The Community

In our class, we have learned a tremendous amount about technology, why it’s so good for our students and how we can and must integrate it into our classrooms and our lessons.  We learned about such great Web 2.0 tools such as Wiki's, Podcasts, Google Docs etc.  In my last blog I talked about my Technology Integrating Plan, where I weaved technology throughout my entire lesson.   While creating this lesson I learned about even more tools that worked so well throughout the lesson.  I have been thinking a great deal about how to incorporate these tools within the classroom and it made me think about how schools can use them for the adults in the building.  Are there ways that these technologies can benefit the faculty in the schools?  I then saw that Schrum and Levin dedicated an entire chapter in their book about such a thing.  Web 2.0 tools are a wonderful ways for leaders to communicate to the faculty.  Of course the district's website can help communicate valuable information to the staff and parents, but web 2.0 tools can go beyond this. Just think how useful a community blog could be.  How great if a principal could relay school happenings in a weekly blog. Parents and teachers could have the opportunity to comment on blog posts and asks questions. Teachers can also use blogs to communicate with parents and family member about specific things that are happening in their classrooms. They could post pictures and videos so that grandparents and other family member can feel a part of classroom actives.   Wiki sites could also be open forums of communications.  Because, all users have opportunities to edit wiki sites, this could be a wonderful place for discussion posts.  This could also be a place where each grade level can leave important info about their grades and the school could develop a calendar that different groups could edit.  These type of tools could help create a school wide community and help truly incorporate parents into the schools.

Trucking Along

I recently handed in the next assignment I had for this class.  This class is so crucial, and the assignments have thus far been extremely relevant.  I am so looking forward to putting them to good use in my classroom. Now, I just hope that I am lucky enough to get hired in a school district that can take advantage of my great teaching and technology skills.



But, that is a topic for another blog post.  Back to the current topic....my Technology Implementation Unit Plan. I initially created a unit plan on the Holocaust for a Social Studies class in a previous semester.  I worked very hard on this plan, and was proud of it in the end.  The goal of the unit was to delve deep into the subject matter and understand how and why the events unfolded as they did. The revamped plan had the same goals, yet this time technology was weaved throughout the unit.  I am even more proud of this plan and believe that it is more relevant to students' lives.  I used such amazing tools like Skype, glogster and Edmodo.  Initially, I thought I would create a classroom website using Wiki Spaces, but upon further investigation I realized that Edmodo would better fit this classroom needs. I was able to create literature circles and student blogs through this site.

This project and the class in generally opened up a whole new world for me.  I feel like I have built a strong foundation for technology that has enabled me to learn more about the importance and what tools can be used in the classroom.  I keep discovering new tools that would be great in a classroom. For example, just yesterday I learned about a website called Wallwisher that is a virtual post-it wall.  This is a wonderful way for students to work collaboratively to create background knowledge for any given unit.   I also recently learned about Webquests, which is a fabulous way for students to learn about what they are interested in. Its also a good way to differentiate.

I believe that this class should be requirement for all students in teaching programs. Moreover, I think that schools must make technology a priority and dedicate time and effort to quality professional development opportunities.