Blog Post #11

Ms. Cassidy's First Grade Classroom By: Kathy Cassidy


In Moose Jaw, Canada a technological revolution is taking place. Ms. Cassidy has given her class the chance to really understand computers and how the internet works. She has given them all their own blogs, and the entire class made a wiki about the alphabet! I think this is a very innovative way of giving little 6 and 7 year old the advantage for getting ahead in the game. They have made wikis, done Skype interviews with their reading pals across town, and even interviewed a geologist all with Skype!! Personally I think it is an excellent idea of her use of technology in the classroom, and it was luck that her classroom was able to get computers and kids can use them. I like her use of giving the kids their own blogs and letting them post up their work for other kids around the world to see; also, the parents and other family or friends can see what the kids have been up to in the classroom and comment on it. I plan on also using Skype for interviews in my classroom so that the kids can learn from the real live people, instead of researching things on the internet; this gives a lesson more meaning and it also gives them a chance to practice speech, as well as having fun with technology and getting to meet people who can really give them a new perspective on things. As the kids I will teach may or may not have had experience with computers, I will get their parents permission first for them to get online at school under supervision and rules to protect the kids. We will have some days where we take a hour or so to get used to a computer and learn the basics. As they start to understand it better, then we will take to having blogs and wikis and such. Ms. Cassidy talks in her Skype interview about having many principals in her teaching career, and that they have all been indirectly supportive of her using technology in the classroom. She is kind of given the freedom to just try it as long as the kids are safe online and do not post any pictures of themselves, which I completely agree with. I will definitely use the blog for the kids to post their work on for the world to see, and try out different things for wikis with them. The use of videos sounds like it is pretty popular around the world now in terms of putting it on the class blog or class webpage...so my class will definitely try that out. The benefits from doing all this is that the kids will have SO MUCH FUN!! Having fun in the classroom is what it is all about. I also look forward to doing Skype interviews with different people of all kinds of professions so the kids can get a true look into what it is like. Like Ms. Cassidy says, it will be hard to do since these kids are so young, but the results you get are worth it. I look forward to my kids being excited and always looking to see what we get to do next and putting their own ideas into the mix.