literacy and technology

“Blogs are real world writing” ~ this is important for kids who are writing for an audience!

Blogging is a useful tool for anyone.  Why because it is a type of on-line journal to share one another’s thoughts and input about a certain topic.  For example, my husband loves dirtbiking and mountainbiking.  He likes to read other peoples advice of where they like to go and ride trails.  He enjoy’s learning about others adventures with their bikes.  Where great trails are as well as problems they may have had with a bike.  He doesn’t have his own blog but likes exploring other people’s blogs. 

I created my first blog in in Dr. Frye’s spring class and consider it a great place to journal and reflect.  During the class I found it extremely useful to see what others said about a certain topic or article.  I also enjoyed seeing how different people presented a lesson or material  in their classroom.  For me blogging would be a great tool to use in the classroom to assist my parents.  I could share various things occuring within the classroom as well as share pictures with parents.  Children could respond about a certain book that we have read or students could showcase their writings and then respond to one another providing feedback.  This is a great for children to build confidence because they are sharing with real people.   This past year my students published writing samples.  We hung them in the hall, read them to other classes, posted them on our class webpage, etc.  Students are intrigued to do better when they know the purpose of the assignment and that it is for an audience.  Blogging is a great way to showcase work and work in progress to obtain feedback. 

Another way blogging would be helpful is to a new teacher.  I recall my first year of teaching.  My mentor was great and I know that I exhausted her with questions and concerns.  I read so many books about first year teachers but it would have been cool to blog about my experiences and to read another first year or second year (someone who had survived) teacher’s blog.   

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!  To me blogging is a great way to share as we are evolving writers.  The greatest way to become even better at something is to practice it.  How else are we going to share our thoughts unless we write.  Blogging allows to be writers daily.  We no longer have to sit down with a pen and journal to write our thoughts about the day but now we can practice daily but blogging, tweeting, etc. Having a place to reflect about our lesson plans is a great way to improve our teaching style.  When we write we are forced to recall and plan for the future.  Blogging is a great way for teachers and educators to collaborate to assist one another in our teaching abilities!

If pixels

on a screen help the children in your

life connect with reading and writing,

why not use them?

                         From Blog Article by Anastasia Suen

As a first grade teacher, My definition of literacy is the ability to use language to communicate through reading and writing.  I believe language is a prerequisite to literacy because children learn sounds, letters and how to speak from listening to others.  After reading Leu’s article my view of literacy has changed like Leu I believe that literacy evolves daily.   Leu says that literacy is no longer an end point to be achieved but rather an ongoing learning experience.  As a 21st century educator I reflect on how this applies to my classroom.  Literacy is the focus of my classroom.  Why? Because as a first grade teacher my focus is on getting my students to read and write.   Students gain tools in my classroom that are needed to continue learning throughout life.  Like Leu says students must know how to read and write in order to survive in our world where technology is the way to communicate, work and live.  Technology has made our lives so much easier but with it comes new learning challenges and experiences.  With it also comes threats to the education realm as most teachers are not abreast on the latest technologies.  However it is important for our students to learn these things that are vital to them competing in our global economy today. 

Technology is anything that you can use to do a job more effectively.  Like our classmate said the use of a tool to complete the task of eating.  I had never looked at the definition of technology in this way.  I have always believed that technology is the use of a computer, camera, video camera, cell phone, etc.  However it makes since that technology can be defined as anything that is used as a tool. 

To me literacy is a pre-requisite to technology.  Understanding how to communicate and complete simple tasks is key in learning to use a computer or the internet.  Prior to this class my view of technology was computers, cell phones, digital cameras, etc.  However after our time of discussion I believe that technology is anything that is a tool to make your life easier.  There are so many new technologies available that it is overwhelming for someone such as I to understand and fathom some of the recent changes and findings. 

In my classroom technology is used in many ways.  Of course we use the utensils of a paper and pencil daily in my first grade classroom. In first grade my kids are beginning to learn to create powerpoints create word documents and complete some photo stories.  Students are also recording books and taking pictures with digital cameras.  There are so many more ways that I want to implement more communicative technologies in the upcoming year through the use of blogs and possibly twitter as well as our school webpage. 

I look forward to progressing as I plan how to use this information in the upcoming year in my classroom as well as a way to make my life easier in communicating with my parents and colleagues.