Blog Post #10

"Technology is here to stay!"
I think she has a very influential teaching style. She uses technology effectively throughout her classroom. She started a webpage that helps students stay focused on what the good sites are, and what will help them learn. The parent's are able to keep up with how their child is doing in the classroom all year round, instead of just parent teacher conferences. She moved into blogging a few years after playing with technology. She expressed that the students love blogging and making videos. They can show their parents when they are at home. They also can comment on other students blogs when they are home. The students have a way with technology that we do not. It is a part of their world. We grew up in different times. She stated that we are handicapping our students and ourselves if we do not let technology into our classrooms. It gives the students an audience, not just their peers, but around the world as well. They tend to do better when they know others will be looking at their post or work. Blogging also tells you how many people view your blog and shows a map of where they are located. They get excited to know someone from another country or state looks at their work. It keeps them engaged.
Every teacher needs to learn how to use technology. It is so much more than spreadsheets and a word document. There are so many ways to use this as a tool to help teacher collaborate on ideas. Using twitter as a teacher has been proven to help in so many ways. Creating your personal learning network is something you should start while in college. You will use and need those resources one day. Everyone need advise at some point, what a great way to get fresh ideas.
In the part three video Mrs. Cassidy was asked many questions by Dr. Strange's students via Skype. One student asked how many times a day or week do her students blog? She replied, they usually blog about once a week, sometimes twice. It also depends on the class size, and what they are covering. This is one of the things I would really like to incorporate into my classroom. I think the parents would find this very interesting. This blog is something that you could pull up and watch their child's progress, or look up later down the road when they want to just go back to when they were "little". It is a great way to keep parents more involved in their child's learning. I would also like to use the wiki she talked about as well. I think that is a very neat resource for my future students. Lastly, I want to use Skype conversations to help my curious students engaged in the subject they want to learn more about. Giving them the opportunity to ask real scientist or historians questions is a great way to keep them focused.

Links to the conversations between Dr. Strange and Mrs. Cassidy.


Part 1

Part 2

Part 3