Blog Post 10

Little Kids...Big Potential

Cassidy uses technology in her classroom in a wide variety of ways. She uses blogs, Wikis, webpages, videos, Skype, and even Nintendo DS. My personal favorite was the classroom webpage. It has an abundant amount of resources for the students to utilize. It's a great way to incorporate extra help for struggling students. It would be easy for the parents to access at home, so they can help their child with the things they may be struggling with. I would also incorporate blogging in my class. I like how Cassidy put it. You can see the child's writing develop throughout the year. It's like keeping a digital running record of the child's progress. They get excited because people other than their teacher see their work. Nothing is more exciting to a child than to have people from all over the world to comment on their work. It makes them feel important.

Some of the problems I would expect to encounter would be the parental concerns about their child's work being online. I would send a letter home the first day of school explaining to the parents what I plan to do in the classroom with technology. I would explain to the parents why I think it would be so beneficial to their child to do the online work. I believe that once the parents see how enthusiastic the children are about learning, they will be more accepting of the use of technology. I think the parents would also appreciate the fact that they have access to their child's work anywhere, anytime. I think it would take awhile to get the parents on board with these techniques, but it will be worth the struggle in the end. The children deserve a learning environment that they will enjoy being a part of, a learning process that they are excited about, and a teacher that is willing to spend the time to make it all possible. Real world connections mean more to a student than memorizing facts out of a book.