Blog post 11

FIRST GRADERS IN MS. CASSIDY'S CLASS

I really enjoyed watching Ms. Cassidy's students talk about what they have learned in her classroom. Ms. Cassidy taught her first graders how to use the internet and blog. The first graders in her class have shown me how helpful blogging can be to teachers and students. The class blog allowed the students to gain confidence in their writing. One of the students in the video said that his writing gets better and better every time that he writes on the blog. Another great benefit that I leaned about the students' blogging is that their parents and family can see the blog. Parents are able to view their students’ progress in the class by logging on to the blog and viewing their child’s work. Blogging also allows students to connect with other people around the world. These people can leave comments on the students' blog to help them improve their writing.
Ms. Cassidy’s approach to technology is outstanding. She taught her first grade students about wikis, internet safety, how to use a blog, and Skype. She also taught her students how to find out about things that they did not know about by using wikis. The students in her class used wikis to collaborate with other people online. The students in her class created a wiki about traditions and got responses from other people to answer their questions. Ms. Cassidy is not afraid to allow her students to use the internet because she taught them internet rules and guideline that they must follow. She tries to stay current with technology so her students will not get left behind. The video has taught me a lot of good techniques that I can use in my future classroom. One technique that stood out the most to me was teaching digital etiquette. I think that all teachers should teach their students how to comment on others' blogs and what are appropriate and inappropriate things to write online. She teaches her students ways to keep themselves safe online and websites that are appropriate for them to visit. I believe that if I do not teach my students digital etiquette then it could lead to them saying inappropriate things to others and visiting unapproved sites. I would address these issues by talking to the students and letting them know what is appropriate to say online and what are appropriate sites that they are allowed to visit. If the students continued to visit those sites; I would maybe ban them from the computer for a while or send a letter to their parents. One of the benefits of teaching good digital etiquettes is that no student would get their feelings hurt because a classmate left a mean comment on their page.
Skype interview
Ms. Cassidy gives useful information to students in her Skype interview. She believes that there are a lot of great tools online and teachers would be handicapping their students if they did not use them. She believes that teachers need to use some form of technology in their classrooms to help students keep up with the changes of the world. Ms. Cassidy also tells us that all technology is not for everyone and that we should find a form of technology that interests us. Sites that interest us can help put us in contact with others that share the same interests as us. Connecting with other can help us create our own personal learning network.