Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

The day has finally come.  The day of my last summer term blog post.  Oh, if I could only tell my two-months-ago self that yes, indeed, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Or at least the first of three rest stops before the longed for exit off the grad-school highway.  Sigh, we've jumped in and there is no turning back.  Soon we will be technology champs riding the express train to employment.  Right?

Friday's class helped to ease my nerves about successfully integrating technology into the classroom.  We had a panel of five SeMAC graduates telling us their woes of grad school and the various paths that lead them to their current teaching positions.

They were all older than me, which also helped calm my nerves.  If these people that didn't grow up in the world of MySpace dictating middle school social lives and bare-bones Power Points infiltrating the classroom, but could still embrace it at a later age, I could do it too.  That being said, one day I might be on one of those panels, being that older generation that didn't grow up with having iPhones right out of the womb.  Am I going to be able to keep up with the times once I have been out of the real world for some time?

It was also a relief to hear that all the members of the panel used technology to the extent they were comfortable.  They did not feel pressured to use it in every aspect of their lesson plans- something I feared would be a common occurance.  The panel's use of technology confirmed I can adapt my levels if usage year to year, and as my school provides more and more resources to support my technology use.

I noticed that a lot of the members of the panel looked a little embarrassed when asked how much technology they used- like it wasn't as much as Jeff expected.  I often feel bad about my resistance to the amount of technology introduced to us each class, but maybe we learn so many technologies so we can find the select few that will stick with us and make our lives easier.  If we didn't have such an overwhelming array of choices, we might not find anything that we want to use!

After the panel, our cohorts got together to discuss technology.  Well, more like make impassioned speeches about our likes and dislikes.  While I felt uncomfortable at times by the tones being used, I reminded myself that these tones showed people had passion- one way or another.  People were able to voice different sides of arguments, even if those arguments did not sit well with other members of the class.  Changing our ways involves a lot of give and take, a lot of fervent discussion, and that is what we saw in Friday's class.  Another step in our journey of change.

The Oh So Knowledgeable Edubloggers

I read the EduBlog, "The Book Whisperer."  Quite honestly, I clicked on the link because it made me laugh.  I imagined someone sitting in a room with a bunch of leather-bound books and pulling down a worn and neglected copy of a Victoria era drama.  She was stroking its spine and asking, "Why are you so sad, why won't you share your stories with the good people of the library?"

When I started to read the description of the blog, I was excited to see the blog was written by a middle school English Language Arts teacher.  Ah a resource to be able to explore what I might run into in the classroom!

I appreciated the conversational tone of the post.  Instead of plugging a tool because she is paid to, she actually gave pros and cons of a product.  In the comments section, other bloggers  gave lists of good books for certain grade levels, as a supplement to her post about the Lexile Framework for Reading.

I never thought about other bloggers adding relevant information to supplement the blog.  It is like a more in depth Twitter sharing tool.  Yay for collaboration!

I also really like how her blog was hosted on a larger site that featured other edubloggers and teacher goodies.  You could read one blog, get inspired by an activity, and then search other blogs to see if there were variations of the activity.  How cool!

So many topics to explore!