Giving Up Center Stage

For centuries, the teacher has been on center stage of the classroom, directing the activities and controlling the flow of information. With the availability of resources on the Internet, the teacher can stand aside and allow the students to reach out and find information from sources that were never before available.

The articles assigned for us to read this week offer teachers templates for what the Web is and what it can be for students. Three Myths about the Web at http://www.web-and-flow.com/help/myths.asp really surprised me. I have always described the Internet as a giant encyclopedia, but that is the first myth. While the encyclopedia is cold and professional, the Web is chaotic and passionate. This is why teens are drawn to it. But they cannot be let loose because what a passionate, chaotic student WANTS to learn about is usually far different from what he NEEDS to learn about. With the activities and strategies in the Activity Format descriptions http://www.web-and-flow.com/help/formats.asp, teachers give students a chance to explore topics. Given that the students are asked to discover and offer their opinion on the subject, many would actually be motivated to learn some of the things they need to know.

The idea is not to use the Internet for the Internet's sake. Rather to use its ready source of information as a customized learning opportunity. The formats described are flexible enough to adapt to individual learners aptitudes as well as attitudes toward the subject. A significant feature of many of the activities is a reflective component. Often students just learn without thinking about the connections they made with the content. When they are given reflective tasks, they give voice to their learning. And if they did not understand, their is no way they can look on another person's paper and copy the right answer for this kind of question. As a teacher, you can know whether or not they get it, and where to go from here.

The Internet has the potential to inspire students to be life-long learners. Students learn to find information, an that gaining new knowledge has intrinsic rewards. Receiving all your knowledge from the teacher is not nearly as engaging or challenging as constructing it yourself. Can I as a teacher give up my place center stage to allow students to become the stars of their own education? For the good of my students, I must.

Culminating Activity

I am so glad to be finished with the assignments this week. I have had a hard time finding a quiet place. Our family situation is changing and we are all trying to adjust!

I have officially sent Professor Dawson the choice of my culminating activity for this class. I will be doing an annotated bibliography on trends in the use of Internet in primary grades. I will definitely be able to use the information I gain right away as I teach First Grade. I brought home a journal and a teacher's magazine this weekend to start the research. I am sure I will be using First Search, too, for more articles. I know there are a couple of Internet based journals I can search also.

I really enjoy research like this. I am excited to embark on the discovery of new ideas!

Ramblings from First Grade

I have been so busy with some personal things with my fiance (a house for us after we marry), and my teenage daughter (a boyfriend that hangs around the house all the time) and tutoring (administration brought in a new assessment/curriculum package midstream), that when my brain tries to concentrate on the culminating activity for this class, I cannot focus. Tiny little snippets of an idea are swirling around in my head. If I could get enough quiet time, I think I could put all the little pieces together. Let me bounce a few around here.

What I am thinking about is something that would relate to what I do now: teach first grade to mostly low-income, ESOL, and ESE kids. One third of my class that is below grade level in reading due to learning disabilities or language problems. We are using technology in computer assisted instruction. I use Earobics and SuccessMaker Enterprise software for phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension practice. I also have my kids visit Earobic's Game Goo site for more phonemic awareness games. We sometimes visit the Starfall.com site for games, videos, and stories the child can choose at his/her independent reading level. What I want to know is how are other teachers using the Internet in their K-2 classes. The kids are limited to what they can read. Very little that I find is on their level. I find that most Internet projects are too reading intensive unless done in a whole group with a projector or smart board.

That's where one of the ideas comes in. I want to have the students use a digital camera to take pictures of signs they know how to read. This will go along with the story line of the reading selection this week. Then what? We can post them to our class website. I have read recently about Flickr. I need to look into this. It sounds like you can have the class post photos there. But the thing is, I would have to do the posting. Unless I were to use posting the photos as an enrichment project for those kids who are super readers...

As I was saying about the culminating activity, I want to find out more about what other primary teachers are doing with the Internet. I would like to do an annotated bibliography exploring articles on this subject from journals and professional magazines. I welcome your comments. I am sure that when I submit it to our instructor, she will give me some good feedback. In the meantime, I trust that the comments of my colleagues will be invaluable!

This time I needed a little help...

For my last entry, I just filled in the blanks. Everything worked out great--easy. Then I forgot my username. Then I had to ask my 16 year old daughter how to create a post. She knew right away.

She is ambivalent about me having my own blog. However, she is very adamant that I never, ever visit her blog on MySpace. I can only imagine why. This is a photo of her. Yes, her hair is pink. It has also been royal blue. It is now black with a platinum streak. 16 is an interesting age.

I had a day off for MLK Day Monday and for Root Canal Day today. I am looking forward to getting back to school. I am going to explore some podcasts as per Kara Dawson's recommendation. I am seriously trying to find a website about polar regions that first graders can understand. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Gee, that was easy!

Here I am writing a blog on the Internet. My teenage daughter does this every night for hours, so I am sure this will be fun and interesting.

I am looking forward to the class "Internet in K-12." That is the reason I have started this blog. The idea is to have a space to collaborate and communicate with fellow classmates and colleagues. Sort of a neighborhood where friends stop by and chat. I find very often that the best ideas come when colleagues and I are just batting around "what ifs" and "how abouts". I cannot wait to hear comments and ideas from a new group of classmates and colleagues.

Currently, I teach first grade at Woodlawn Elementary in Sebring, FL. This is my second year full time. I am on my third career--after radio DJ and hotel desk manager. But deep down inside I have always been a teacher. I taught my little sister everything I learned every day of Kindergarten. On my first fast food job, I worked my way up to trainer in just a few months. I home schooled my kids for five years. They hated it, so I decided to go to college so I could find some kids that wanted me to teach them.

I never dreamed that information would be available to me the way it is today on the Internet. Any subject I type in brings up tons of information and great lesson ideas. I have used the Internet in class with my LCD projector to show students Plimouth Plantation and Native American Totem poles. I have my tutoring students use the Internet for vocabulary research. Every day, I project the Math workbook pages directly from the publisher's website onto the board so I can model the example problems. My students visit Game Goo and Starfall for reading skills games.

As for other technology, I use PowerPoint presentations every day. My students use CAI for math and reading practice and remediation.

Through this course, I hope to learn more uses and applications for the Internet. I also hope to gain ideas to share with all grade levels as I (hopefully) move into a position as a Tech Resource Teacher in the future.