Blog Post #11

Ms. Kathy Cassidy's First Grade Class

Little Kids...Big Potential

Ms. Kathy Cassidy is a first grade teacher in Moose Jaw, Canada. I was impressed with the technology that Ms. Cassidy's first grade class used in Little Kids...Big Potential. They write blogs and are taught that only nice things should be said on their blogs. All of her students' blogs are located on their class blog. I would like to introduce blogging into my classroom so that my students’ parents, family and friends can comment on their work. Blogs allow students to practice their grammar and spelling.

Ms. Cassidy uses a Smartboard to help her students learn a subject more efficiently with hands on activities. Smartboards are a wonderful tool to have in your classroom. They take learning to a whole new level that allows the students to interact with the new skills that they are learning.

Students in Ms. Cassidy’s classes use computers for various assignments. Their class has a webpage that has all the websites that will be used in the class. I plan on using a web page for my students because it will only have protected sites on it. This will help keep my students safe from accidentally typing a wrong word in the URL and going to a webpage that they do not need to be exposed to. The webpage allows students to work on learning games and other assignments at home. Ms. Cassidy used a Wikis page to allow the community to help teach her students about traditions, rituals and the alphabet. This is a great way to teach students about different cultures that occur from around the world. She has her students do group projects and they record their progress with podcasts. Podcasts used in my classroom will allow my students to record their progress. This will make learning more exciting for my students.

Nintendo DS' are used in Ms. Cassidy’s classroom to help her students become better problem solvers while teaching them to share. Allowing students to play learning games on a Nintendo DS teaches the children without them being aware that they are learning. This is an effective way to have children review a subject over and over without them getting bored.

Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy

I like that Ms. Cassidy uses Skype to allow her students to communicate with different people around the world that can relate to the topic she is reviewing. Her students can communicate with other children in the same grade from the other side of the world. EDM310 conducted a Skype interview with Ms. Cassidy on February 17, 2010. In the Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy, she explained why she has began to use technology. The school provided her with 5 new computers 10 years earlier, this began her journey into technology. She learned how to create web pages, blogging, etc. Ms. Cassidy is very conscious of protecting her students identity by only using their first names and never linking their pictures with their names. It is great how she is constantly trying new technologies to make her students’ experiences better.