The video “Intersections“ by Darren Kuropatura inspires me to move forward in technology with the future. If I am going to intersect the past with the present, I need to get busy. I have a lot to learn about technology. What is a googledoc, skype, and/or rss feed? I now want to know! As most of us, time is such an issue for me. Using technical space, will I free up some time? I want to learn how to use technology to my advantage, then teach children to do the same.
In connection with my own life, this video has persuaded me to kick my current teaching up a notch. I will continue to involve the children in planning our curriculum. I will encourage the children to work together so they may have the reward of being recognized by peers as doing something well together. A friend has recently helped me start a daycare website starburstdaycare.com. I will learn how to add more photos to it. We started the website for advertising purposes. I can eventually add more information to it to help educate others.
The teacher I want to be will use cognitive, professional, and social presence to enhance the program. I would like to use blogging to reflect on my teaching and grow. I would like to have class blogs. I would like to have a personal blog with links to classroom helps for others. I would like to know how to have my lesson plans in files on the computer. My pedagogic creed is that each teacher must approach their classroom with adaptablity and a strong mentality to teach each child where they are at. Today this means teaching in all areas, including technology.
Here is an example of teaching using smartboard technology.
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It’s also great you have your friends’ website to help out with. Embedding content can be a great thing – We’ll learn how to embed videos, for example, but you can also embed maps and other content which is interactive. I saw you have a static image of a map on your site, this is what an embedded version of a Google Map can look like:
http://storychasers.org/contact-us/
I’m glad you liked my little talk. From your blog post here it sounds like you’ve already started learning about some of the ways technology can enrich the work you do and help a friend too.
Two things you might want to watch out for:
(1) Too much too fast. Take it slow. Get comfortable with one thing at a time. You got a great teacher in Wes. He can help you figure out how to weave each of the tools you’re learning about into a meaningful support for what you’ll do as teacher.
(2) Remember we teach kids, not subjects, or tools. What makes the internet such a powerful pedagogical resource really turns on how it enhancing interpersonal communication and relationships. I tried to sum this up in a short 5 minute video.
In many ways I envy you. I remember how excited I was and how much fun I had learning about all “this stuff” and then watching how it helped my students learn and changed my life forever. You’re going to have so much fun. ;-)
Cheers,
Darren