately play second fiddle to state standards and the practical needs of teachers.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Exploring Leonardo

Creativity

After seeing all the "thinking outside the box" that Leoardo did, I feel that creativity is sorely needed in the classrooms of all children. Maybe some of these could be morning work and morning meeting ideas sprinkled through the year. In a world where the jobs of the future haven't even been conceived of yet, being able to think creatively is crucial.

Creativity sample lessons

from Creative Press

Snow Day

Tomorrow is a snow day~ so I will have some more time to work on links for the wiki. I am excited about the possibility of snow- but I had wanted to see the inauguration with the children and my co-teachers. There was some grumbling about watching it at school- but I think it is going to be very moving in many ways.

Need to find delicious password for the district account I made... grrr- I hand-wrote it on the handouts for my coworkers and now have no paper trail of it. Being an unorganized person, saved files and multiple trails to the information I need is great. I am also unusually adept at organizing files in the computer for both myself and shared drives... it is the total opposite of me with paper files- the storage systems and notebooks for tax, personal, and financial paperwork is laughable (only because it keeps you from crying). So that is one thing that computers have really assisted me in- being organized.

Blog

I do have an additional blog that I have been using for my classroom:
my class blog.

The blog serves as a place for students to share their ideas on quotes and readings- as well as anything else they want to talk about. At this point, I think that is works to stimulate their thinking a little bit. It also allows them to practice interacting through blog. At this point, with third graders, I see it as a time-saver for introspection and a tool for practicing interaction on the web.
My experience so far is that it hasn't really taken off with a majority of the students. I have third graders and I only see them once a week- so it is a little bit out of sight, out of mind. I open the blog and read entries that students do make and I know they love hearing their comments read aloud. I am going to try to add more links to the blog in order to hopefully entice them to come. I put many games and fun links on my website and we visit them for short periods of time in class so they can familiarize themselves with the site. I also make them enter sites for webquests that I use in class through my website as I feel that the more they visit, the more it will become a habit.

Here is a link to an interesting blog...
http://www.edutopia.org/new-teacher-anxiety

It is funny to read her description of the open schools because that is the type of school I started in. We had particle board dividers by the time I got there- but the general issues remain.

Wii and Beyond

What elements of learning virtual reality do you foresee in future education???

Love it!!

I am glad that fate sent me in the Firefox direction... It is faster, more convenient in many ways, easier, more simple interface, and apparently safer. It has some idiosyncrasies- but I now prefer it.

Who Moved My Cheese?

I have recently had a lot of changes in my life when it comes to my computer. I have always been an Internet Explorer kind of girl and I was content in this role. All of this changed the other day when I began uploading all sorts of new and exciting applications at the impetus of my Walden professor. Skype, Delicious, wiki's, readers, rss feeds- a lot of stuff I barely know anything about but am having fun getting to know. Now my favorite blogger, Amy Alkon, comes to me instead of me having to search her out (thank you RSS feeds). I have gotten this far in life without instant chats until Rachel broke me in on it- yeah! All of this did not come without a price though. From my research on the web, it might have been the Skype- or maybe the fact that I tried to download a Mozilla application into an IE navigator- whatever it was, my computer started freaking out- of course... right when I am about to plunge full steam into my new hands-on technology course, my computer would die. That is right up there with "my dog ate my homework"- no one is going to believe it! Whenever I checked my groupwise e-mail and responded or closed a window the computer would close all internet windows and have errors... whenever I tried to close a cnn window, same thing. I couldn't even get to my new blog and all the attempts to follow or suscribe to other classmates' sites sent my computer reeling. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling- everything I could imagine- and finally decided to try Firefox instead of IE. It has taken a lot of adjusting on my part. I miss having my igoogle pop up immediately and I miss all my bookmarks. I know, I know- I have my new delicious bookmarks- but I cleaned those up as I am sharing them with my cohorts at school. All the advice columns and recipes are gone!!! boo hooooooo. At least my computer seems to be working like a charm and I am enjoying firefox for the most part. change...is...good...grrrrr- Venting is even better.

Welcome to my Edublog!

I have had a personal blog for a good while now. I do not tend to use it to reflect or report... just to add pics and videos of the kids. I hope that this blog will stay with me through my course of studies at Walden as I pursue my masters in "Integrating technology In the Classroom". I hope to use it as a portfolio of links and reflections and I hope this will be a format that allows me to interact with my families and students, fellow teachers, and my Walden master's degree cohorts.