Week 6

There are many tools that we have learned about so far that will enhance communication with my students, parents and colleagues: blogger, facebook, google sites, google docs, microsoft word, and more.  When I went to school there was no way of communicating with teachers after school except through email and even then you could only hope they would respond.  Having a blog could help with this problem, if a student was struggling on a math problem they could post their question and any student who looked at the blog could answer the question for them.  If each student had a facebook account they would be able to chat with each other about questions and get instant answers.  I also believe that this would deepen the relationships and bonds among students because it would give them opportunities to talk to each other out of the classroom/school setting.  Having a classroom website would help me to communicate with parents.  I know that when I was in elementary school and my mom would ask me about upcoming events, homework, announcements etc.  I usually could not tell her exact details or dates.  By having a classroom website I would be able to communicate all this information easily to the parents so they would be much more informed about what was going on in the classroom as well as the school.  I plan on using an online grading system like engrade or powerschool to post grades on the internet, this will enable both parents and students to access their grades at any time.  I think that the easiest way to communicate with my colleagues is through a blog, everyone would be able to collaborate easy and the information given to one teacher can be seen and used by other teachers.  The suggestions or ideas are easily read or accessed weeks or even months later.  Some of the tools that I will use to achieve classroom objectives are sites like youtube, teachertube, zamzar, totlol, national geographic, discovery kids, and many other educational sites. Kids love to learn through computer games, videos and other means versus the traditional ways of learning.  I want to make learning fun for my students, there are fun videos, songs, games, and other programs that are educational and teach similar information to a book but in a very interactive way.  

VIDEO:  This video was just like a lot of the other videos we have seen, it seemed like it contained a lot of the same statistics, quotes, and corny music.  But this time it was kids holding the signs rather than words on the screen which did make it a little more powerful.  I think that if the producers who made this movie were trying to promote the use of technology the kids should at least smile! They all seemed stoned with glazed over eyes like technology has ruined them. One girl wrote she watched over 16 hours of tv/week, that's like a part-time job! 5 1/2 hours of computer... that's completely absurd.  Children are becoming so obsessed with technology, I think that it can be extremely beneficial in a variety of ways but they are wasting away more and more of their time everyday text messaging, facebooking, nintendo, ipods, surfing the internet, watching tv etc.  They don't read books, play outside, run, skip, jump, build, and create the way used to.  I know that some technologies can be used to benefit the classroom (some kids listen to books like Harry Potter on their ipods, but those are few and far between). but I think it is really important to just keep it in perspective and make sure that communication face to face is still taught and used.  I know that technology is a huge part of our society and should absolutely be part of education in public schools but it has it's place just like everything else.