College

I'll have to say that the start up of this class has been a little bumpy. The biggest hurdle I think that has been necessary to overcome is the pulling together of the bits of information relative to the assignments. In particular the due dates, but also little pieces of info that should be included for submission that are on one description but not on another. I think our cohort has done well and has banded together to communicate our questions and answers with each other. Everyone has been great about sharing, and I think this may have saved us inundating the instructor's mailbox!

The material of the class has been very useful. Already we have been exposed to many things that seem relevant and useful if put into practice in our classrooms. The introduction to these new tools is fascinating to me. This links together well for me in that I feel we are getting a technological addition to the base knowledge of the more traditional arenas for teaching provided in our two previous classes. This is not to say that the instruction in those classes has been by any means antiquated, simply that it is in a more traditional classroom setting format. The tools that we are being exposed to in this class are bringing the classroom more in line with both our and our students' real world experiences. At the same time, it has exposed me to some of the new technology that I have been hesitant to try. I thought blogging was more akin to instant messaging, but it seems more similar to myspace pages. In this context it is the creation of a teacher lead classroom medium that can be accessed beyond school hours, and by anyone who has an interest in what is going on in their child's classroom.

Using Blogs in the Classroom

Karen Park Richardson's May 2008 article "Don't Feed the Trolls" was an interesting commentary on the use of blogs for teaching civil discourse. I agree that civil discourse is an extremely important skill to teach our children. It teaches respect for others and as she said, the basis of rules for conversation within a democratic society. It used to be that conversation was carried out in person, in writing, and over the phone. Now that we have the Internet and the vastness of its connectivity for communication, the possibilities for our conversations are virtually endless. Unfortunately, being on the other side of a computer screen from the people to whom you are speaking can generate a false sense of anonymity and may lead to a lack of feeling of responsibility for our words and their effect. There was a statement that Richardson made that I did not agree with. She referred to the "spreading of gossip and innuendo, leaving mean-spirited, ugly comments in social networking sites, or posting inflammatory information" as "less dramatic abuses". I think the more this technology is used by our children, the more we will see that this isn't a lesser abuse. There are already news headlines about teen suicides related to this phenomena. It just goes to show that our children need to be instructed on how to handle this powerful tool in an appropriate and productive way. The Internet and its many tools such as blogging are important, and are becoming more so everyday. The capabilities that we have at our fingertips are staggering. We will fight to keep up, and at the same time our lives are being made richer and more streamlined with every leap forward.

An example of this is using blogging in the classroom setting such as Mr. Harbeck has done with his Math Zone blog. This is my first experience with blogging, although I am familiar with the concept. Upon logging on to Mr. Harbeck's site, I was a little overwhelmed. There were an endless selection of places to click, some took me to useful areas of the blog, others took me to what seemed like unrelated material. After navigating for a while, I got the gist of the intentions of the blog, what it was being used for, and some ideas for what I might incorporate into my classroom plans.

The classroom calendar with its potential for increasing the level of parental involvement and awareness was particularly interesting to me. As in our own adult social lives, we see that some of our friends are more responsive to letters, some to phone calls, and some to emails. I think that the possibility that we may be able to lasso in the parents who respond better to web format could do nothing but benefit students. Also, though I will be teaching at the younger grade levels, I thought that the student "chat" back and forth on how to do assignments, what was expected of them, and just general what do you think questions was extremely interesting. This encourages group efforts, collaboration, and a wonderful sense of classroom community. I also think that this links classroom assignments to students' "outside lives" in a way that makes it feel more relevant to them and to their futures. This could serve as a way to get students more motivated, and to engage them on levels that attract their interest.

My Favorite Animal

My name is Venus Lawson. I go by my middle name, Dianne.

I hope to teach elementary school, and would be happy teaching any grade K-5.

My favorite animal at the moment is my daughter's guinea pig "Lucky". She is a black and white long hair guinea pig who looks like a wig with legs. She is my favorite because of the joy that she brings to my ten year old daughter, Emily. Emily bought Lucky with her birthday money. She paid her cousin's next door neighbor ten whole dollars. We've had her for two and a half months which makes her about five months old now. Just this weekend we went to the store and upgraded Lucky's home because she was outgrowing her old space.

I hope you can see the picture I have attached. Unfortunately it is not of Lucky herself, but this guinea pig is very similar. Lucky's hair is not quite so long yet, but I anticipate it will be before we know it! For the time being her hair is at its adorable awkward stage and is in a perpetual mohawk.

Happy Blogging!

Dianne Lawson