it has come to an end . . :(

I read Malcolm’s blog again because I agreed an was interested in a lot of the things he had to say. Once again, I totally agreed with most of what he said in his blog, especially in his 9th post when he talks about getting parents involved in children’s school work. He points out that blogging allows parents to be more involved (if the blog is a public blog; some teachers recommend private, password protected blogs, others stress anonymity, i.e. every student creates an internet name and signs a contract stating they will NOT use any real names or references to school or location) in the students homework. Hopefully if you get parents involved in homework they become more involved in their child’s education in general.


The next technology skill I would like to learn would be a toss up between working closely with a good grading/lesson planning software (one that could stand the test of time; one that wouldn’t be useless after three months because something else came out) or learning to use a smart board. I’ve never seen a smart board in action (I’ve seen the examples of the book and even talked with teachers who use them with much frequency). I think that both of these are important because one allows the teacher to be organized and up to date with grades and tracking student progress as well as keeping all lesson plans organized and easily accessible and the other really gives the students an opportunity to become more engaged and more a part of what they are learning. So they both have huge advantages and I’m sure that by the time I graduate I will have used and be comfortable with both because I believe I have to take another technology class that deals with integrating technology into the language arts classroom.


I suppose that I have already covered part of how I hope to accomplish my technological goals by saying that I have to take a 4000 level technology class aimed specifically on teaching language arts (reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, etc) to students using technology. In my classroom I plan on trying take trips to the lab frequently (if I don’t have computers in my class) and I would have them use programs like GetAClue, which helps with vocabulary development (I wrote about it in my last journal entry) especially if I teach grades 10 or 11 because that program in particular would be great for SAT/ACT/FCAT preparation. I also plan on using blogging as a way for students to communicate outside of class about assignments, and also because parents can be more involved in viewing their students progress. I read many blogs by teachers that stress that though it can be hard to get students motivated, blogging for class has helped many students become more involved: one teacher said that it gives the quiet kids in class a chance to talk, and some of the more “nerdy” kids who know a lot about technology become popular because everyone wants to know how to change their icon or add a background picture.