Thing 5a

http://www.infinitethinking.org/2009/02/friday-5-21st-century-skills.html


In this blog Lucy Gray states, "...many agreed with the basic idea that students and teachers today are require to employ a different mindset and set of abilities in this changing world."
I couldn't agree more. I think that today's education system needs to meet the needs of today's learners for today's society. I think that is why most of us are here or are in education. I know the way I was taught does not work for the students I teach. Lucy's blog talks about how she had the chance to go to Singapore and how they valued the change in education and the emphasis on technology. I read some other blogs both from our group and from other sites that talked about implementing standards to hold teachers to as well as standards to hold students to as well. I think the best way to integrate the mindset we want is to lead by example of the change we want to see. When people begin to see what we are accomplishing then hopefully they will catch on.
I read another blog that said they use their students as the catalysts of change. When people come to them with concerns regarding technology, they send their students to fix the problems. I know it was a middle school blog, however, I have students now who can set up my LCD projector to my computer and bring up UnitedStreaming videos. My students know how to access my bookmarks and locate the activities I want them to do on the computers in the classroom. The students are thriving for the chance to use the technology to which we already have access. Most adults would gladly use it, if only they knew how.
Where does the answer come from? I'm not sure. But I know that we have to start preparing our students to be more technology literate and in doing so, I believe more literate and better communicators not only in their school communities, but in a global community as well.

Thing 2

I chose to write about Patrick's Update http://itc.blogs.com/patrick/2005/02/5th_grade.html This was a pretty awesome site for me as a 4th grade teacher. Working with a classroom of mostly EIP and Special Education students, I love to put technology in their hands and see what they can do. With that said, I also know that their have to be guidelines. One of the biggest concerns I have seen this year is the lack of knowledge my students have about technology or the lack of skills such as typing or even how to operate a computer. My students are interacting with technology everyday. I am sad that I haven't started using blogging sooner. Especially with the group that I have this year that crave that feedback and interaction with each other and the way they excell from the positive comments. I really think we will begin blogging as a class just to increase their typing skills as well as their ability to write, communicate, and as a way to edit work. I gained a deeper understanding myself of what blogging can do for me and my students.

Thing 1-B

I guess after watching the videos that accompany the task, I was remembering back to my senior year of high school. All the classrooms had been outfitted with televisions and we were watching Channel 1. Channel 1 was supposed to be a news program that was geared to students, and had high school anchors and news correspondants. I remember watching a lot of the news content and thinking how cool it was that it was being presented in a format that was a bit more interesting than the nightly news. I began to see that there was a bigger world than my little hometown. I also remember how the computer labs at college had 20 minute limits on email so that everyone could use the computers.
I think that when I look at the students in my class, I am in awe of the things they will see in their lifetime. I think Web 2.0 gives them the opportunity to take many of the things that we did as kids (i.e. pen pals, script writing, filmstrips) and magnifying them to the next level. Students can now communicate with others, anywhere in the world and receive responses in virtually no time. Students can do video editing and filming to show concepts they have obtained from poetry units, or create clips to share about chapters out of books or parts of history.
Today's learners are very different then the learners we were. We as educators need to get content to them in a way that appeals to their learning styles. I think Web 2.0 will help give us the tools to effectively train them to be active thinkers, and later, compete in a global work place.

Thing 1

Hi, my name is Robb and I am a teacher at Statham Elementary. I have been at Statham for almost 3 years. Before coming to Statham, I had the chance to work at Winder Barrow Middle School for 4 years. I have been in Barrow County for 7 years. Before that I lived in Michigan. I worked for almost 10 years in a school based day care system.
I graduated from Central Michigan Univeristy with a BS in Education. I received my Masters from the University of Phoenix in Curriculum and Technology Integration. I have enjoyed all the things I have learned through the courses in my masters program but I am looking to expand my knowledge to incorporate more technology into my classroom to help my students become better global learners and hopefully, afford them a chance to grow and learn about the world outside of Barrow County.
I look forward to learning some interesting things that I can infuse into my classroom.

Thanks~

Robb