Facebook…in real life?

I thought John Spencer’s take on what it looks like when an online social media site meets reality was really neat, and something I never would have considered before.  I do understand though that these are two very different worlds for many.  I myself, like to think I wouldn’t say anything online that I wouldn’t say in person but I know this isn’t the case for everyone.  Online spaces give people a sort of freedom or depth they may not feel in their day-to-day life.  I think there is plenty of room for this in my own life also but we need to be careful and most certainly be “real” as John put it.     

I thought his Living Facebook experiment was a really unique and effective one.  The part I connected with the most was when he said “social media compresses us”.  I completely agree with this!  I think the personal touch of many things has been lost with all the “online” ways to stay connected and be social.  Don’t get me wrong, I do have facebook, I text a fair bit, and I am attempting the Twitter thing….but to me there is no greater joy than making home-made birthday/thank-you cards, decorating a cake for my son or making a friend a gift.  I live for stuff like this, which is why I enjoyed what John T. Spencer had to say, because he reminded me once again to keep the balance between the two worlds.

New Levels of Engagement

I absolutely love, love, loved our presentation last class!!!  Liz Kolb had soooo many awesome ideas and great sites to share!  Poll Everywhere, remind101, Celly, StudyBoost, Cellblock, ipadio, yodio, ClassPager, textnovel, QRStuff …to be exact.  I was in aww, seriously it’s individuals such as Liz who continue to blow my mind with the opportunities to encorporate technology into the classroom.  Now I also agree that with any form of technology, certain risks and issues are bound to arise, but this is this case in the classroom already so I will not let that be an excuse to not give it a shot.    

Cell phones in the classroom??  I would have to say, that for me personally, this is the first time I have heard and seen only positve experiences and opportunities having to do with them.  Most of the time teachers are complaining and unknowingly signing themselves up for a constant, continuous battle with students.  So why not embrace it.  Why not use the very tool their glued to, to teach them and maximize engagement for everyone, including students who may not usually be willing to speak out in class!  I’m convinced…and excited, so thank you Liz for opening up a whole new world of wicked awesome things to use in the classroom!  And I agree with Dean, Liz is certainly someone who needs to be in our “network of people”.

Skyping with Mrs. Cassidy’s Grade Ones

So I FINALLY got the chance to meet my mentor and her class today via Skype!! It was awesome!  They were so cute and so excited to share things about themselves and their classroom.  I have used Skype before, like I said, but never to a room full of 6 year olds! (and one 7 year old I should probably mention).  They started by asking me questions about myself….Where do you live?  Do you have any babies?  How old are you?  Have you ever Skyped before?  Have you ever commented on a blog?  I answered their questions and needless to say some of the conversations went in other directions, but it was really neat.  Then I asked the class a few questions….What is your favorite thing about school?  How old are all of you?  What kind of things do you do in your classroom?  After asking this question I was amazed!!  They said they had a smartboard…but that’s not all, they have 9 computers, 2 iPads, 6 DS’s, and an Xbox Kinect!  Like really?? I later asked Kathy if this were common among classrooms in her school, she said “no”.  She personally does everything in her power to scrounge and scrape so that she can provide her students with them, so incredible. 

I would invite you to check Mrs. Cassidy’s Classroom Blog out.  She does soooo many neat things with her class and she has seriously inspired me a lot already.  One quick example….children were invited to bring their own DS to school, as mentioned earlier she also has a few in the classroom for those who don’t have,  with them the students entered pictochat and sent number sentences back and forth to one another during math….is that cool or what?!

Any other ideas on how to use either a DS or an Xbox Kinect in the classroom???

Digital Writing with Bud the teacher

I took some very valuable advice from listening to Bud Hunt speak of digital writing.  He said “We need to write more, even if it isn’t good”  and also something along the lines of  just writing to write, not because we have to or someone told us to.  I personally need to take this advice seriously because this isn’t something I would normally do….write just because, hmmm.  This suddenly takes me in another thought direction…there is a line though.  I think of how annoyed I sometimes am when people post their every move during a day on facebook like what they had for breakfast, followed by where they are headed with so and so and then you hear about how the drive was and so on and so on…I personally am not a fan of this but all the power to people who don’t mind everyone in the world knowing their business.  (sorry for the rant, back to digital writing)

I think the idea of “writing” and what it looks like today is really cool.  The fact that writing may not even consist of any words at all is weird, but if you think about it “writing” doesn’t work for all students.  Why not give them the choice??  Yes I expect some sort of reflection on a certain topic but it’s up to you how you want to deliver it.  I think this is purely awesome!!  We have similar freedoms in this particular class and although I may not be the most comfortable with all the different ways in which we can use these tools, it’s at least nice to have the option.

Another thing I found interesting was when Bud said “rather than evaluate, respond”.  Opening up a space where dialogue is encouraged  between you and your students and making a place where conversations about learning are important, is vital.  If this is offered I think students will have a much better overall understanding rather than looking at a score out of 10 and wondering what the heck I did wrong, or right, for that matter.  Also there is bound to be a much stronger relationship with students which is equally as important.