Blog Post #11

“Little Kids…Big Potential”

This is a very powerful video. In fact, I was humbled by it. Why? Mostly because it displays Mrs. Cassidy’s First Grade class employing technology I struggled with until my sophomore year of college. These kids are blogging and creating wiki pages to learn the alphabet . That’s a pretty incredible thought. Even more incredible are their responses to the use of this technology. Below are some particular student comments that stuck out to me.
“My writing gets better every time I write on my blog.”
“I can see that I sound out my words better.”
“I can choose whichever web page so I can help myself learn.”
Mrs. Cassidy’s first graders are not only learning to write using technology, they’re learning to learn (something most traditionally taught students, including myself, learned much later than the 1st grade—if at all).

What Technology I Plan to Use in my Classroom:

Unfortunately, for the age group I’d like to teach, I do not see the Nintendo ds being an appropriate technological tool to introduce to my students. I am certain Mrs. Cassidy’s first graders have great success using the ds’s to learn. However, I really found the use of wikis, blogs, and skype conferences with experts appealing. Wikis seem to me like a great way to consolidate units. I plan to incorporate blogging as a ten minute exercise at the beginning of every class to enhance writing skills. Skype conferences with members of my PLN will surely bring another opinion into the classroom and allow students individualized attention for their questions concerning the material.

What I Learned from the Skype Interview with Kathy Cassidy:

Considering the field I plan to teach, I listened most closely to Mrs. Cassidy’s advice on blogging. I believe that blogging can be a useful tool for students especially in a Composition class. Blogs also act as portfolios which students can review and are able to see how their writing has progressed. Blogs are also sort of a grade book for parents, since parents may access them whenever internet is available and review their student’s work. Mrs. Cassidy stated that “kids and technology go hand in hand”. After watching my two-year-old brother successfully operate an iPhone, I definitely believe this is the case. Furthermore, Mrs. Cassidy says that “we cannot teach kids in this generation using the tools that worked 20 years ago, 10 years ago, even 5 years ago. We have to change because the world has changed.” Our methods of educating must change with the world. The pen and paper ways of schooling have been antiquated. The most striking statement of Mrs. Cassidy’s (for me, anyway) was definitely this point: “why would a child want to write on paper so I can see it, when they can write on their blog and the whole world can see it?”