Teachers & Facebook, Twitter, Myspace... etc...

I used to be one of those people with a Facebook and a Myspace. Until recently I never saw the harm in them. I used both to communicate with my friends and family. Now that I am about to enter student teaching, I have realized that it may not be the best of ideas to have either of these types of chat sites. Sometimes people may have pictures that may not be very classy posted on their "profiles". Or they may have comments posted on their "walls" that may be indecent. Sometimes people do not stop and think about the things that they are putting out there on the world-wide web for everyone to see. This can promote a bad image for those people. Even though my chat sites were completely honest in use, I deleted both my Facebook and Myspace accounts. I felt that it is better for someone that works with children and/or in the public eye if they do not have accounts with such websites. Even though they can be enjoyable to use, I think it is in best interest to not have them at all to maybe save future trouble.

A little more on Interwrite Technologies....

Another resource offered by the Interwrite Technologies is the Interwrie DualBoard. It is the first dual pen input interactive whiteboard designed specifically to help turn classrooms into more collaborative learning environments. I think this is a wonderful tool that could be used in the classroom. I believe that it is key for students to be involved in a classroom setting. Students need to be responsible for offering their input and ideas on different topics. The interactive dual pen whiteboard could make this a fun thing for students to do. I believe that the Interwrite technologies would be a great asset to any classroom. I hope to someday have the opportunity to use technology such as this in my classroom.

More on the Interwrite technologies....

I also found something called the Interwrite Mobi. It is the first multi-user interface designed specifically to support student-centered, collaborative learning. The teacher and student can concurrently interact with and contribute to the same digital content. The Mobi is ideal for team activities, learning simulations, and student exploration. It is a very neat creation in the educational world of technology.

Interwrite Boards

First off let me say that I think these interwrite boards are amazing!!! INTERWRITE Workspace, included with every Board purchase, is an extremely intuitive and easy to use education software package that includes thousands of images and resources to create interactive lessons. Workspace can also be used to annotate, highlight, or make notes over any computer program. You can save, print or email your lessons and all notations to students who are away from class. ( http://www.einstruction.eu/products/productsteaching/index.php?id=8)
I think these Interwrite workspace boards would be wonderful in a classroom. They could be used to make lessons much more exciting and interesting. Sometimes teachers can get stuck in a rut of doing boring lectures after boring lectures. With the Interwrite boards this could be a great switch to making the learning process fun for students. Students love to get involved in fun things. What better way to let them get involved in the learning process by allowing them to use the interactive features that come equipped in these interwrite workspace boards.

*Classroom Website*

I have started to think about how I want to set up my classroom website.. I want to create a website that is user friendly and easy to navigate. In the future I think it would be very beneficial for the parents of my students to be able to get online and check to see how things are going in class. If there are important messages concerning the class as a whole, the parents will have access to this sort of thing by visiting my webpage. Also, I want my students to feel welcome to view the webpage. They also have a right to know what is going on in the class. I think the class website assignment is an excellent idea. I will be student teaching soon and hopefully will begin teaching somewhere next fall, so I think it is an excellent idea for us to learn how to use a classroom website so that we will be prepared for our own classrooms when the time comes.

[Wonderful World of Technology]

I am currently taking the Theory to Practice class, which allows me to be in a Kindergarten class two days a week. I never thought that I would enjoy Kindergarten, but it turns out that I love it! The kids are great. In this class the teacher has "centers" set up for the students and they go to these centers everyday. At one of the centers there are three computers for the students to work with. At these computers the students can listen to stories and play interactive games that tie in with the lessons being taught that day. I think this is an excellent way to incorporate technology into the classroom! I plan on having something like this in my future classroom, if the funds are available for me to have one or more computers. I have been in some classrooms that have no computers, which is very sad. We need to keep our students up to date with technology just as we try and keep ourselves up to speed in the world of technology!

What I think about Portaportal.....

Hello once again...
I hope everyone is doing well!!
I just wanted to say that I think the Portaportal assignment was a great idea. I have always been an extremely organized person and this assignment has made me feel so much better about finding what websites that I like to use without having to search the history on my computer.. I plan on using this in my future classroom with my students. I think that students will find it enjoyable because they can add their own websites and they can make the portaportal their own by changing background colors and coming up with their own categories. It is also nice that you can allow guest access. This would be good for a teacher with younger students because the teacher could keep up with their students work. I hope everyone like creating their portaportals..

Until next time.....