Week of 1/26/09 Chapter 3 Weblogs

What stood out the most for me was "How can I teacher expect her students to blog (or use any other tool, strategy or technique) if she doesn't use it herself. I can't state how true this statement is. I can't imagine expecting my students to blog if I first had not done it myself, researched it, and put it to use. In order for me to help students understand the purpose of a blog I need to understand it myself.

I also understood what the author meant by stating that students will stop using these tools at the end of the semester if we don't share with them how important it is to keep using them and to keep learning. I had a blog for a class last semester. I had never blogged before and wasn't real sure of the purpose other then an easy way for my teacher and classmates to see what I was thinking. I quit using it as soon as the class was over. I now understand the deeper meaning and relevance that blogs can have. I can see myself really using blogs in my future classroom.

I am working with my cooperative teacher to possible use a blog for our fourth grade class to publish their memoirs that they are working on. I know that the district is very conservative with blogger.com, so I was happy to see that we could control the users and viewers of the blog. I hope to get to try this with these students.

What strategies I use when I research

After determining what my topic will be I enter my exact topic into the search engine on the web. I then will look at a few of the websites. After reading info on these websites I will adjust my search by adding and taking away information from my original search. I will also begin to search on topics that are close or related in interest to my original search. I will then look for books that are related to my topic. I try to use at least two books when I research for educa tional purposes.

When I am doing research for my own personal knowledge, like looking for info on health I will put in signs and symptoms.

Week of 1/12/09 Chapters 1 & 2

One part of chapter one that really stuck out to me was on page 5 "Our students' realities in terms of the way they communicate and learn are very different from our own." While I think of myself as "hip" I have an eleven year old daughter that thinks I am the most uncool person she's ever met. Most of it has to do with how tech savvy she is and I am not. Cell phones didn't exist when I was her age and she can't seem to live without hers.

She has been exposed to computers for many years and I didn't get my first go at one until I was in the eighth grade because that was the year that we were considered old enough to use one. Students have much more exposure to technology than I did as a student. I hope to close the gap between my knowledge and theirs.

I have found myself thinking of how I will incorporate technology into my lessons, and I was taken back when it talked about not just jumping into technology but learning about it and using it myself before I introduce my students to it. I also agreed with the fact that if the use of technology isn't enhancing a students learning than it may not be a good idea to use it just for the sake of saying you used it. I have taught lessons that have had activities with them and after teaching those lessons I have often asked myself did the activity further their learning. Sometimes it did, but sometimes it didn't. Anything that we do with students should enhance their learning and not just keep them busy.