Blog Post #9

What Can We Learn From Mrs. Cassidy?

First off, Mrs. Cassidy is a futuristic First Grade teacher in Moose Jaw, Canada. In the first video we were assigned to watch, called "First Graders in Mrs. Cassidy's Class", we are introduced to Mrs. Cassidy's class and all the exciting ways that they are using technology in their classroom. I really love that this video is narrated by the student's themselves, because you can really tell how much they enjoy the things they do to learn in their classroom. One student talks about how they use blogging as a form of learning and how her writing skills improve in every post. Other ways that they use technology in their classroom is through Nintendo DS, webpages and Wiki. Mrs. Cassidy's students talk about how they use Wiki to ask any question they want and people from all over the World answer them.

The next three videos we were assigned to watch was a three part interview that Dr. Strange had with Mrs. Cassidy. In Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 1, Dr. Strange and Mrs. Cassidy discuss how she got started with technology in her classroom. Mrs. Cassidy says in the video that she has been doing this for ten years and started blogging five years ago. She also talk about how blogging affects not only the student's but the parents too. Instead of parents having to meet with the child's teacher about their progress they can easily look at their blogs instead. In Part Two of the interview Dr. Strange and Mrs. Cassidy talk about where to start as a new teacher and ways to create new PLN's. The main source of social media that they talk about in this video is Twitter. Mrs. Cassidy says that she really does not use much social media for her personal life, but that it helps her connect with other teachers and their teaching ideas and thoughts. Dr. Strange talks about how Twitter changed his life, played a major role in his PLN's and introduced him to many other great teachers. Mrs. Cassidy also talks about how each person is different and how we should pick certain technologies that suit what we are interested in. In Part Three of the interview with Mrs. Cassidy, Dr. Strange gets students from his class to ask her questions. One of Dr. Strange's students asked how often Mrs. Cassidy had her students blogging. Mrs. Cassidy also talks about how she protects her students from harmful things on the internet and talks about how Facebook is also useful in collaborating with others. As a future teacher, I really enjoyed learning from Mrs. Cassidy and getting new ideas on how I can be a great teacher as well. When I become a teacher I hope that I will have the resources necessary to involve my students in as much technology as Mrs. Cassidy does. I want to use the same enthusiasm that she does about having her students be bloggers. Having my students blogging in my class will benefit them by helping them improve in many ways. Also blogging can help parents keep track of their child's progress, and I think it is a great way to keep them involved too!