Me and My Project
I’m Katie Ford and I live and teach in Waynesboro, Virginia. The 2009-2010 school year marks my 4th year teaching freshmen English and Reading. I must note that although I do teach English, I am not to be held responsible for my imperfect grammar. That’s like asking a masseuse to give you a massage after a day of rubbing sweaty backs. I’ll do the best I can, but my heart won’t be in it. Once my pj’s are on, I’m officially off duty. I am also the Student Government Association faculty sponsor. We work hard to make the high school experience as positive as possible for all students.
I absolutely love my job! I think I was born to be a teacher, and couldn’t imagine myself in any other profession. As a teacher, I believe part of my job is to get students prepared for the “Real World.” One complaint I hear on a-far-too-frequent basis is that our students are not prepared to use the technology they find in college. Heck, even email seems to be confusing to some. So while I’m teaching reading and writing, I’m also trying to increase my student’s technical intelligence.
A huge problem we face at Waynesboro is that our student-to-computer ratio is far too high. There are many projects I’d love to have my students complete, but fighting over the computer labs is becoming more and more difficult. This is not a terrible problem to have, mind you. I would rather see teachers biting and scratching to get in the labs than refusing to go inside.
The opportunity came about at the end of the ’08-’09 year to pilot what I am calling a PodClass (hence the name of the blog, clever – no?). Our big question was what could we do with these devices that would make them an important part of our technological arsenal? I was graciously given the chance to play and see what comes of it. Now that I’m almost half way through the year, I have stepped out from under my rock, and want to share my experiences.
This is what I’ve learned, what I want to learn, and what I’ll never do again.
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2 Responses to 'Me and My Project'
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on December 10th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Katie
What did you buy as extras for the ipods? Mikes? Do you have a cable to attach the ipod to the doc camera? Where did you get your mikes? Maybe one of your blog entries could be everything you bought and where you got them!
on December 10th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I think this is a great suggestion! Keep an eye out, because soon I’ll talk about iPod accessories in all their glory (or lack thereof).