Blog Post 10

What Can We learn from Mrs. Cassidy?

I would first take her advice and start with what I find interesting, whether it be movies, photo sharing, or writing. Since being in Dr. Strange's class I really enjoy the blogging would probably be the choice I would go with. I really think it is amazing what kids are capable of doing. Mrs. Cassidy said she only used her computers in the classroom maybe once a week, depending on the class. She makes the parents sign a permission slip making sure it is ok that their child is on the computer. She also takes extra precautions by not only not allowing the kids to use their last name, she don't use the correct picture for the correct kid(which I didn't think of, but is very smart). She stated that, "some teachers feel that their methods are working so my change". You should want to change because technology is here to stay, and "you are handicapping the kids if they do not use technology". Another reason I also did not think of that she said was when you write papers in class you typically only have one audience, when you blog the whole world is your audience. It is very powerful to the kids to know that other people all over the world could be and are seeing their post. Have online networks to help you with ideas.

If I was to add blogging into my classroom one day I would change it a little from Mrs. Cassidy. I think I would blog more than just once a week. Technology is becoming such a vital part of kids learning these days that I might even expand it to more than just blogs. I'm not really sure how using technology in my classroom would hurt my class other than something's not being visual/physical. I think with younger kids like kindergarten(the grade I want to teach) would want more hands on learning more than just playing with a compute all the time. Sometimes is ok but not all the time. But I think technology would benefit me and my future students way more than hinder us Like I said earlier I am so amazed at what kids are doing with technology already, that I would be curious what else they could do with it. If I was able to incorporate blogging or something into my classroom I think I would use her idea in how she keeps the identity of the kids hide as best as possible. That was a really smart idea that can protect kids from things that could be lurking out there. I also think I might find better ways in keeping the kids from bad websites that might appear, or explain it a little different than she did. But other than that she presented a good way to start using technology in a classroom, and I will definitely use some of her techniques.