Blog Assignment 11

Ms. Cassidy's First Grade Class

A first grade teacher named Ms. Cassidy from Canada made a video which included her students called, "Little Kids...Big Potential."  In this video the students tell us how they use technology to learn in the classroom.  They use an assortment of different tools like: blogs, Wikis, Skype, a classroom webpage, videos, and even a Nintendo DS.  I could not believe how much these first graders knew about technology.  I need them to help me out!

Dr. Strange and some of his students in 2010 recorded a Skype conversation with Ms. Cassidy where they asked her questions about her teaching strategies.  She insisted that we get plugged into something that interests us whether that be blogging, Twitter, videos, etc.  She wanted us to realized how important it is to make contacts with other educators around the world.

I love Ms. Cassidy's enthusiasm for helping her students learn through using technology.  Ms. Cassidy, along with myself, both feel that students will be more interested if technology is incorporated into the classroom.  She mentioned that when the students blog they feel like their work matters when people from around the world are reading and commenting to them.  It gives the students a sense that the work they are doing matters and that other people are interested besides their teacher.  I thought her use of Skype was awesome.  Her class would meet face-to-face with other teachers and professionals to accompany with their lessons.  To me, this definitely makes learning fun and interesting!

I think the technique I would most likely use is blogging or having a webpage for my class.  I could post assignments and links to websites that could help the students learn and be interactive.  Blogs will also allow the students to interact with each other and with others around the world.  When they have questions they can post them on their blog or ask another student.  An issue I can see myself running into is the students taking advantage of their freedom of the internet in the classroom and going on sites which aren't beneficial to their learning.  I want my students to be independent, but I will need to have rules that they must follow and consequences if they break those rules.

With using technology in my classroom, I hope that my students will have a drive to learn.  I hope that I can make learning fun and interesting besides me just lecturing to my students all day.  They will have a sense of freedom that will hopefully allow them to excel in their work.  I plan to implement some of Ms. Cassidy's techniques into my own classroom and I'm really excited to do so!