Saturday, August 7, 2010

And so it all begins

Well I have finally decided to jump into the world of blogging and I am very nervous yet excited about my new adventure.  First let me tell you a little bit about myself.

I have taught for 21 years, and I started in special education in a self-contained resource room in Missouri.  When my family moved back to OH, I started teaching in Dublin.  I met Bill from Literate Lives and we started team teaching, which lasted 9 years including 7 years in fifth grade that is where I currently am teaching.  I have been friends with Bill and Karen, Franki and Mary Lee at A Year of Reading  and that is where I learned about blogs.  Without their encouragement and persistence I am sure that I would not have leapt into the world of blogging.

As far as technology, for many years, I was the last one to try anything new with technology.  Actually I avoided the whole idea of technology after my tech specialist told me the fans on the roof interfered with my wireless signal. However, technology became a part of my school day last year because I was curious when I heard so many of my students talking about WIKIS, photo booth, I movies, GarageBand, and I Tunes etc.

My journey started last September with WIKIS and continued with joining a professional book club in the winter focusing on Troy Hicks' book The Digital Writing Workshop. After reading this book and listening to the discussions, I decided I wanted to really push my technology learning and I started to investigate iPod Touches.  Last spring, I wrote a Dublin City Schools grant for a class set of iPod Touches and got 25 iPods for my class to use this fall. Every student in my class will have access to their own iPod to use at school and home.

This summer I have explored and researched how to begin to use iPods in my classroom. I plan on writing about my journey with iPods including the good, the bad and the ugly.

12 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your first post, Maria!! So glad you took the leap. I will enjoy following your progress with tech this year!

    So proud of you for leaving your comfort zone. You will be great!

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  2. Glad I get to be your first comment! Congratulations, it's about time, now the fun begins.

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  3. Yippeee! Can't wait to read more.

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  4. Nice job, Maria! Now I can really keep tabs on you, even though I am just around the corner. Looking forward to hearing about all your new adventures!

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  5. Congratulations! Maybe you will inspire me to go beyond a class blog! Cannot wait to read about your tech adventures with kids.

    Andrea

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  6. Congrats - I'm excited to read about your learning and thinking!

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  7. Welcome!! Looking forward to hearing more about your tech journey.

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  8. Welcome to the conversation! It's never too late!!

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  9. Thanks everyone for your kind words and support. I am really excited to start this journey!

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  10. Maria,
    I am so thrilled to be able to follow your blog about your adventures in the classroom with technology. We are in the midst of becoming a 1 to 1 laptop school in the next couple of years - it's very exciting. The ever rapid changes in technology and educational applications keep me coming back each year.
    You will have a great year!
    Kathy Pinson

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  11. Maria-
    Welcome! Cant wait read about your experiences in the classroom!

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  12. I will be interested to see if learning will become more interaactive, esp for kids with ADD. How will you handle the distractions of utube,facebook,games etc when theyrjust a click away? The potential is there to remake edication for thebetter.glad ur accepting the challenge! We need more educattors like you!

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