Interesting Day
Today was an interesting day. It started with me reviewing for the computer skills test at the alternative school in our county. Everything was going fine, until I was walking the students to their next class. I had 5 kids in front of me and had one behind me tying his shoe – or so I thought. When the student (I’ll call him Joe) didn’t join us in a few seconds, I went looking for him. Well, he was running across the parking lot! I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was Joe’s first day. Wow, I wasn’t expecting that to happen.
After the Joe incident, the reviews went well with the other classes. Unfortunately, most of these particular students don’t have access to the Internet at home and most have rough home lives. It breaks my heart to hear these students talking about not wanting to graduate high school.
After attending the NCETC conference last week, I was excited about the new web2.0 I was learning. Today, I had reality smack me in the face. I realized that these students that were talking about not needing to graduate, absolutely meant it. I tried to convince a particular young lady that she truly did need to learn how to use a computer. But, I can tell I didn’t convince her. Oh, how I wish these students knew what I know about education.
I did have a highlight today. I spent the afternoon after school introducing Gaggle.net to the faculty. They were like kids playing. It was great! I love to see teachers excited. Even the principal was right in there with them. If you aren’t familiar with Gaggle, it’s a safe email program for students. Not only can the students email, but they can also blog, chat, and message on a message board. Great tool!
I found a wonderful wiki on using blogs in education. Weblogs in education from TeachingHacks.com explains what blogs are and gives tons of examples of using blogs across the different curriculum areas. I plan on sharing this wiki with my teachers. I’m still trying to convince more of the teachers to take a chance and try blogs and wikis in their classrooms. The problem is that the teachers already have a full plate and can’t add anything more. Been there and done that.
This weekend I had an opportunity to download a trial version of the new Microsoft Office 2007. Wow. A lot of changes. Gone are the tabs for file and edit – here are the icons. Which, for a visual person like me, is great. It did take me a bit longer to make a Powerpoint than usual, but I finally got the hang of it after playing a bit. Just like anything in life – change is good, but sometimes difficult.
My dad called tonight and said he had been reading my blog. How cool! He was definitely born in the wrong time. He’s as big a computer geek as I. I can’t even imagine what he would have done with computers if he had born more recently. Isn’t it wonderful when the older (sorry dad) generation gets involved in the new technology. It completely befuddles me to imagine what the technology will be like for my niece and nephews. Unlimited possibilities. How exciting!
Until next time ~ Danita
