Blog Assignment #11

Little Kids...Big Potential is the perfect way to describe the students in this video. These first graders from Canada are doing more with technology than I did before this class. Their video, First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class, shows the activities they do with technology throughout the year, like blogs, Nintendo DS's, wikis, commenting, and videos. Their teacher, Ms. Cassidy, educates them on everything they do. This video shows the exposure to technology that many first graders get around the world. This helps me to know how important it is to stay updated on new technology, and how much I need to keep up the skills I already have. Technology is definitely a part of life, and exposing students at a young age is the right thing to do because they will never be able to escape it. If they start building skills now then it will do nothing but help these skill grow for the future.

Our professor, Dr. Strange, had a Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy about her teaching strategies and how she became big on doing technology with her students.She explained at the beginning that her school had computers but they weren’t able to put any programs on them. She wanted to make use of the computers which started her technology journey.Through her journey, she was able to get some funding through the government which help a lot.
One thing about Ms. Cassidy’s process that I liked is the form she explains. It is a form that explains to the parents that they students will be working with technology and some of their work is going on the internet. This is definitely very appropriate because there are so many creeps out there that teachers must protect their students from. Dr. Strange asks how the parents react to the online work of the students and Ms. Cassidy says that the parents really like it because they get to keep up with their child’s work and their progress throughout the year and she uses it as an electronic portfolio. The viewers also find out how blogging helps her students. She explains that it improves their writing because they know that people are viewing their blogs and makes them want to write better. The college in the area where Ms. Cassidy teaches comments on her students’ blogs weekly and helps bring out writing skills.
Ms. Cassidy helped show me how to be a technology oriented educator for the future. She showed me that a little determination and drive will help you accomplish anything you want to in your classroom. I know I’m going to try and incorporate a lot of technology in my future classroom because I want my students to be successful with technology when the time comes for them to us it in their future careers.