Professional Blogging

In this assignment, we were to visit http://attheteachersdesk.com and read several of the post made by teachers. After reading them, we were to compile our thoughts on five of the posts we read.

The first of the five I read was done by William Chamberlain. It was titled "Helping Students Create Positive Digital Portfolios." In this post, he discussed the violence we now have in our society with young kids. He expressed a strong need to help them better showcase the positive experiences that our kids have today. Examples that he gave in doing this was by the usage of digital content being created and saved through writing, audio, and video. By doing this, they can gain positive self identity.

The second post was also by William Chamberlain. This one was titled "Using Skype to Connect with Others." In this post, he places emphasis on using skype to communicate with other classrooms from around our world. He feels that this provides an opportunity for students to see similarities and differences among themselves. It also provides them with a huge opportunity to learn about others. I agree with his thoughts and opinions on both of his posts. Students do need to channel more positive experiences and then be able to showcase them. What a difference that would make on our society if we could focus more on the positive rather than all of the negative. I love the idea of the skyping. I hope to incorporate this into my own classroom soon.

The third post I read was my teachernz. He wrote briefly on how he did not like to record his voice by audio. However, he does it to be an example to his students and show them that you can conquer your fears and dislikes. How can we expect them to achieve this goal if we do not create that model image for them? I really agree with him on this subject matter. I am a firm believer of being an example to the students and not expecting more out of them than we are willing to give ourselves.

The fourth post was done by Jarrod Lamshed and he spoke on using technology to communicate with our parents. He expressed his thoughts on the positive and negative on different ways to communicate. Communication with the parents is a huge factor in our kid's education success. Yet, it can sometimes be the most difficult task of teaching. He shared how the phone calling and note writing that we have always used in the past is no longer the most accessible way to reach our parents. Many times you have to leave a message and then play the game of "phone tag." As we all know, notes do not always reach their destinations! He tried e-mail and twitter, but found many parents do not check it often and in time. His most success has come through face book. Parents seem to check it regularly and it was the most successful route for him. I loved his last point in his post. He states that if we continue to have the mind set of "We have NEVER done it that way" or "We have ALWAYS done it this way," then how can we get anywhere? He poses the question of "Where would we be if we do things the same way all of the time?" I completely agree with him. Change is necessary if we want to grow as professionals and as individuals.

The last post I read was again done by William Chamberlain. He spoke on the usage of technology in the classrooms. He describes his own passion for it and feels it is necessary for other classroom teachers to use it to the fullest ability. He shares his thoughts of wondering if it is indeed necessary, or is he just pushing his passion for it onto others. He poses the question of "Are we pushing it, or are we just catching up to today's times?" I have to say I feel like it a little of both. I do feel that we need to catch up with today's young society and incorporate technology. However, I feel that they should also still have other aspects of styles of teaching incorporated. A good balance is needed. We sometimes can change so fast, we go to the extreme with it.

I enjoyed reading all of my posts and really got some interesting thoughts from them. I gained some ideas to incorporate into my own teaching profession. I love the professional blogging. I feel it gives you insight into other's thoughts and ways of education. It is a true learning experience to get feedback from other co-teachers. It creates a perfect way to communicate and share with others who may have similar concerns and can help you work through them. I encourage each teacher to get plugged in to a professional blog. This way they are able to learn from the blog posts of others and then be able to share their knowledge as well. It is the perfect way to always have a mentor at hand, and at the same time be a mentor to others.