So... six months have passed and I have finally gotten over the horror of the creation of this blog and everything that went into it.

I would like to now use it to talk about issues that directly affect my life as a special education teacher. My first topic is that of technology...the dreadful beast that drug me, kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

I am evaluated on the use of technology with my students. I have been given an Ipod touch and a Netbook to accomplish this. I love having these tools in my room, and have used them with my kids.

The problem is, I always have a twinge of guilt when I hand over the IPod. As soon as they have the little device in their hands, all language stops. All interaction stops. They disappear into a quiet, withdrawn world.

I feel like their brains are screaming, "Talk to me!"

I deal with children with reading and writing deficits, brought on by a plethora of circumstances.

Why would I choose to give them an object that puts a halt to language and interaction?

I think I am shooting myself in the foot!

Technology is great. It opens so many doors for our kids. It has it's place in the classroom. It is needed for our kids to be competent in the world and work force.

I understand this.

However, I made a different choice today. I allowed my kids to work a puzzle. I wish you could hear the language and see the face to face interaction! They are working together to accomplish a goal. They are talking to each other about what to do next. They are learning how to be friends. They are smiling and strategizing.

Today has been a good day.

Tool # 11 Reflections

One of the most useful tools I learned about was the Wordle and Word Cloud tools. They will be very useful with my students that are working on building vocabulary. It is a creative way to reinforce words. I would give a student a category, such as "flowers" and he/she could create a Wordle with all of the adjectives he/she could think of. We would create an adjective book using this tool. I also like the digital story telling tools. I would love to allow my students to create a picture story and then have something of their own creation to write about.
The iphone/ipad is also a valuable tool in the classroom. There are so many options that can be used to reinforce learning.
The technology that is available to our students is exciting and a bit mind-boggling. I just hope we keep our wits about us and realize a child can have all the technology in the world available to him, but if he does not have a dedicated, loving and highly qualified teacher to instill the love of learning, it will not be effective.

Tool # 11

Well...finally made to the last tool. All about digital citizenship...how do we as teachers teach our kids to be responsible citizens of the digital world? Weird to have started my teaching career when internet was just a baby, and now technology has given us the gift of being able to have the world at your fingertips. Amazing. Along with that kind of gift comes a huge responsibility. Some of the articles I read talked about how we would not leave kids alone to understand math and science, neither should they be left alone to understand what it means to be a digital citizen. The problem is that they already know more than we do. We, the teachers, for the most part are playing catch up.
We all know how hard it is to teach a subject if we are not "up" on the content.
I think our number one responsibility is to teach our children that with all of the technology that is available to them, comes a big responsibility. They must be smart and safe. They need to be taught to distinguish the good from the bad.
Hhhmmmm....seems like that is an old lesson applied to a new endeavor.
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Tool # 10

WOW...I have been introduced to the iphone, once again by my teenagers. There are some REALLY COOL apps that can be used. I was surprised to see all the cool stuff that can be used for education...ipresident....you can have facts about every president at your fingertips...wordofthe day...a fun way to work on vocabulary...poptiq...the ability to get educational videos at the touch of a button...and personally, for me, apps like omnifocus...the name says it all...organization is definitely something I could use more of.

Now I just have to wait for the next free upgrade on our plan to get an iphone...

Tool # 9

Jing has a huge variety of ways to be used in the classroom. It can be used by the teacher to teach a specific lesson in a number of subjects such as math or history. It reminds me of one of the steps that can be used when creating a flipchart for the Activboard.
I especially love Skype. A couple of days ago, my daughter downloaded the app on my computer and opened an account for me. We are both excited about being able to see each other while she is in college. That is is I can get a camera. Not sure if this computer can even support that???
How cool would it be to be able to call a kid in another country, or a classroom and allow our kids to interact? Talk about bringing the world to our doorstep...

Tool # 8

http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=15395&title=50_States_and_Capitals__cartoon_song_



http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=30&title=Walkthroughs_and_Learning_Objectives



The first video is from one of my favorite cartoons. Cartoons are a great way to get facts stuck in the minds of our little darlings.
The second video is just funny. Makes me wonder...

Lots of great opportunities to use videos in the classroom. Look forward to finding some good math videos for my youngsters.

aarrrggghhh

It would be difficult to be more frustrated than I am with this process. I have the PS done and saved , but, as you can tell below, I cannot get it to upload onto my blog. It is saved as a "wmw", thank you Melanie, but that did not work either. So, if anyone wants to see my PS, drop on by the house and I will show you... moving on to Tool #8...I cannot wait to see the joys of technology that await!!!