Web 2.0 Workshop Reflections

In the past 3 days I have learned more in my Web 2.0 workshop than I thought was humanly possible.

I have learned:

1. that a de.ici.ous account works better than bookmarking personally because I can see my saved bookmarks on any computer, on any browser
2. that a wiki would be a better way to organize my college group's cookie bakes because we wouldn't have to read 50 million e-mails :)
   
3. that wikipedia is a source that gets changed, so not all people allow it as a resource

I would like to learn:

1. how to use Flickr
   

Working Outside of the Home

I am the proud mother of a one year old boy. I am also very excited, and proud, that I am a teacher. I enjoy the fact that I get weekends, holidays, 2 months in the summer, and for the most part, nights to spend with my family. It is a lot of work to balance both your jobs at home and at "work," but it can be done and done well.

Because I teach in my district, I will be able to keep close tabs on my child. I will know his teachers and know when his homework did not get completed. He will be able to get a hug from me when he gets hurt at school.

Some people may feel that I do not love my child if I am willing to "let someone else raise him." I feel that my sitter is like a third parent. She has raised many children, and now I'm fortunate to have her help me to raise mine.

Blogs in my School

Blogs can be a great addition to your classroom. When working with older students, I find that they get bored very quickly if you use lecturing as your only teaching method. Students need to be instructed in a variety of ways. Blogs can be one of these ways.

I would probably give my students a deeper-level question to blog on. They would be required to write with correct grammar so that their English skills would be used. We would have previously viewed other people's blogs to see what good and bad examples of blogging were. I would focus on higher level thinking when creating and commenting on a blog.

I tend to error on the side of caution, so I don't see myself starting this the first week of school. I'm excited to learn about it and teach it to teachers and students alike. I see that blogging could potentially cause problems, so time needs to be spent on setting up things such as student safety ahead of time. I hope that my students would get a positive experience from blogging, but I realize that it could very easily become a bad experience.

Becky

Square vs. Round

I agree with a lot of David's comments. The world is constantly changing. Our students seem to be willing to change sooner than the teachers. The teachers' main goal is to reach their students. This means that what worked 5 to 10 years ago may not work today. Teachers need to be willing to change their teaching styles so that they can continually reach those students year after year. A teacher that uses Web 2.0 needs to know how to safely teach it to students. They need to be willing to teach it to other teachers so that they too can connect with their students. My school is private, so we really have to focus on safety. So far we have not used Web 2.0, but I can see that it is definitely here to stay.