1/17/08
I am excited to be tackling the topic of technology within the classroom. My first thought was how I can apply some of our assignments to my current job, specifically creating a web page. In the elementary school’s I work in I primarily teach 4th grade. I facilitate a 10 session prevention program focusing on life skills, such as decision making, friendship, feelings, saying no, and bullying. We meet once a week for ten weeks to discuss the above mentioned topics and ask the students to complete a homework assignment with their parents to hopefully bring about conversation about the topic for that class. I began to imagine how an interactive website would be great for the students and parents in a couple of different ways. First with the students, this would be a great way to boost some of the lessons for the remainder of the week until we meet again. For example the kids might be able to leave each other compliments in an electronic mailbox. Second, since this is only a 10 week program it would be a great opportunity for students to follow up and review the material after our time together is up. Perhaps there could be an “ask the prevention teacher” section where the kids could post questions, with a response from myself within the week. That could be going on during the program and after. In regards to the parents interaction with the website, it could allow them to see what lessons we are working on, as well as, interact with their children at home with some of the activities. Parents could also participate in the “ask the prevention teacher”. There is often not enough communication between the teacher and parent in these short term programs, so that would perhaps assist in that. Just some ideas that came to me after the first night of class.
