Okay so I have been reading about “new literacy” and it is so exciting to see how much technology would benefit our students! I love all of the ideas, from blogging to virtual fieldtrips, texting, using bookmarking websites, etc. What bothers me is that most of our schools do not have the money to make this available in our classrooms. My district is one of those districts that does not have enough money to make all of these things available and given that we are located in Arizona, I don’t know if we ever will. All of that aside, I teach kindergarten and quite a bit of what I read I just don’t imagine using in my classroom. I do think that my team as well as the rest of our teachers would benefit from learning about this “new literacy” and may even brainstorm ways that we can include this in our classrooms. I certainly see this being a valuable tool for upper grades and I know that this would excite the student which then creates more learning. I also see that parents may benefit from becoming aware of the varieties of sites there are that would help them to help their children become more successful students.
Okay, Heather, so now you have to take up the challenge of thinking HOW you could ACTUALLY do this with your young students. Couldn't you have a class blog with you starting it at first and then as students get excited, they might want to try and type it in? What about having them do a simplified webbing activity with Kidspiration?
ReplyDeleteI think, even with the 'babies' of public education, that you can find things in the 'new literacy' that will engage your young minds.
Hi Heather. I know monies are always a problem. But there are many tech grants that are easy to write as well as website in which you can post your wishlist. Some sites are www.iloveschools.com and www.donorschoose.org. People can view what you are requesting and donate accordingly. I just know of those two, but I bet there are alot more out there. Good luck and go for it:) Thanks for the post:)
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