Jazzed UP

I attended the ICE Conferernce today with some of my coworkers. ICE stands for something, but I connot recall what...because I am so excited about what I learned there that I cannot think straight. It was about technology in the classroom and I really love working with gadgets and working with kids while working with gadgets and helping kids work with gadgets.

Our building is outfitted with Promethean Boards, or interactive white boards. We have wireless projection systems and tablet laptops. We have wireless mobile laptops labs and an iPod lab. Our kids can create websites, Nings, wikis and animations. Really cool stuff...it has its share of issues, but overall, we are very lucky and our kids are reaping the benefits.

I learned how to do even more with the tech that we have today and I am eager to try to implement some more of it. My mom and I were talking about how much things have changed. She recalled technology in her day- chalk. I remember Eastview School had ONE computer on a cart and my class got it for an hour every third week or some such nonsense. The only thing I did on it was play Lemonade Stand. My first introduction to a mouse was when I was a sophmore in college. I didn't have the internet in my first apartment. I recorded grades in a gradebook with green pages and I used a pencil. I was also in awe of my dad's chalk holder he kept in his shirt pocket and hoped to one day have one, too. When I moved into my first classroom, I found a white board and Expo markers. Next year I will have no need for all those markers- weird.