Chat+Room+Questions

1. I followed Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom blog as well ad the Best Student Written Blog. I didn't learn too much from the best student written blogs except for the fact that blogs are written for almost any reason at all. I didn't know too much about blogs before checking these out. Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom blog showed how much they can be used to keep parent well informed of what is going on. You can keep videos and such and post them online for parents to see. This is a neat things to do and to keep the parents feel like they know what is going on at school.

2a. I do see a lot of these things going on in our school and there is a lot of support and push by our principal to become more of a teacher who let's the students discover things on their own. We have a fairly young staff at our K-3 building, which I think also makes a difference but many of the staff members are willing to try things out. We do have a couple of teachers who have frequently use wiki space and blogs to communicate with their parents, which is something I would like to do in the upcoming years. Our principal does an excellent job working with the staff and is always motivating us to do more and has very good constructive criticism.

2b. Teachers definetly need to be able to know hoe to use technology that's in their classroom. Whether it's going to some training or just fidgeting around with the equipment. They need some correct instruction so that they can use the device to better educate their students. Odds are with it being some piece of new technology, it will also grab the students attention more because it's new. Therefore, using it correctly when you get it is even more important while they are into this new technology that you benefit the most you can out of it.

2c. I think it's extremely important to collaborate with your fellow staff members to knwo what is going on in each of the classrooms and to make sure you are staying on pace. I also think it's very important to collaborate to see what is working and if something isn't working, to have your fellow staff members see if they can give you an idea that might work for you to try out in your classroom. I've been getting better about having my students work together in groups on different things and it's very interesting to see how they work together whether it's in a group of 2 or more. Their minds just think so differently than our and they can relate to each other so much better.

2d. The strategy I probably need to work on most is number 4. Sometimes I get too caught up in getting students to memorize things, but I am becoming more aware of it. With different classes I have taken recently as well as this class, I feel like I think about that more and am trying to make things that we do in the classroom more real to life so that it will stick with them rather than just having them memorize things just for the "test." If you can make it real to life, they will more likely remember it a lot easier.

3a. One thing that surprised me was how much the internet and all of it's tools were used during the last election. I knew Barack was pretty into technology, but I didn't realize how much more into all of it he was than all of the other candidates. I think that had a huge impact on the election turnout is how Barack used his networking skills.

Another thing that surprised me was that more people under the age of 30 voted than those over the age of 65. I would have never guessed that. Granted, a bigger percentage of people over 65 voted, but I still wouldn't have thought it would have been that close. The way they talked in the book is that people of today are "starting to realize that who is in power really matters."

3b. I haven't taken part in any online political collaboration site at all. To be honest, I'm not into politics and don't know as much about politics as I should. My wife always makes fun of me for not really knowing what is going on in the political world.