Get on Board!!

I think that the best way for me to encourage my colleague to learn about and use technology in their classrooms is for me to use technology myself.  If I use something and can get excited about using it in my classroom it may encourage others to use the same things.  If I can show them the neat things that I have done, they may want to do it in their classroom too.  I also think it may help if I can become the teacher to my colleague's and show them how to use technology.  If there is something that I know how to use, why wouldn't I teach the other's around me so that they can get the same benefits that I am??

I would love to show the teacher's at my school how to set up and use a Web quest.  The website that I used to make my web quest was so easy and user friendly.  I think that if I can show the teachers around me the web quest that I made, I think they will get excited and want to make one of their own, especially after I show them how easy it is to set up and how much fun their students can have completing the assignment. If I can the teachers around me on board with using technology, we can all begin to share the tools that we are using and things that we have created!

Internet Techology

When it comes to using the Internet in my classroom, I sometimes get quite frustrated.  My school systems has gone so far to keep our students protected when using the Internet that many sites I try to use get the dreaded "Access Denied".  Just last year my students were reading a story in a book about the little boy that fell in with the Gorilla's at one of the Chicago zoos.  I was talking to my class about how I remembered when it happened and they were so intrigued.  I wanted to show them the news clip but of course...YouTube is blocked!  Lesson connection fail!!  There are many other possibilities that I could use.  The web quest that we had to create is something that I am considering using in my class this year.  It is something different for them to do and I think it could have some real benefits when it comes to our Indiana History unit.  I would love to use the Internet for various things in my classroom, I would just have to work around the "Access Denied" that is most often my biggest road block!  Another fear that I have is that I do not have much experience when it comes creating assignments on the Internet.  Prior to this class, I had not experience with a web quest. 

To help with these issues, I would need to gain more experience myself.  I would need to spend some time preparing myself to make sure that I have the experience that I would need to help my students with their assignments. 

What's your plan??

In my classroom I currently use PowerPoint for morning announcements.  I put anything that I want them to do when the come in the classroom, reminders, or things that they need to know about our day.  Not all of our students arrive at the same time so it seems to keep the early arrivers a little more focused while we are waiting for the others to get there.  I also use PowerPoint to put my focus statements for each lesson then it is easy to just change slides for each lesson and they are already there.  I also use Word.  I use Word for many things: sub plans, letters that I want to go home, my weekly homework page, and, simple games or worksheets that I want to make quickly.  Lastly, after this week, I am going to start using Publisher so much now.  I already have a list of things that I want to create using Publisher and I have my newsletter started for next week!
I have lots of work to do to improve my use of lots of different things.  I loved that we did this assignment this week and were introduced to many different things that our classmates took the time to learn about.  There were quite a few things that others talked about that I had never heard of before or had never used before.  I was intrigued by the reflection that I read about "mail-merge".  I am still not sure if I totally understand what it is because I am such a visual learner.  I feel like if I was able to actually see it instead of just reading about it, I would feel a little bit better.  To learn more about "mail-merge" I am making it my personal goal to do the research that I need to do to learn what this is and how I can best use it in my classroom or everyday use.  Now if I can only find the time to do that!