Richardson chapters 1 and 2

I have to start by saying that technology is something that intimidates me to the core.  Anytime that I am faced with opening a website in front of my students or trying something new on the Smart Board, I can feel my anxiety level rising.  "What if it doesn't work, what if something inappropriate pops up, what if my students can't wait to go home to tell their parents that Mrs. Bohle has no idea what she is doing."  These are the "what ifs" that start dancing in my head.  It is the subject area where most of my students are more comfortable and have more knowledge than I do.  So, as I am faced with this class, it brings me both excitement and fear.

It is an interesting fact that as the rest of the world around us is changing so fast in the use of technology, education seems to be dragging their feet a bit.  Of course this is not true for all teachers, but a vast majority of us are holding onto the old ways of teaching literacy.  Students now are able to find information with the click of a button through social media.  They also are able to create blogs and websites to give themselves an outlet of writing and sharing information.  This is the exact reason why it is important for teachers to be comfortable with the technology and teach our students the correct and positive ways to use blogs and websites.  I like how Will Richardson emphasized that we must first learn ourselves how to navigate our way around blogs and such.  Then we can become more effective in teaching our students the ways of our world.

I am excited to learn many of the tools that Richardson suggests.  While reading chapter two many ideas began to swirl around in my head of things that I would like to include on a class blog.  I found myself scribbling notes in the margin such as; daily writing prompt, bucket filling, on-line book club, and math word problems.  I even began to think of a fun title for the blog.  These are huge steps for me because the task of creating a class website or blog has always seemed so daunting and unknown to me.  It was particularly helpful for me to look at other class blogs and websites.  Ann Davis's really stuck out to me because it was such a friendly and positive place to be.  I also really liked Mr. C's Class Blog.  This one was informative to both teachers and students.  At first the site seemed a bit overwhelming to me, but everything was labeled in a way that ended up being easy to navigate through.  I liked how he posed questions to his students and how he had videos for teachers.  Both of these examples provided me with great ideas to try in my classroom.

One technology tool that I think is very important for our students is to simply learn to type.  First of all, computer testing is going to quickly become the norm for these students.  It will be impossible for students to write narratives and informational text if they don't know the correct buttons to type or take forever to find a letter key.  Also, the world of business will not be functional for them and students won't be able to find jobs without typing or word processing skills.  Students will have a very  hard time becoming successful in life with out these skills.

Safety on the Internet, as mentioned before, is probably my biggest fear.  Our school does have a filter, but there have been several occurrences at our school where students are caught looking at things they shouldn't.  Obviously, teaching the students appropriate actions is a necessity.  You never know what you will find even when putting in an innocent search word.  I have also given a lot of thought to how to keep my students' identities safe.  There was mention in the book of using class numbers instead of names.  I think that this is probably what I will do because my feeling is that you can never be too safe.  My students have class numbers anyway, so I believe that this is a logical solution to the problem.  It is also of utmost importance to stress to students how many people have access to what they are putting out and the importance of keeping private information to themselves.

I think that teacher blogs are important for many reasons.  First of all, it gives students a place to find information that they might have missed.  Instead of an "absent folder", I could simply post work for students to download.  It also gives them a place to write and practice the skills learned in class.  I also think that blogs are a great place for parents to find information.  They will feel more connected to my classroom.  Another reason to have a blog is to stay connected to other teachers.  It was extremely helpful for me to check out blogs created by other teachers and schools.  Merriwether-Lewis Elementary School was very beneficial for me to look at.  I was able to navigate around to teacher websites and see what types of designs and work that those teachers used.

Most importantly, I think that it is important for students to be interacting and contributing to the blog.  It really is a great way for them to integrate reading and writing.  It gives them practice publishing to a specific audience and receiving feedback from the audience.  It also of course builds community whether just in the classroom or to the entire outside world.  In a nutshell, I am excited to overcome my fear and explore blogging with my students.