Overwhelming!

I love to try new things in the classroom, and my year plan is never the same twice. This year is full of change, and I am determined to infuse technology into the curriculum. Though this is exciting, it is incredibly challenging too.

Blogging With Students

• They like going online and seeing what is new on the blog. They don't like having to watch their grammar when they comment. I get frustrated when I see blatant spelling and grammar errors! I'm working on ideas for managing the comments and helping them grow as writers through the blog.
• Many students are excited about starting their own blogs. However, with one computer in the classroom, and one day a week in the lab (if I'm proactive and find out which teachers aren't using their slot that week!), it doesn't leave much time to teach blogging. I need to get a couple of students on board and have them train the others.

In2Books

• I must shout out In2Books right now. If you are reading this, I hope you'll sign up to be a Pen Pal! My kids were so happy to read their introductory letters and to choose the book they will read with their pen pal. They proudly told me who their pal was and what their pal does for a living. I am curious to see how these relationships evolve over the last 3 months of the school year. Plus, FREE books for us! We love that!

Digital Storytelling

• Student engagement meet video camera! All I have to do to create salivating students (a la Pavlov's dog) is pull out the black camera bag with the two video cameras inside. I have one reluctant learner who will ask me hourly when he can use the camera (or blog). His excitement level is high. I have three girls who have been praised for their professional use of camera angle terms.

This is great stuff! It comes with a price tag. First, managing all of these technologies is overwhelming and time consuming. I worry about fairness to all (how do I tell reluctant learner that he will not get to edit because the three girls get to go first?) I worry about getting pen pal letters from everyone, even though not everyone can type quickly, or even write well? Not to mention, to type in the letters we need to have computers - and did I mention the lack of computers? Soon, that problem will be solved by the classroom set of laptops that I believe will eventually come to our school.

Then there are the inevitable technology issues. The editing program didn't work on my laptop, so it needed to be sent back for repair. I had to teach myself how to download video onto the laptops. I am fairly tech savvy, and was able to do this easily, but what about the other teachers who do not enjoy their tech as much as I do?

All of this technology use also comes with a steep learning curve. I am pushing forward, hoping that the learning curve will lead to a deeper exploration of writing and our curriculum. However, I do worry that it is time wasted - and that I could have spent that extra half hour focused on the all important state standards. This year I will learn if the end justifies the means.

The one thing I am certain of - the technology does create engagement. And engagement, to me, is one of the most important things I can foster in my students. Now I just need to figure out how to channel that engagement into truly productive and useful learning.

Just Starting Out

A bit of background about me...

I love to write. This does not mean I am a good writer, but I enjoy putting words on a page. Writing teachers in the past have criticized my writing in the following ways: too vague, not enough information, poor punctuation, too vague, poor sentence structure, too vague. You get the picture. In most of my educational career, I have been all but discouraged from writing. Teachers can be very powerful inspirations, but also can be downright poisonous to dreams.

I also love technology. I can engage myself for hours by simply playing around with my laptop. This "playing" has led to much of my computer knowledge. There is a lot to be said for "just" playing around!

So, when my school principal told my grade level about a grant that would give us a class set of laptops, technology training, and writing training, you can imagine how excited I was. The trainings are done, and the laptops still haven't arrived, but my enthusiasm for integrating technology into my curriculum has soared. I find myself at a point where I am looking for new, innovative ideas to add depth to my teaching.

In the past three months, I have created a classroom blog, and had my students post comments at least twice. I recently developed a classroom wiki, where I intend to store all of my files for parents and students to access. I'm also hoping parents will jump in and add to the wiki in the hopes of creating a tighter parent/classroom community. Many of my students are inspired by the technology they have only "played" with so far, and several of them are beginning their own blogging journeys (naturally with all of the standard internet warnings from me!). When we receive our voice recorders (I'm sure there is a special name for these, but it escapes me now), I look forward to creating podcasts for them to listen to before posting. Eventually, I hope they want to develop their own podcasts!

Already a parent has posted a comment, and a brother of a student has commented on our blog as well. Students have seen comments from my own technology instructor, as well as numerous replies from me. They look to the links on the side of my blog to find educational websites. They ask me daily when our laptops will arrive.

To recap, I'm excited and they're excited! So where do we go from here? I'm starting the surfing now, looking for ways that other teachers are incorporating technology into their classrooms. My philosophy of education is shifting, and I'm looking away from the basal reader and worksheet, towards the 21st century literacies that my students will require for success.

How do you use technology in your classroom?