The Classroom

Well I’ve been busy to say the least.  And I’m VERY sorry I haven’t posted more… I’m looking at 3 partially written posts that I started, but never got back to – they seem pretty out of date now – but I just might dust them off the spruce them up later.  But for now here’s a journal entry I wrote for my 1:1 project community site, but thought I’d share it here…. after all I went through all the work to write it – and I think it raises some good points….

Where to begin… This has been a roller coaster month for me – just so many things to do, papers to fill out, and technologies to master. But I can proudly say that today my students had no problems logging onto the system and using their laptops. And they loved it. They have bought into the idea whole heartedly. These are “their” laptops. They’ve taken ownership, and are extremely pumped to start using these systems in class. Read the rest of this entry »

A few years back I heard a shocking stat at an in service. Less then 40% of teachers read for fun. I wish I could remember the exact number (and a quick Google search didn’t pull up the information either). This pains me as both a teacher and a parent. Today my one year old ASKED for a book. She does that quite often- her fourth word was book – but today it was a specific book. “Mermays…. Mermays….” My one year old was asking for her book on Mermaids. I’m floored. A one year old who says Mermaid. That would never have happened if not for books. Read the rest of this entry »

I know I keep referring to my first principal, Bill Drake, in a lot of my writings. The man had a profound effect on me. His motto of “Teach as you would like to have been taught” is the foundation for most of my educational beliefs. It’s a concept I had already subscribed too long before I met Bill, but to hear him say it and reinforce that belief was what I needed at the time.

So how did I like to be taught? How did you like to be taught? How do we know? The answer is simple. Think of your favourite teacher – and what made them so. It’s what I did. I’ve based my entire teaching practices upon what I can remember of my grade 5 teacher, Mr. Glance. Read the rest of this entry »

A good friend of mine, Randy Lyseng, has been telling people of the tremendous power and educational value that can be gained from social bookmarking in the classroom. His personal favourite is Diigo.

My preference is a social bookmarking tool called http://diigo.com. With diigo, you can highlight, add stick notes and make your comments private or public. (Randy Lyseng, Lyseng Tech: Social Bookmarking, November 2006)

After listening to Randy praise Diigo at every opportunity, I finally started playing with the site (and corresponding program, more on that in a bit) this summer (I know Randy – I’m slow to catch on…) Read the rest of this entry »

As I tell people about this new 1 to 1 project I’m a part of I usually get one of two responses, either “That’s cool!” or “Don’t kids today already spend enough time on computers already? When are they learn the real way of doing things?” Its these occasions when I’m reminded of a video that Danny Mass recommended a few posts back:

Download Video: Posted by jsdt4 at TeacherTube.com.

Read the rest of this entry »