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With all the advancements in technology and my interest in finding all the latest tools to use in my personal and professional life, it is hard to believe this is my first blog post! Please bear with me as I try to figure it all out as I embark on this new journey. I was asked to create this blog as a part of a graduate course I'm taking to complete my Master's Degree, and I'm excited to figure out what this has to offer.
I also have two Boston Terriers. Duke is named after the best sports team in the world - the Duke Blue Devils! He is 11 years old. We recently got Mackenzie, who is almost 7 months old and is a little spitfire.
My husband, Kevin, and I have been married for 11 years. He works at a dairy factory and enjoys buying and selling antiques on the side.
Personally, I am a sports fanatic, and enjoy watching football, basketball, and baseball. I used to play basketball in high school and college before tearing my ACL. I now run almost every day to stay fit. Besides spending time with my family and dogs, I enjoy reading. It's a great escape from some of life's daily struggles. And yes, I am probably the most obsessive, loyal Duke fan in the country. I've been following Coach K and those boys in blue since I was 11 years old when the likes of Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner graced the hardwood at Cameron Indoor.
Professionally, I am a special education teacher at Cocalico School District. I teach 7th and 8th grade Direct Instruction Writing. I have taught at Cocalico since 2002 after working in the Lower Dauphin School District for one year after graduation. I am currently on sabbatical and am enjoying every minute of it. I needed this time to refresh and regroup, spend time just being a mom, and pursue my Master's Degree.
I hope to use this blog to share various ways to incorporate technology, understand how to overcome some of the struggles with using technology in the classroom, and explore how technology can make an impact in my classroom.
To close this first post, I wanted to share one of my favorite educational blogs. Edutopia has some great insights about technology and many other school-related issues.
Here's a link to their Technology section: http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration
See you soon!
~Mandy
Thoughts on Blogging:
ReplyDeleteIt's been five days since my initial blog post, and I've had some time to reflect and gather my thoughts on the process and benefits of blogging. I have taken some time to explore various blogs, particularly blogs from on Edutopia.org, and found many of the articles to be enlightening. I also found myself relating to various aspects discussed on these blogs, and it felt refreshing to know I am not alone in my struggles and concerns with education. In terms of using blogs to help guide my teaching, the biggest concern I have is the unbelievable amount of information that is out there to explore. How do I find time to research and review these blogs? Which ones are the most beneficial? Perhaps the answer to these questions can be found in the use of RSS feeds. I recently created an account on theoldreader.com and subscribed to three educational blogs. I like the layout of Old Reader and my subscriptions keep me up to date on the latest blogs with all of the information coming to one spot. Again, I'm fairly new to using RSS feeds on a personal level, but I can already see the benefits. Throughout my graduate course, I will continue to explore the use of RSS feeds on a professional level, specifically how I can use them with my students.
The other concern I have with blogs is indirectly related to the enormous amount of blog posts that are out there - how do you get in to a valuable discussion on a blog? I read and responded to two blogs on Edutopia this past week, and not many people commented. This is probably due to the fact that there is just so much information out there. I'm sure the popular blogs can create great discussions, but there are also some "diamonds in the rough" that warrant some visits and valuable input.
Overall, I'd say the first week was an intriguing adventure. I'm sure next week will bring about new insights and more questions!
~Mandy
Hello:
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you are in our class! Thanks for sharing.!
Eleanne
Hi Mandy
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the link to Eutopia. I went there and found blogs such as MakeIthappen and LifeAfterCollege, which are definitely blogs that would be extremely helpful in my classroom.
A word of advice about those passwords: You set them up and use their first initial and last name for the login and their birthdates for the password. You write them in your planning book next to their names. This way, you issue the passwords each time and you will always remember each one. All you need to know is their first initial, last name, birthdate. I use to run into this problem, until I started issuing the login and passwords myself.
Great ideas you shared in your blog.