Of all things you have...

With all respect, you have little to teach us in strength and toughness. And we don't envy your restless spirits. Perhaps we are happier than you? But we would like our children to go to school. Of all things you have, learning is the one we most desire for our children...
- Schoolhouse in the Clouds

We Are Our Own Greatest Teachers

This past week each student created their very own wiki within our community-shared wiki. How exciting! We are just like the creators, modifiers, editors, and contibutors of our very own Wikipedia! One of the best parts of having our very own wiki is how much we can learn from one another as educators. We are able to quickly and effectively share ideas, thoughts, and comments in order to assist our classmates. When taking this into consideration inside our own classroom, it is truly a great tool. Personally, having the desire to teach in a "high-need school," often Title 1 schools in Knox County, many classrooms have access to technology. In addition to this important asset, contrarily, many students are detrimentally behind in their literacy level. Wikis are a great source for use in the classroom to promote reading skills such as literacy in its essence, reading comprehension, editing skills, and communication through writing. Also, each student is given the opportunity to express their own individual creativity, like on the blog pages, too. With this, you have a tool to facilitate a community of learners, who are encouraging their peers and truly creating a family.

As an educator, there are many exciting ways for us to use wikis, like virtual field trips, vocabulary lists, to track individual student participation within a group project, to monitor progress, host book clubs/ discussions, choose your own adventure stories where each student contributes a different chapter, community history/ nature guide, and many other endless possibilities. 

It has been exciting thus far to look at these resources through the lens of an educator. I have used the blogger tool when I studied abroad in order to maintain communication with family and friends when calling was not necessarily accessible. The blog proved to be successful and easy to follow and exciting for my loved ones to read. It is equally as exciting brainstorming the ways we can use such resources in our own classrooms to further enthuse our students about the subjects we are learning. I am most excited about creating a community of learners, learning together, from one another. 

Learning, Reflecting, Growing...

Technology can often seem overwhelming in this day in age. There are so many different computers, templates, and resources. Though learning about technology might seem intimidating at first, it is important to focus on how it connects us to each other, the world, and how it helps us to develop other skills like literacy, as well as continuing understanding in all academic areas.

I am so excited to begin my blog on technology and pursue further understanding of the world wide web and all the exciting tools it offers.