Learning Journal #2 11/29/07

I truly enjoyed having our discussion in a Socratic circle. I disagree with the teacher who mentioned that she doesn't see using this method in an 8th grade classroom. I think you absolutely can use it at least from 3rd grade on down. As we were watching the video presentation I was thinking how I could use it in my classroom. I teach 4th grade. I absolutely think they will benefit them having discussions where they can face each other as they respond critically to any issue or topic that we have in the classroom, that is happening in today's society, or a discussion that the teacher might bring to the class for discussion. The conversation might not be as intense if used in the younger primary grades as much as in an intermediate classroom, however, I think we can get some pretty good discussions going on. I like reading the book and discussing it in this Socratic circle. I'll have to tell you that I think that some of the quiet teachers need to speak up a little more because they very rarely speak (Stacey and Karen). Ha!

Learning Journal #1 11/15/07

I am absolutely excited about getting an opportunity to use technology with my students. Most teachers and librarians are now getting the opportunity to incorporate technology into their classrooms. Our librarian has been speaking to us about getting a hotmail account and then using this certain search engine through Hotmail so that our building can get a penny for every log-in we use. Sounds profitable, right? You were talking about how children nowadays are multitaskers. My daughter is struggling with our direction and instruction as parents. The child wants to do her homework in front of the television while listening to her iPod. Then she's texting like she's the pro.
She doesn't struggle with anything it just drives us nuts that she's doing all these things at the same time instead of completely focusing on one thing at one time. Most children are multitaskers and it's hard for us "older" people to understand something like that. I'm excited about this class. The book we're reading seems interesting and looks like we'll be engaged in reading. That's good because it's a pretty thick book. I'm also thankful that my blog site was also still up and running. I hope I can use it more often than I had been using it. Good luck with that, right??