I had just gotten off the phone with one of my best friends in Baltimore, and this is the 3rd consecutive day all schools have been closed due to snow. I couldn't help but think, now that I am going to be a teacher, how much re-planning and work has to go in to rearranging lessons and units to fit everything in and make up for the missed days of school. Now that we have access to so many different kinds of technology, there has to be something we can do. I'm sure the parents are ready for the kids to go back. Once the excitement of a snow day wears off and children are stuck in their homes not able to go anywhere, they are also ready to go back. Why not take this time to try to put technology to great use?

I came across a tweet from TeachPaperless:

Running snow-day student meetings viahttp://www.wiziq.com ; Very smooth interface, I'm impressed.about 2 hours ago from web
I thought this was such a great idea! You can use technology and still get lessons, worksheets, research, extra practice, etc. to your students and have them working on the material during the days they can't be in school. This way when everyone finally gets back to school, the students will still have the information fresh and ready to move forward. I think this is a great way to cut down on the time spent back tracking and reviewing material from before their snow vacation. Any teacher who would see this post can go check it out for themselves, knowing that everything should work smoothly and the site is easy to use for both students and teachers.

My First Post!

I am learning so many different uses for technology in my TPTE 486 class! I am still getting used to twitter but I am slowly getting better and developing my PLN. I have found a couple very helpful people and organizations and I hope it only gets better!

I came across a tweet from digitalnative about using devices, such as, ipods and cell phones as educational tools. Technology like this in the classroom is a great way to get students more involved in their own learning! We would simply be taking the same technology devices children are using in their daily lives and use it to enhance their education. I thought this was a great idea! I am so used to hearing the negative aspects of ipods and cell phones in school. This made me think of the phrase " if you can't beat em, join em". Why not let the children use their ipods and cell phones to supplement their learning?

I think this kind of technology can be very helpful in teaching deaf children. Technology can be used to help students practice both signing and voice skills, as well as, allowing for more individual instruction. Instead of spending all the time and energy trying to keep the students from using the cell phones and ipods for personal use, spend the same time and energy and find fun, new and creative educational activities. However, it will be a difficult task to monitoring all the students and keeping them on task.

Definitely something to think about!