A blog of note

David Warlick spoke in his blog about a blog and teacher he finds inspirational, so I thought I'd take a look at the blog. Konrad Glogowski is a PhD candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto and writes about his experiences and the development of his ideas about blogging with his students. I was especially struck by how his ideas about his own role as "teacher" have changed as he continues to have his students work with blogs. Konrad's blog is well worth visiting.

A small success!

So I've been putting the daily assignment on the class web page for at least one semester now and the students have gotten into the habit of coming into the classroom and going straight to the computers to look at it. Usually they copy the assignment directly into their notebooks and start working on their own as others arrive. I also have numerous activities posted that can be done at any time. It has always been my intention that students be able to access and do the activities from home if they have an Internet connection as a means of keeping students involved in classroom activities even when they're absent. This morning, Alejandro arrived and handed me two assignments that he did from home, even though he has been absent for 3 days. Not only had he printed out all of the daily assignments, he had printed out the actual tasks and made his own "worksheets" to fill in. Needless to say, I was very pleased to see that at least one of my students made use of the opportunity to access the class from home even though he was not feeling well.

Using Garage Band to burn vocabulary CDs

Reading teacher Delondra Williams reports about using Garage Band to create vocabulary CDs for her students on her so very readable and interesting blog Adventures of an Urban Reading Teacher. She reports that her adult students were "really pleased" to get them. PC users can use the free Audacity program to do the same thing.

Recruiting for new teachers on Second Life

Turns out that the Kansas Department of Education has launched an effort to recruit teachers online via Second Life, the virtual world created by Linden Labs. According to their blog at http://kansasteachingjobs.blogspot.com/ The Kansas Recruitment and Retention Program will be hosting the first statewide virtual career fair for individuals interested in learning more about teaching in Kansas."

Do you think that teachers recruited through a virtual career fair on Second Life might be more likely to consider using technology in their teaching?