RSS

I love the idea of RSS and using it to streamline my tracking of information. In school we often follow the Patch as well as the local news. Students write and send out press releases to the West Hartford Press, West Hartford Press and West Hartford News. I think Google Reader will be a great tool to manage access stories. I tried Edmodo and discovered it will is not seen as a feed source. As we move into the new website of SharpSchool there will be more opportunities to add blogging for the students and I can have the ability to follow each one on my RSS feed. There have not been many blogging, newspaper, podcast or vodcasts sites that I have followed since much of this is new. I see the value and know that as time goes on this can be very valuable.

My current personal passion is understanding more about my daughter’s special education needs.  I would like to start exploring the world of special education and specifically DDS and Intellectual Disabled blogs. This will help me understand her needs but it also will help me be a better teacher. There is so much about PPTs, IEPs, goal setting and finding services for children with special needs. I think the RSS offers a great way to manage this information and I can see it being a tool to help parents of my students.

I loved the demo of Screen Cast-o-Matic. I can see the many possibilities in the class. We have been working with the document cameras with the audio recording and this site gives me the option of recording my complete smartboard lesson. I have printed my notes on the smartboard but how powerful would it be to record voice and allow kids to play it when they were absent. I am excited about Flipping Classrooms and know we will see more and more of this. The lecture and demo do not need to be whole class but the problem solving and collaboration need to be done with peers. The whole concept of homework misses the impact of learning with the teacher and working together toward a solution. Too often parents are asked to help and they were not privy to the instruction. It a situation with  struggling students having the parents be able to access the instruction could really aid the student’s understanding.  This Screen-o-Cast could really help in my lessons and its simplicity is beautiful!