BLOGSVILLE, Ontario

I have not consider myself a very technologically fluent person before. I can't fix my computer when the screen freezes black (unless you count holding the power button down until it shuts off), I get really frusterated programing simple software, and I tend not to buy new techy gadgets unless it is required of me for some reason. Then I took this tech-skills test, and I was forced to reflect. By no means did I score as a computer wiz, but it did highlight for me that I have, and do, use technology in a lot of areas of my life that are not always directly evident. Even so far in my teaching experience at my PDS site, I have made use of technology for almost every lesson in some manner or other, even if it is just typing out my lesson plan. I found it saved me a lot of time working from my previous days lesson when finalizing a new plan, cutting and pasting rather than creating an entirley new document. And while I did not have my student work directly with computers during more than two activities, I did use printed hand-outs, photo-copied sheets, and portable CD players on a daily basis. I use my personal computer daily, my cell phone, my television, my camera, so it seems the more I think about it the more obvious it becomes that I am quite capable of speaking tech to quite a considerable degree.
After completing my tech-skills survey I have also begun to realize that I have some pretty specific goals in mind as to where I want to go with technology in my classroom. With particular attention paid to Planning and Designing Learning Environments, I can identify the area under the Student Teaching column as an opportunity for me to develope furthur as a teacher in training. The more familiar I become with the available technologies I have to incorporate into my daily lessons, the better able I will be to make full use of those technologies. It is my hope that in this course I will develope a comprehensive log of what I have at my fingertips and how to encorporate it into my teaching. I am excited to weave technology throughout the curriculum areas in a way that does not keep it as an exclussive subject. I hope to keep up with the ever changing technologies that my students will be exposed to and to know how to use it and how to teach them to use it. If my students will be technology natives I must keep my passport valid and up to date.

I have never blogged officially before...although I think that keeping up with Facebook is really just a blog. I think that it is great we are learning how to make a 'real' blog because this is what our students will be doing and it is necessary for us to at least keep up to date with what they will be doing online. I am not sure how much I will use it outside of requirements for this course though. I think it is really quite a strange concept to keep other people informed as to what we will be or have been up to, and perhaps even more bizzare to be reading up on what other people have done. I hate that technology is replacing real-time contact and personal contact in ourlives, yet at the same time it is neat to be able to communicate with people around the world.

I have only taught in Kindergarten, Grade one, and with some special classess such as ABLE and LD. None of these classess really have beed appropriate for extenssive technology integration so far but in my next placement I am looking forward to teaching Grade six and integrated a lot of technology and media comunication lessons.

Horray for blogging.....