Raven About Web 2.0 Week 1, Thing 1 & 2

Thing 1: I am very excited about this course - it seems to go over many of the technologies I heard during the ASTE conference in Anchorage. I have learned about Wikis but never used them for my classroom so it would be interesting to review wikis and apply it to my teaching. I am a huge fan of Voicethread.com. I quickly incorporated that into my classroom with having my students write stories, illustrate pictures, and then read their stories online. It was a lot of work but they turned about great! I do wish I had a quieter place to record; it's a little difficult to teacher and work one-on-one with a student on this project!

Thing 2: 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners
Easiest: #6 Use technology to your advantage & #7 Teach/mentor others
I love learning to use new technology in teaching and in my own personal life. I was so inspired by the ASTE conference that many things I learned I tried them in my classroom right away. I had a document camera from day 1 of the school year but never really put it to good use until the conference. It really changed my teaching and my students’ learning - I really felt they were more engaged with the technology! After learning about all these fantastic websites such as Voicethread.com and learning to better use the Smartboard, I shared this knowledge with some my fellow colleagues how beneficial this can be in the classroom. Anytime I create something new, I share it with others – why spend the time recreating the wheel?

Hardest: 7 ½ Play
Why is “play” so hard for me? Finding time to “play” during the school year is difficult. I know the tutorial said to “plan for obstacles” but in teaching, you never know what you are thrown with. There are so many things that take up much of your life as a teacher – lesson plans, prepping materials, keeping communication open with parents, any staff duties or school events, etc…and somehow juggle my own personal life in the mix – relationships, family, being an advisor for a club at the university, taking classes…sometimes I don’t know how I fit it all in my schedule. The summer seems like the only time when I have time to read, crochet, scrapbook, all the hobbies I wish I had time to do throughout the year. Couldn’t the summer break be longer?

I can also see how #6 can be hard – lack of technology. How I wish I had a Smartboard! It’s irritating to know what technologies are out there that we can help engage students even more but because of lack of funding, we don’t have access to these items. I get even more irritated when I have the training behind these technologies and don’t have the item to use (ie. Smartboard)! I would like to fundraise one for my classroom – I’ll have to map out a plan!