On Self Editing

I mentioned in my previous post my frustration with grammar and spelling mistakes. We had been posting comments to our class blog, and they were filled with errors. Our In2Books pen pal letters had some problems too. I spent quite a while guiding students to edit their own work. This is a painful activity for me, one of my least favorite as a teacher.With 27 comments waiting for me to help with editing, I wasn't looking forward to today. I often wonder if it is worth it.

IT IS! Today I assigned the students another commenting activity, and sure enough, the comments were far better. I was able to approve many without editing. Some have even written back to their In2Books pen pals, and I already see more attention to detail (the shift key is for more than just filling out a rectangular keyboard!).

Sometimes it is frustrating to teach and teach, wondering if it is really making a difference. Today was a pleasant reminder that the hard (and sometimes painful) work pays off.

As a side note, I'm also able to bring the students to the lab, where they log on, follow a link to my blog, and follow the directions on my blog. The only verbal direction I give is, "Log on and go to our blog." This frees up so much time for things like editing and specialized instruction. If only my students had laptops in their desks at all times...

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?