I received a domain name and website for Christmas last year. I am not very much into self-promotion, I am almost embarrassed when someone stumbles on the blog or website but my husband convinced me it was okay to share my thoughts and ideas with others. So I do. I recently purchased Rapidweaver to create my webpage and it has a blogging feature. So I will keep two blogs for a while one at Blogger and on at my site….
I am currently taking a course on using Moodle, developing a professional development course to run on Moodle and helping a variety of teachers create their own Moodle courses. I am excited about the possibilities of extending the classroom experience with Moodle, as well as, developing a 100% online class. As I build my course I find myself thinking about the curriculum and its presentation very differently then when I taught face-2-face. In all educational experiences, learning takes place as…
Unlike the personal blog where you only need to look after yourself, the classroom blog is a bit more complicated. As educators we are charged with keeping our students safe. School districts must comply with the Children’s Internet Safety Act and in doing such must come up with tons of policies. So how do you prepare your students with 21st communication skills and comply with all the rules and regs. This is where I have doing a lot of reading…
I have been thinking about the concerns one faces when you start a personal blog, be it a professional blog or one for your family members. There are some things you might wish to keep in mind as you post to your blog. Would you want your employer or future employer to read your blog? I have heard that colleges Google the names of future students to see what they have posted about themselves, I am sure some employers already…
I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I have been spending a lot of time looking at Web 2.0 tools. The possibilities excite me as I read about the tools and their uses in schools. I follow link after link and discover so much good stuff! I am working on ways to introduce these tools to my fellow teachers. I have played around with blogging, and some different Wikis. I have worked with a few individual teachers on Web 2.0 tools….
So how do you give more swings at the bat? Most of my teaching experience has been at the middle school level with some high school teaching mixed in for good measure. I have had little experience as a teacher in the elementary level. So I will offer some ideas at the MS and HS level if you have some suggestions at the elementary level, I would love for you to share them. If we had all the time in…
I recently had a conversation with a good friend and colleague of mine; he is a very smart man and knows his stuff. We were discussing how to meet the needs of the varied children in the classroom. We both believe that all children learn, and that they come to the classroom with different skills and experiences, and they have different rates of growth. He has a good metaphor for this “some children just need more swings at the bat.”…