So what can you do?

This is our final week! We made it and have learned so much but after a whole class and all these posts what can we take with us into our future teaching career? This was the question that came to my mind today, I have learned a lot but wanted sum it all up.  I found a great article called Top 10 Technology Tips for New Teachers.  This article helped me so much and has calmed my nerves about going into the classroom and using technology. There are a few tips that I want to point out to everybody this week. The first one is that we should develop a personal network. The example that they gave was using twitter, I think this is a great idea. We as teachers can rally together and help each other, we are in this together and do not have to come up with everything on our own so by having this network we can see what other teachers are doing and share our ideas as well. Another point they shared was that involving parents by creating a link between school and home. I love this idea because it is their children who we are teaching and they should know what is going on.  By creating a class website with class rules, schedules for tests and other important dates this can keep the parents in the loop and allow them to know when their child should be studying or doing a certain thing. Not every parent would use this but having the option is always nice.  The last part that I want to share today is to stay organized! When we finally get into the classroom we are going to be overwhelmed but just remember it will get easier and to stay organized! Keep similar papers and subject together, you can even tab websites that you used. By doing this it will take away the stress later of trying to find certain papers if you know exactly where they are.  I am excited to be the future teachers of our future leaders! Lets do this!

How can technology help?

Here we are again, another week, another day.  It is crazy how the days fly by and how sometimes we do not stop to be thankful for the little things in life.  Last week I talked about how I took a social media break and how it helped me focus my time but one of the things that I truly missed was the easy ways to keep track of people and see how they are doing.  I found an article this week on "Your Kindergartener and Technology" it talked all about the ways that technology is used in every subject and how it can help students get introduced to new ways of thinking.  One of the parts that the author wrote about was for Social Studies with the technology we have now a days we can communicate with people from all over the world.  This is amazing! Thinking back to when I was in Africa last Christmas, I am so very thankful that we have technology so I can stay in contact with the people I met but even before I went there I was able to research and learn about the culture.  Technology also allows for students to see what it is like in other countries. Especially if the teacher knows someone in another country they can show us around.  This allows students at a young age to start accepting different cultures.  The use of technology though should not be a substitute to teaching but something that we can add to make the classroom more fun.  We also live in a world that is always changing and with all this information at our finger tips we are able to stay up to date on everything.  In closing for today I want to just pose a question of what would our world be like today if we did not have technology? It is crazy to think about right? Even though in the past people lived without we have become to attached to this and yes it can be bad, but also think of all the great things that have come with technology.  Our students need to start early and the classroom is a great place to introduce technology because it is a part of our world and you cant avoid it. 

The Pros and Cons

As we get deeper and deeper into this class I am thinking back to when I was in elementary school, I don’t remember technology being a huge part of that and was wondering what parents now think of all the technology that is used in the classroom.  I found an article that talked just about this, it’s called Tech in your child’s elementary school: what to look for, what to ask.  I really like that the article mentioned “it’s less about the media and more about the approach.” This is so true! Sometimes we get so caught up in using the media that we lose sight of how it is being used and why it is being used.  Recently I took a social media cleanse and deleted all the accounts I had, after a week I redownloaded it but just felt like I was wasting my time, it is crazy the amount of time we waste scrolling through people’s photos and posts of things that do not even relate to us.  This is not how it should be.  Yes, media is great but as the article stated it is how it is being used and the approach.  As teacher’s we should know that if we are going to be using technology in our classroom we need set rules and a set schedule as to why we are using it.  The media and technology that we use should allow students to “ask their own questions, find new answers, and show what they’ve learned in challenging and useful ways.” This is what I look forward to when I have my own classroom, I want to set students up for success.  I want to encourage us all that technology is great and that it can be used to help our students learn but we have to have set rules and ways that they will use it for it to work. Excited to keep learning and pushing towards our goal of changing the world one child at a time.