Blog Post #11

Kathy Cassidy's Little Kids..Big Potential video was so neat to watch. I really liked how the children had so much technology in their classrooms. Not only was there so much technology, but they knew how to use it so well. They had nintendo ds, Wiki, Skype, blogs, laptops, and more. I really liked how they put their questions on Wiki, and people from all over the world could give them so many answers and different stories. I was excited to know that while I'm sitting here typing this blog post, so is a first grader somewhere. It kind of amazed me to see how well a first grader could use all of this technology so fluently. I really admired Mrs.Cassidy for providing all these tools and broad learning environments to her students. I think it's a great way for them to learn and collaborate with students all over the world. I thought it was neat that they mentioned the videos and comments from the students in Alabama, and how their videos helped them learn the ABCs.
I thought the skype interview with Mrs.Cassidy was helpful. I really admire her approach to technology in her classroom. She fully supports that every teacher needs to be technologically advanced, and says the quote "technology is not going away" quite a few times in the conversation. I agree because technology continues to change so rapidly and progress so much. A technique that I would like to use in my classroom would be the blogs. I enjoyed all of the technology she provides to her students, but the blogs seemed to stand out most to me. I'm not sure if it's because I'm so familiar with it since we write blogs every week. I just feel like it's such a great tool for small children. As a young child, I feel that praise and acknowledgement of their work is very important. Teachers need to start this soon and build their confidence and motivation. Mrs.Cassidy supported this by pointing out in the conversation that the kids are so excited to see how many page views they get and all the comments. I really liked how she pointed out the fact that kids aren't overly excited to write on pen and paper just for the teacher to see. That approach just does not make as much of an impact as writing in a blog for the world to see. Students will put forth more effort this way, knowing that they have a worldwide audience. An impediment that I might face in the future with incorporating technology into my classroom would be the school principals and administrators. The school has to support you and be a strong backbone for your ideas and contribute to the technology you need. Mrs.Cassidy brought about how she has a wonderful technology coordinator, but some of the principals did not care at all about technology. I would have to have support from somewhere or a strong will to do it on my own.