Blog Assignment #11

Kathy Cassidy

Kathy Cassidy is a first grade teacher in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. She is a big proponent of technology in the classroom. The students of her class use blogs, internet videos, Skype, and other tools. Ms. Cassidy, herself, uses twitter to connect with other educators. The technique I would be most probable to use is blogging. As a social science teacher, I think the blog is a way to allow all students to share their understanding of information or even get a better understanding from viewing a different perspective other than the teacher's. It's hard to imagine encountering any problems when making plans, which is what makes plans perfect. Yet, I would guess that it would be more likely to run into trouble with an administration that would not want teachers using class blogs. Ms. Cassidy mentioned that she has had administrators that were not in direct favor of her using technology, but they were not all out against it. So I would hope that would be the worst case scenario. In a situation such as that, I'm not sure what would be the best thing for the teacher to do other than abide by the wishes of the administration if that asked teachers not to use certain tech tools. I would definitely like to keep a job as long as I'm not asked to do anything wrong. So I would just say hope for the best under those circumstances. However, if I am allowed to use blogs, I think the student can give a more honest perspective about the history they study. I think it will allow better questions to be answered such as, what parts of history are more important to students, what parts of history are more relative to students, and many other questions of this nature. This will create the conversation for educators to evaluate the reasoning behind the eras and figures that are highlighted in the classroom. This will help to focus education on what actually makes a difference in the makeup of a student.