Web 2.0

This class is coming quickly to an end. I enjoyed getting to know everyone. This class has been challenging at times, at least for me it has been. I did learn a lot about blogs, geotagging, podcasts, and wikis. It has been a great learning experience. I would have to say that I have truly been immersed in technology. I'm not so sure I like being 'immersed' in it, but I did gain knowledge about it by having done so. I can now see how these once foreign concepts can fit into an educational setting. 

Best wishes for a fantastic 2012-2013 school year! I hope everything goes great for everyone! 

It is that time of year again when summer 'ends' at least for the people in education. I am taking on a new role this school term. They have asked me to run one our computer labs. It is bitter sweet. I will hate to leave my small room where I helped those that were struggling. However, this begins a new chapter hopefully full of bigger and better things yet to come. I know that God has a plan. I felt lead to go into the Lesley program since the first time I pulled up the flier on my email sitting inside that little room of mine.
It all started four years ago when I decided two weeks before school started to resign from a full time teaching position that I had for 10 years. Why? I had remarried, relocated, and my children could not play sports where we lived because they went to school in another district. So, I decided to start them in the district where we had moved so they could play the sports and live closer to the school they attended. In making this decision I decided that I would make the move too. I couldn't bare the thought of being so far from them. So, like I said earlier, two weeks before school I resigned without a job insight. Keep in mind, the economy was in shambles and the job market looked bleak. Something kept telling me it was going to be okay, just go. I didn't know what I was going to do. I was out of work for just one day and the principal from the same school my children would attend called me said she heard I was looking for a job. All I can say is 'God is good'! She offered me a part-time position because that was all she had available. I gladly accepted. For the past three years I've done intervention work with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders who are struggling with reading, social studies, math, and writing. Now it is time for a new chapter....the computer lab.

As I watch my children on their tablets, I worry. As we've gone through all of these classes and talked about how technology is affecting the people who use it, I can see how it is affecting my own children. I don't like how it seems to control them. I've made some changes in our household as far the amount of time spent on any given device. These tablets quickly became the last thing they put down at night and the first thing they picked up in the morning. Not anymore.....this household will NOT be taken over by technology. Call me old fashioned, but I like the good ole days when children knew what it meant to work the land. We have had the kids setting up the round pen for the horses, picking up rocks, and we've thrown in a little fishing and playing horseshoes. I believe taking them away from the technology is the best thing we could do for them. They need to learn what it means to play outside again. I sure do miss the good ole days!