I thought I had the hang of it.

I am struggling. I tried to comment to a comment Emily made to me. Instead, I ended up commenting to my original post. How does one comment to a comment? Or can one not have a blog dialogue?

WIKIe

I started a WIKI today to get the hang of it. However, I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. I would LOVE ideas for how people have used them.

igoogle tip

I learned today that if you don't sign out of igoogle on a public computer, the next person may be able to see your stuff. So always log out when you are done!

Did someone ask about unblocking?

I am blogging at the high school. Apparently it is unblocked for the moment:)

Thing 2

I'm back...of course after the tennis match. Sadly, Nadal lost. Looks like it will be #5 for Federer in the final tomorrow.

Thanks to thing 2, I now have a lot more blogs to read. I think this RSS thing might get me in trouble. As an English teacher, too many things to read!!! And you have probably noticed that I'm long winded in my blogs too!!! SORRY!!

Interesting Article

I read an article in the paper this week about how schools are dealing with cell phones in the classroom. Many administrators felt that it was important to incorporate texting in lessons rather than trying to ban it altogether.

I realize that no cell phones in the classroom is our current policy, but I was wondering if anyone ever used texting in a lesson plan and how they used it.

Thing 1

Well, we are one week down and still no major papers to grade so I decided to do a little MILI homework. It seemed especially important since I have not done anything since our last class.

I of course need to take a little break in a minute to watch the Murray/Nadal tennis match. It anyone cares, I'm cheering for Nadal.

But, I found it very interesting that students of all ages seemed to be overwhelmed with the amount of information available to them. I know that all the new technology has been very overwhelming for me.
With a new gradebook, website, sub system and web 2.0 tools, I feel like I'm trying to just get my head around everything. However, I do feel like I'm going to like my new tools when I really figure them out.

What is interesting to me is that I take for granted that my students have grown up in the information age. I tend to just assume that they can use technology. While many of them are more saavy then me, many still don't have access to or use a lot of technology. And those students that do often just want to find the quickest solution rather than digging. When I was growing up and researching is books (GASP), I had limitations about what I could use so I need to remember as a teacher that students still need guidlines and direction even though the information is at their fingertips. In fact, with the huge amount of information, I think those guidelines become even more important.

As far as my classroom, I have made it a goal to use more technology this year but I don't want to force it. I want to use technology so it enriches student learning. I don't want to just use it just so I can say i did. I also have to echo Nancy's statements, because it can be frustrating to use technology because there seem to be so many hurdles. In addition to data privacy, there is also a concern that students will create weird names and post innapropriate messages. As a teacher, it seems to be a battle I don't want to fight if I can avoid it.

However, I am excited to find tools I can easily use without those battles!!