Me+and+Technology

Me and Technology: Current Uses in My Classroom Before I began at MSU, I really thought that I was up-to-date in technology. I taught my students how to use all of the MicroSoft programs, and they did projects using each of these. I also use my Smart Board on a daily basis, bringing in games and other fun stuff to help my students learn. Boy have my eyes been opened! There is so much out there I didn't know about. My team decided to use websites this year. We each developed our own pages. I thought I was being awesome by attaching a chat room to my site. But I have so much more to incorporate into my classroom.

I used [|www.weebly.com] to develop my class website. Here is a screen shot of my classroom website my students use to access class information:



One of the best features of my website is the easy access my students have to a chat room. We have scheduled meeting times where students or parents can log on to the chat room and ask questions about class work or even check up on a student's behavior for the week. I love this tool and plan to continue using it in my classroom. It has been a beneficial tool for parent communication. It is so difficult to make time for phone calls when you have 150 students. This allows parents to come to me and takes the pressure off! To incorporate a safe chat room to your site, visit [].

Another tool I have been using in my classroom is called Collaborize Classroom. This is a blog-type site that is teacher guided. I really like this because I can pose questions to my students, and then they have control over where the conversation goes! They can answer polls, multiple choice questions, true/false questions and more. It allows for critical thinking and permits my shy students to become actively involved in classroom discussions. Often times these students have valuable information to add but do not feel comfortable saying it in class. I think this also helps my students who require more processing time. They have all the time they need (relatively) outside of the class. It allows them to take the time they need to process information and still respond to the classroom conversations. Often times theses students, too, have valuable information to share and cannot express themselves in the classroom setting. To create your own Collaborize Classroom blog, visit [|http://www.collaborizeclassroom.com].



Here is a closer screen shot of what the students see when they go to answer a question:



These are the tools I am currently using in my own classroom. I plan to incorporate others soon including PhotoStory, Glogster, and Wiki Spaces!