Blog format- how is this going to work?

In the interests of trying to keep this as user-friendly as possible (and as easy for me as possible, I’ve got lessons to plan and papers to grade!), I’m going to try and keep posts in a similar format each time. To begin with this is the format that I’m going to use, but I’m happy to make changes if another category is needed.

The technology: Name of the technology being used

My impression: Here I’ll explain how I used it and what I/my students thought about the whole experience.

Possible uses in the classroom/ Lesson ideas: My scope of teaching is relatively limited, but I do have a good imagination. I’ll try and think of as many applications for the classroom as I possibly can.

Pictures: Not sure if I’ll be able to offer this every time, but I’ll try and offer some screenshots/ pictures of the technology in use as much as possible.

Where can I learn more? Here you’ll find some links to company websites or other reviews I’ve found.

Rating: Out of 5 stars. 1 star meaning “I would rather teach using an abacus than use this!” or 5 meaning “this basically taught my class for me!”. I’ll use the tags to sort these so the really awesome and really horrible reviews can easily be found.

Why Technology in Education?

Teaching has come a long way. Gone are the days of students sitting in rows, memorizing their times tables. Today’s students are a different breed.

I came to this realization a few years ago, watching my five-year old cousin text her mom to tell her that we would be home from the playground in 5 minutes. As I stood there, I tried desperately to remember if I even knew how to write when I was five years old (though not that many teachers would consider texting to be writing). It was in that moment that I came to the stark realization that the world was a very, very different place.

You would think that as a teacher (who considers themselves to be in tune with the youth) I would have noticed that already. It would seem that I had been so caught up in times tables, calculators, and chalkboards that I missed the revolution that had happened around me. My students had changed so the way that I taught them should have changed with them. It didn’t… but it’s going to.

My resolution for the New Year, 2011, is to implement using as much technology in my classroom as possible (at least one new technology/website a week). From now until then I plan to discuss the (limited) technology that I use in my class, and think a little bit about how best to approach this new challenge.

Since I haven’t heard of every new technology out there, especially those for teachers, I welcome suggestions of things that I should try. I am open to pretty much anything! Please leave a comment to suggest things, agree with me (highly encouraged!), or disagree with me (also encouraged!).