Blog Post #11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class and Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy

The video of Ms. Cassidy's class and her Skype interview was very enjoyable. In Ms. Cassidy's class video, the students demonstrated the different uses of blogging, Skype, and the do's and don'ts of blogging. One student mentioned how you should only say good things on someone's blog because you could hurt someone's feelings if you don't; I thought that was too cute. Also in Ms. Cassidy's video, I noticed that her class was interacting with another class while using Skype. Skype is new to me, but I am already seeing how helpful it is for classroom purposes. Not only Skype, but other useful technology tools. For instance, I would love to video everything my students have learned with technology just as Ms. Cassidy did. This will give my students the chance to show everyone what they have learned. Children love to have an audience, especially when they have worked very hard on something. Just as Ms. Cassidy stated, technology is not going away, so we might as well accept it and work with it. I noticed that she mentioned that some teachers feel as though they are not obligated to deal with today's technology in their classrooms. I totally disagree. Being an educator is not just a teaching process, but also a learning process. The educator and the students should be learning everyday collaboratively. In today's time especially, it is nearly impossible to teach children without technology. The technology that is available today helps so much in the classroom. For example, using Skype gives the students and/or the teacher the chance to interact to another class or another teacher on the computer. Also using the smart board, blogging, and the list just goes on and on.
Ms. Cassidy mentioned how blogging was a great way for not only her students to have an audience, but to also share what they have done with their peers. She said that it depends on the size of her class on how much they blog or not. I believe that I will have my students blogging no more than three times a week (at the most). I think they will enjoy it as much as I will.