Blog Post #9

I loved the videos for this week’s blog. There were so many different things to learn from in in the videos Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 1, Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 2, and Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 3. I would love to use a blog for my class one day, and I would teach the children how to post and comment just like Ms. Cassidy did with her kids in the video Little Kids...Big Potential. I would create a web page also, in order to make sure the children are in a safe place on the internet. I remember when I was in elementary school the teachers had to monitor us whenever we went in the computer lab to do research for a project. Now there are so many safe places for students to look up information it is not as bad. I liked Ms. Cassidy's comment about how she does not ever post anything that is not appropriate on the class site so nothing pops up that would be questionable. In elementary school children are a little young to be using Twitter and Facebook, but if they were older I would get them to create a PLN, using these tools, so that they can get help with projects and studying. In working online the problem was brought up about safety. Ms. Cassidy said that the student’s identity needs to be kept safe, as well as their mind. There are so many horrible people in the world today and almost every one of them has access to a computer, and the way you keep children safe is by not using their last name and not putting their name with their picture. One thing that I thought was interesting was that the students used Nintendo DS' in class. I have never thought that you could use hand held games to learn in a class room, but her students do in order to read better. This also makes the children want to learn.

When she was talking about all the technology that she used in her class I understood how it is constantly a learning process for the teacher and the student. No two people are the same, and what works for one person may not work for another. This goes for classes as well. Teacher's need to change up what they do over the years, because as the world advances the teaching needs to advance. Teachers who refuse to change are only hindering their students and causing them to be behind everyone else. This means that as children learn new things teachers should learn new things, in order to keep the education system advancing. These videos showed me that it is possible for teachers to learn new things and use them in their class room.

In doing all of this there are going to be problems. The first step would be to take each problem one at a time. Some of the problems might be parents, students, and principals. All of these potential problems can be solved with communication. I would explain beforehand what the children would be doing in my class, and even let them try it out to see how it can be used in a safe way. The biggest thing is to not give up, and work hard to advance the learning system. Once everyone is on board there are so many wonderful things that can be accomplished. Students would be excited about learning and want to learn, which would make them retain more information. Students would have good collaboration skills, and parents could get more involved in their child's life, by seeing their blog and what they are doing online.

I would be willing to try anything in a class room to get my students involved and excited. These videos just showed me it does not matter how young you are, you can use any cool tool to learn as long as people are willing to let you.