Where are the Students? Fischbowl 2007 June Post

I completely agree that students should be involved with deciding "what is best for them." Another problem (besides money and liability reasons) is that the school would have to make sure that they picked the right students to go. Some students would just go, to go and not do any justice to the other students.
I think it is a wonderful idea to try and get students involved with student curriculum. Although, educators to a great job trying to decide what should be involved. Hopefully all the bugs will get worked out and the idea will work

"Best? of the Fischbowl 2007

The fischbowl blog that was posted for Sept. made me do some major thinking. Today, in class I was learning new computer skills and having some trouble. I remember saying outloud "I'm just not good with computers." After reading the blog, I felt ashamed. I felt ashamed because what was said was exactly right. I also have said "I'm just not very good in Math." Although I wished I were better it still made me think.

I do believe that teachers, administrators, and so forth should have atleast a basic knowledge of computers and technology. At the same time if the people in those positions have been doing their job without any problems then one might ask why do they need it anyway? It's hard to say what is right and what is not. But again, I think if they do need the technology and they are willing to learn, then there are no problems.

As far as the the comment made that: If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write.
I'm not sure if I would go that far. Technology is important and a way to captivate students to learn; however there are other means of learning espeacially if you are talking about elementary students. Obviously, if the person is educated to teach then they should know how to do so. I believe that there would definatly be problems with not being willing to learn for other reasons but I dont think it would be extreme to be compare being illiterate in technology to not being able to read or write.

Post 5 International Blogging

Wow! This wibsite was amazing. A school from Scottland and a school from Holland are "conducting a small experiment in the use of weblog between two primary schools." The site has many pictures of the children in the classroom. They look like they are doing podcasts between one another and even visiting each others school in person as well. The blog contains pictures of the students conducting science experiments and they describe the experiment, they have poems from the students, art projects, and other classroom activities as well. The students could go on and blog as individuals or as a whole class. I thought it was an awesome website! Take a look here:http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/pivot/index.php

The second website I found was not near as interesting. A teacher in Japan uses a blog to describe his experiences in Japan. He really does not have that many pictures and his website is pretty random but all and all he has a lot of information about his lessons. You can check out his website at:http://discussenglish.blogspot.com/search/label/Japanese%20English%20Teachers

Post 4 Blogs and the Classroom

As I searched for examples of teachers using blogs in the United States, I stumbles upon many blogs from other countries but found difficulty in finding ones from the U.S. Finally I found a whole school that used blogs. Every grade, every teacher, and even other faculty members had their own blogs.
One of the first blogs I looked at the tacher just guided and updated what the children were doing in class. It containted other links to "help" pages. Pages where students could go to get help with any subject they needed. She also put a calander and marked important school events.
Another page I looked at divided all subjects they were studing and had the next days assignments as well as the homework they were responsible for that night. The page also included links for parent tips and a newsletter.
Personally, I would like to use this in my class. I think it is an excellent way to keep parents involved and it gives children more oppurtunities for help and gives them a way to check themselves and stay on track.
The website you can find this at is: http://www.cobbk12.org/schools/es/schlewis/teacher_blogs.htm