Ready to Dive In

So, it’s the first week of school. I have six different classes to prepare for this year, and I’m switching from teaching Social Studies and Geography to English and Reading at various grade levels. Beyond the all-new curriculum I must write, I’m also working on a Masters’ Degree program through Walden University. Needless to say, I have a lot on my plate. Why not add more, right? The more weighed down I get, the more I seem to need to take on.

I’ve been obsessing the last couple of weeks about setting up a Weblog site for my classes, so why not get it going now? My Masters’ study has me reading an interesting book by Will Richardson- “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms”. The book is inspiring me to stop and think about the vast changes school has gone through in the last twenty years. Remember when we were in Middle School- the ‘computer lab’ had two giant boxes with black and orange text on which we used to play the ‘Oregon Trail’ game. Now, eighty percent of our students have Internet at home, and millions of kids are creating their own content online. I think it’s about time we stepped up in the schools and started teaching kids how to responsibly access the insane amount of information at their fingertips. I’ve spent the last weeks pouring over teacher-created blogspots that do amazing things linking academics with technology. I don’t think I’d be ready to start the year without giving this a try.

My plan here is to share the sites I have studied and brainstorm which type of blog will work best for my kids. Hopefully, I can get a few of my colleagues on board to work through the technology with me.

Resources:

Richardson, Will. (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. California: Corwin Press.