Blog Post #10

 What can we learn from Mrs. Cassidy?


There are so many things we can learn from Mrs. Cassidy. The first thing I learned automatically is how passionate she is about technology in the classroom. Mrs. Cassidy talks about technology and how she got into it. She says technology is not going away, and that we have to change because the world is constantly changing around us. She thinks every teacher should be technology literate. Mrs. Cassidy believes teachers who don't use technology in their classroom are handicapping their students by not taking advantage of tools. We need to keep up with what is happening with new tools. In order to keep up, we need to direct our own personal network. We have to keep learning, and find a way that works for us. Mrs. Cassidy says that we should start with what we're interested in. For example, if a person likes to write, then they should start by blogging. If a person likes to take pictures, then they should start with Flickr and so on.

Mrs. Cassidy tells how she started with technology. She had a classroom years ago that only had 5 laptops. Well, she wanted to find a way to let the students use them within the class. She started to figure out how to make webpages which lead to her blogging. Now, Mrs. Cassidy has a classroom blog. She likes blogs because of the audience factor. Before she allows her students to use technology in the classroom, she sends out a form to parents. The form asks the parent's permission to allow their child to use computers. She protects her student's identity by only posting their first names, so you cannot match a name with a picture. Mrs. Cassidy uses her student's blogs as online portfolio of their work. She says it also helps with their writing process. The kids love it. They particularly love that the whole world can see it and the feedback they get. Students love seeing how many times people have viewed their page, and what they have written. Mrs. Cassidy and her students also communicate with people who comment on their blogs through Skype, so they are getting writing, video and audio lessons.

I may use a few of Mrs. Cassidy's techniques in my class one day. I like the idea of a class blog, and being able to communicate with people using different tools. I also like the idea of sending out permission forms to the parents because you don't want to have any problems with any of the parents or students. This is a good idea just in case a student has some reason, be it religious, culture or whatever as to why they can't be online. Mrs. Cassidy has many other good ideas for her classroom, and her students seem to love them. Check out this video of her students talking about technology in the classroom.