Blog #11

Skype Interview with Mrs. Cassidy
Mrs. Cassidy discusses how she became introduced to technology in her classroom. She started 10 years ago with the blogging and the video she began 2 years ago. Every year she tries to incorporate something new. Mrs. Cassidy says she always pushes the envelope and has a great amount of support to encourage her along. Mrs. Cassidy admits that she's been at her school with several new principles; none of them have ever discouraged her but some have been more interested than others. The parents seem to like seeing their child's work online so they can view it at home. The students' blog reflects their writing. The students love the technology and it's part of their world.

As for students who are learning to become teachers she comments that they should learn the technology now while they are still in school because as they get closer to teaching thier free time becomes less and less. Life will go on without blogs but students get excited when they see others reading their blog across the world. When students get comments back from people about what they're writing on, they become more confident.

The children are learning video, audio, and media with this technology. She says being technology literate means knowing what's going on in the current time not just using spreadsheets and word processor. Students should develop their own social network by any means possible.

She says to use what you're interested in such as video, photography, etc. and you can connect to a network that involves that. Dr. Strange brings up PLNs and he started using Twitter not long ago and now he has connected to several different influential people. Over time the people you connect with will help you use something new to teach you how the world is evolving.

Mrs. Cassidy has her students blog once a week in the computer lab but last year she had her students use blogging for reading lessons and other students can blog from home and when they do that they seem to blog more often. It just depends on the year and the amount of students she has in her class. She brings up blogging can even be useful for a physical education class because if the gym is full or they can't use it the teacher can upload their videos to the blog.

When I have my own classroom I do see myself using blogger as a resource for reading and writing. Also, I want my students' parents to stay involved and watch their child's blog for new posts. These posts will reflect their writing and we can see how they are changing and learning new ways to write. For reading I want them to read books or articles and then summarize or write their opinions about it. Having my students summarize or post their ideas will show parents and myself if they are understanding the material and what they are thinking about the books they are reading. I hope my students' parents will motivate and support their children and myself as far as using the internet to teach. I'm sure I will have those stubborn, over-protective parents that are very fearful for their child's safety and so I must reassure them we have their best interest at mind. Their child's personal information will not be shown and we will use only first names and could give them fake play names to go by as well.