This weeks blog post we were given video interviews to watch between Ms. Cassidy and Dr. Strange.
Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 1
Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 2
Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 3
Upon watching these videos, I learned a lot about technology use in the classroom and how it benefits students. In First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's class, you learn about what kind of technology tools Ms. Cassidy has her first grade class use. She makes use of the computers, blogs, Wiki, Skype, Nintendo DS, as well as student made videos to help her students learn and communicate with other students in other states. In this video students tell you that they enjoy blogging and that it actually helps with their writing skills.
One of the issues that is brought up in the conversations between Dr. Strange and Ms. Cassidy is how to protect student identities, as well as protect them from certain material on the internet. Ms. Cassidy sends forms home at the beginning of the year that tells parents that their child's work will be posted online. In order to protect student identity, first names are only used and students are not to post their pictures with their name tagged. This is a good way to protect student identity and still allow parents and family members to find their child's blog to view it. I will definitely be using this as a model to follow when using blogs in my classroom. When it comes to sites that the students might accidentally access online, I might handle it a little bit differently. Though I will probably have links to different sources that children can use on my blog page, I will probably also have different approved links on the computer home screen.
Another good teacher tool that Ms. Cassidy mentions is Twitter. She says that Twitter is a good tool for teachers to collaborate with and share information. She recognizes that Twitter and blogs are not for everyone but that there are other avenues to help you become more tech savvy. Technology is not going anywhere since it is beneficial to student learning as well as teachers learning. Teachers need to keep up with what is happening with technology so that they can find more and more resources to help their students learn. I believe I will be using all of Ms. Cassidy's techniques because they seem to be working for her. I am going to remember her advice on keeping myself up to date on what the latest technologies are and come up with new ways to implement them in my classroom.
Great job summarizing Mrs. Cassidy's interview! I loved all of her tips and will definitely apply them to my future classroom. Especially the idea of having a blog, I agree with you that we need to add links to our blog so students can access them, just like Mrs. Cassidy's.
ReplyDeleteHi Meagan! I have stopped by your blog before (I believe) but am just now getting to commenting! As you can imagine, it's been a busy spring, but even with all this is going on, Twitter and social media are still in my radar. I agree with Mrs. Cassidy that Twitter is an excellent resource for learning new tech tools and trends in education. You already have a head start with your blog and through Twitter. Make sure you take advantage of building your PLN and making connections now that you are a preservice teacher so that when you are in the classroom, you will know who to go to when you are in need of fresh ideas, approaches, or some inspiration. I cannot tell you how valuable my PLN has been to me. Just recently, I had a math enrichment question, tweeted out my question to two wonderful teacher Tweechers (my Twitter teacher buddies) and from there we went into a conversation and sharing of ideas to better help our students. It's that simple (and amazing)! So keep up the great job and keep on tweeting.
ReplyDelete~Elle