Thing 2 First Post

I haven't started a blog because I didn't think I'd have time to keep it up to date! Now, I'll have to see if I can!

I recently read an article about technology in the classroom. The featured school was doing really cool things with ipods and cell phones. Since my schools normally ban these things, I think it may be more realistic for me to start with other tools like blogs and wikis. I have done projects with students where they create the review tools for tests. Changing something like that to a wiki would be an easy and logical place to start.

Because I teach middle school students Spanish, incorporating technology would be a way to add some interest to say, conjugating verbs. I have shared web addresses with students that have games available to practice and alternate explanations for grammar points. I'm always willing to admit that someone else may be better able to explain something than I.

Students have found Google translator on their own! The problem with that is they are not always careful about the information they input and so the answer doesn't come out quite right. I've likened it to using a calculator. If the answer you get is "way off" you might recheck your input. Unfortunately, the answer from the translator is either not "way off" or they just don't have enough knowledge to recognize that it is not correct. They always feel so cheated when the answer is wrong!

Speaking of calculators, I've been teaching long enough (19 years) that they were one of the first technologies I got to use with my students. A 5th grade student came up to me many years ago and asked a simple question, like "What is 73-39?" I answered, "34", then asked, "You have a calculator in your hand, why didn't you just use that?" "Oh, I did," she replied, "But I wanted to make sure it was right!" Now that I teach middle schoolers, I seldom worry that they'll think I'm the source of all knowledge!