Texting, Texting, Texting

With the new year, I've really committed myself to becoming more of a classroom techie. I am working with our tech director on using a Moodle site for classes and using Moodle to create digital portfolios. The problem I'm having is finding the time (isn't that everyone's problem). Setting everything up is time intensive and I'm finding myself a little short on time right now. However, I'm committed to getting my classes on the Moodle site by the fourth quarter of this year. Hopefully, over the summer, I'll be able to prepare to do everything through Moodle for next year.

My title is appropriate for this year because it seems to be the way that I am keeping in touch with my students. Kids feel very comfortable texting me to ask questions. Some teachers might not like the "intrusion" the texting is in their lives, but, to be honest, it doesn't bother me at all. I get three to four texts per day from the kids and I find that, by keeping up with them and answering questions, class the next day always runs more smoothly. Kids are able to adequately prepare themselves for the next day because they are confident of what is expected.

We'll see what happens next!

Maureen

A picture is worth a thousand words!

Ever have a great discussion in class and taken some really cool notes on the board only to have to erase the notes for the next class? Or, ever have a kid absent and then he can't get the notes from the other day because they were all generated from class discussion and other kids didn't take great notes?

Today we were doing a review of the novel Frankenstein and the kids had created visuals outlining key ideas, themes, conflicts etc.. and put them up on the big Post It notes. At the end of class I went around and took pictures of each of the pages and uploaded them to my website. I plan to make a folder for each class of the pictures so they have notes to refer to... I tried to e-mail them right away, but because the pictures take up so much memory, they took a long time to text and some kids didn't have the capability of getting photos through their texts.

I'm going to poll the kids to see who found this helpful. I have a feeling it will be a number of them!

Cell Phones and Students

Ahh...the question of cell phones in school. At the start of this school year, our faculty was presented with a video in which we were challenged to find ways to better communicate with our students by adopting their communication methods. However, kids aren't supposed to have cell phones at school...how can we use something that is deemed "inappropriate"?

First off, I think we need to see cell phones not as "phones" per se, but as mini-computers. Most kids have browsing capabilities that can be quite useful when you're searching for a definition, a fact or a current event. In addition, we need to understand our consumers: teenagers. They are on the cutting edge of technology (how many of our little children are already navigating around the Internet...imagine what they will be able to do when they are 15 or 16!) and , like it or not, use their phones like we use paper and pen. If we look forward to when these kids go out into the work place, they will be required to utilize these technologies in order to be successful. Why not use the tools that they find most comfortable?

So, to start my little experiment, I decided to send texts to my students regarding upcoming assignments. I set it up through my mail program at school and made mailing lists for each class. The responses were great. Kids who might have forgotten about an assignment were reminded (and actually thanked me!) and the scores went up. I'm hoping some of the kids will post on the blog to let you know how they felt...

Next up...using the cell phone to quiz...

To Tech or Not to Tech

OK... I know that you really shouldn't use "tech" as a verb, but I was trying to be creative with the Blog name, and be a little literary at the same time. My apologies to my fellow grammar geeks... I couldn't help myself.

So, this blog will track one teacher's attempt to "go green" and "go techie" in her ELA classroom. After attending conferences on how to include tech more effectively in my classroom, I've decided to go all out and try lots of different methods.

I hope this blog will be a place where my students can come and critique (in a kind way!! = ) my blogging attempts and where my contemporaries can come to share ideas and insights that will help all of us improve our teaching.

Tech on!!

Maureen