Well, my first two posts on this blog did not really have much to do with technology in the elementary classroom, but I think they show where I am coming from this school year. It’s most important to me this year to develop a love for reading in my students while also increasing their reading skills. It is my belief that an overemphasis on testing has led our students to believe that reading has no connection to their real life. Very few fifth graders seem excited about books anymore. They are so used to just reading short, random passages and answering questions about them, that the idea of reading something longer is scary. It’s like they’re afraid that at the end of the book there will be a hideous monster that jumps out at them and threatens to eat them if they don’t answer questions about it.
My other goal this year is I to treat my students as the “digital natives” that they are by using technology whenever possible. Not using technology just for the sake of using it, but integrating it seamlessly into my lessons to help reach my students reach their goals. We spent a lot of time in the computer lab this first week. Some things we did worked well, and some did not. Instead of seeing it as a failure, we looked at it as a way to practice skills like copy/paste, typing website addresses, and saving to the home folder (even though it didn’t work).
What are your goals for the year? How can you make them happen?
The next post? …tech. I promise. :)
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