FETC

My second day at FETC I sat in on a workshop about blogging, podcasting, and RSS. At first when I found out I was sitting in on this workshop I was bummed out a bit. I already had a good knowledge of blogging and enough on podcasting. I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't spend alot of time on blogging and most of the time on podcasting and RSS. I enjoyed learning the effects you can add to a podcast. I found the time spent on RSS interesting. RSS is something that I knew little about.

I had a great time at FETC. I hope I can go next year. There were many ideas I took from my two days spent there.

FETC

The first workshop that I attended was our own David Futch. His workshop was on the amazing websites that are on the internet for teachers. The best thing about these website are they are FREE!! (Every teacher loves that word) He had websites for every subject and it also included links to webquests. I have been using the mapping website all week and my student love them!

Being the nice person that David is, he let me stay for a second workshop on Promethean and Smartboards. I have never had the opportunity to use one in my classroom. I was blown away on the different things you can do with these boards. I liked that you can access the internet on the boards. I left there wishing that I had on in my classroom.

Exciting news today!!!! I have a new computer in my classroom (and its a good one)!! That brings the number up to 4. I spent 2 hours after school today rearranging my room because I did not have enough room for the new computer. But no worries, I found a spot. It actually looks better than it did before and its not dusty (because all the dust is on my new black pants...lol). Just thought I would share the news. I'm VERY excited about it.

Computer Jobs

I have 18 jobs in my classroom, one for each student. One of the jobs is a computer helper. The computer helper's main job is to exit any of the games after we have our reading centers. I usually have to show the students on Monday how to exit the games and by Wednesday they usually get it. It is hard for me to teach the kindergartners how to exit the programs because they do not know how to read or are very limited. I had a new student become the computer helper on Monday and as I was turning around to show her how to exit the programs, the games were already closed. I have three computers and each computer there is a different game. She figured out on her own to exit all three programs. I was surprised and on Tuesday I decided to sit back and watch her. Now she has very limited reading skills and she troubleshooted the games to close them. I was impressed to see a 5 year old girl trouble shoot the problem. She tried several ways to close the games and finally got it! It is obvious that my student has had experience with computers but I can't help but be impressed by her.

Sharing

This is my first semester taking graduate classes and so far I am enjoying my two classes. I think it helps that both classes are about things that I am interested in. Each class has taught me new technolog tips to use in my classroom. After I learned the new tips I go to school and share them with my kindergarten team. One of the teachers I work with has enjoyed hearing me teach her the new ideas that she actually told me that she was so happy for me because I found something that I'm interested in and I enjoy learning about. She likes that I share these ideas with her and I'm just excited to share them to anyone who listenes :-). Anyway, I guess the point of this is that I like what I'm learning and I like even more sharing it with my friends and family.

I've been back to school for almost three weeks now and my students and I are finally starting to settle in. We're in our new routine and everything is running smoothly (cross your fingers that it will continue to run smoothly). By the end of the second week, I saw most of my students from last year. One of my former students came to visit with my new students. I had her explaining different things to my new class. Out of nowhere, she starts telling my class that they are so lucky to be in my class because I'm the only kindergarten teacher to have THREE computers and a huge TV. I thought this was hysterical because I thought I was the only one to be thrilled to have three computers. It was a touchy subject around the other kindergarten teachers because I was the new teacher and I was given the extra computer. When I first got the third computer, I didn't ask any questions. I didn't want anyone to take it away. After having the computer for awhile I finally asked the technology coordinator why. She simply said it was because I was the only one integrating technology into my classroom correctly.

After hearing my former student say things about my computers, I think it's safe to say the even the kindergartens are aware of how important technology is.