Blog Post #11

First gradegraders in Ms. Cassidy's class

     WOW! Ms. Cassidy takes a first grade classroom and shows them most of the things that we are finally learning as college students! These first graders used blogging, wiki's, skype and even nintendo DS. Ms. Cassidy proved that technology is a must, especially for the students of today! The world is much different than it was 20 years ago. Her approach is that it is very important for teachers to be technologically literate because technology is here to stay. She believes that it is as important in the elementary level as any other level especially since technology is not new to them. She states how it is not weird for students to be on computer and skyping and playing the DS. She says that it is just great that they don't have to power down when they enter into their learning environment. Ms. Cassidy seems very passionate about her decision to include technology in the classroom. 
     My favorite technique in which she uses is blogging. I have learned so much through reading other teacher's blogs as well as creating my own. To me, it is a benefit because I never realized that it actually is a portfolio. I love the idea of being able to monitor progress in this non formal way. I have stated before how much I show off my blog so I can only imagine how an elementary student would feel. I think even parents would be excited about the blogs. Blogging would also be a great way to show what my classroom is doing compared to other classrooms. The impediments to blogging may be having to take that extra step like Ms. Cassidy does to educate your students on what to say and what not to say. This is not a hard task though. Other problems a person may run into with blogging is the network on which they blog. What if the network that the school allows your class to blog on is down? What do you do now? We learned in several other blogs to be flexible and this would be a great time to be.  I also liked the idea of using Skype. Just like in the Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy, the benefit of this is the obvious; you are able to see and speak with others and not just reading about it. It becomes more personal and students are able to relate better. I loved how the students in her class were able to skype with another classroom and see what they were doing. An impediment with skype may be your connectivity. Problems with connectivity with the internet are not unusual!