Thoughts on Blogging

Our text, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms has provided several new insights on the role of technology in education. The text discusses how far we’ve come and how much further we’re about to go, our technology is constantly increasing, growing and advancing. Today’s students look at the internet as a way of life, they expect to be connected and have the world at their fingertips, and we as educators need to realize this and find a way to harness the power of technology to use it as an educational tool for our 21st Century learners.
As I stated in my very first post to this blog, I must admit, prior to this class I wasn’t really sure what blogging was all about. I thought of it as nothing more than on-line journaling and didn’t see much purpose in it. After reading how our text’s author Will Richardson has used blogging in his classroom and watching videos showcasing examples of other educator’s use of them in our class, I now see what a powerful educational tool it can be, and realize its’ uses are seemingly endless. I can see using them to connect my students to the world around them. It was great seeing how a teacher in Canada had used blogging to connect her 1st graders with 1st graders in New Zealand, enabling the students to learn about different cultures, environments, and experiences. It makes the world smaller and more accessible. I was really impressed with Will Richardson’s project with his students while reading the book The Secret Life of Bees. He not only set up a blog to discuss the book, he was able to contact the author, Sue Monk Kidd, and she agreed to participate in the blog. I was so excited about this! Students were able to ask questions about what they read directly to the author! She wrote about her thoughts while writing the book, discussed what her motivation was and how she created the characters. What a fabulous opportunity for his students, and an absolutely incredible learning experience, for all involved as the author stated that the student’s questions showed her a new way of looking at her own work.
Mr. Richardson points out that we as educators need to be learners as well. It is important for us to know and understand technology and he states that it wasn’t until he fully understood how technology could facilitate global connections and conversations about his own passions, how they could help him create powerful learning networks and communities, that he was able to see what needed to change in his curriculum and teaching (Richardson, 2008). He expands on this thought in his article Footprints in the Digital Age, where he states that educators need to understand the potential of social networking for themselves and encourages us to start a Facebook page and explore Twitter. I wholeheartedly agree, and look forward to learning and using more tools as this course progresses.
An article on Businessweek.com, Rethinking Computers in the Classroom, discusses President-elect Barack Obama’s proposal to outfit classrooms with more computers and internet access. The article states that in many schools computers have failed to aid student’s learning and cited problems such as reliance on paper lesson plans that don’t factor in technology and inadequate teacher training. After seeing the potential learning tool computers can be, reading that lack of knowledge on the educator’s part contributed to the failure of past programs serves as a strong motivator for me to learn as much as I can about the tools that are out there. I believe we are doing disservice to our students if we do not learn about technology.

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34 More Days of W

Osito

Just a blurb about my boy Osito- a lovable, obstinate husky who keeps me entertained. The photo is of Osito's graduation from Obedience School. He was never very studious and we were relieved that he got his diploma--he appears to be thrilled to be getting it as well, but if you look closer you'll see the biscuit attached to the diploma--something far more interesting to Osito. I decided to push my luck and enroll him in 'Advanced Classes' and to my surprise he again was awarded a diploma.
I decided to hang it up on my fridge..
..I need to point out my motivation here--..I don't knit sweaters for him or anything..I'm not PURE crazy, just a little warped with my humor. So in response to the "Gee, no kids yet ay?" types and my Mom's "Gee, it must be nice to have a grandchild" I do things like make Christmas Cards with photos of my dog and cat and post diplomas on fridges..if for nothing else then to crack myself up...
..SO, I come home from work one day and notice the diploma isn't on the fridge..Osito decided to let me know his opinion of it by tearing it off, eating 90% of it, and there on my kitchen floor was the remaining 10% in a puddle of pee. The school did not seem to agree with me that this should qualify for an instant refund from the 'advanced class'..
Anyway, we've come along way..I no longer enroll him in obedience classes and he no longer pees on the floor..

First Blog

Where to begin? I made the decision to go back to school and get my MAT. My undergraduate is in social work, which I loved doing, but always wanted to teach as well. So I finally decided to go for it. I've just begun my second trimester, in which I need to take a technology course and one of our first assignments is create a blog...So here I sit, never having blogged and not quite sure what to say...I've looked at blogging as the new way to Journal or Keep a Diary (Oh, Yeah ...I'm Old School) and wasn't sure that I needed to be participating..
The goal here is to begin to see the benefits of blogging, and start thinking about how we can utilize it as teachers. We watched a video of a teacher in Canada that has her first graders blogging with students in New Zealand, and talked about the things they were learning from one another. What a great way to engage the kids and have them learn about the world! Can't wait to do something like that myself.