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Showing posts from August, 2017

Mod 3: An Overabundance of Chalboards: Where are the netizens?

Coming back to teaching in the States has been in some ways very relieving. Youtube isn't blocked. I can access my g-mail. Internet speeds are fast. And I am no longer covered in chalk. If you take a look at the picture you will notice lots of things, but I want to focus on the large green monstrosity in the center of the image. China has one of the largest populations on the planet. It also has some of the most cell phone dependent people I have met in my life. Not a day went by where I didn't witness someone run into something or someone, trip, or fall because of their focus and dedication to whatever was happening on their phone. So how come a country with billions of people and a culture full of dedicated cell phone users has no technology in their classrooms? Now that isn't true of every school or every classroom. The universities I taught in had projectors and occasionally internet access. Training schools are also well equipped. For the most part, however, most o

Using Blogs in the Classroom to Meet Learning Standards

Mod 2: Joining the Blogosphere It has been more than three years since I taught under the Common Core. Syncing back up has been a concern of mine as I rejoin the NYS K-12 TESOL gig. Not only am I jumping back into the Common Core, I am also jumping into early elementary, something I've not done full time before. Kindergarten and first grade are a bit intimidating but I am looking forward to the challenge. One of the things I have always wanted to do with young learners is to blog and Tweet. Blogging has many benefits. In my opinion, having younger students blog gives them ownership over their learning, something they may not generally have at their level when so much is decided for them. Mrs.Davison is a Kindergarten teacher who is blogging and tweeting with her class. She has some neat ideas about how to use blogs in the classroom. She uses part of her blog to track where visitors are signing on from and has met curriculum goals like geography with her blog. Integrating an