It is the last day of July. The last day of the last month of complete freedom from work. I have inservice the last week in August so July is truly my last full month off. I am not complaining. Just sad.
I have attended a Smartboard Bootcamp the last 2 days and am VERY EXCITED to start using one in my classroom when I get back. We learned the basics and then how to make some pretty awesome lessons, presentations, even interactive story books using the software! It is like scrapbooking for teachers!
As part of the bootcamp we had a keynote speaker : Will Richardson who is a leader in technology and meshed those ideas with education and the future. I support his passion for technology and agree America's public schools are suffering because we don't utilize it as we should, but I also have serious worries about our children's future if we expect them the be "hyper connected" to the world 24/7. I only allow Kdog 30 minutes on the computer to do email and Webkins....and already I feel like I am holding on tight against the vortex of technology trying to suck her away from me. She likes to text a family member once in awhile but I know in 2 years she will rely on cell phones as I do! Mr. Richardson made he clear we need to teach the kids even very young how to Google, how to access information and edit it as they go ( he feels this kids should be able to have cell phones in school and no Internet filters). I agree that I should help Kdog make a Facebook page when she is older not let her fuddle through and make her own...of course it may have things on there I would not approve of...it is funny that I think maybe when she is 14 I could help her make one...she will probably already have 3 and know more than me! Anyway if kids or even adults are connect so much to whatever on the computer they are NOT connected to
*pets
*family
*outdoors
*BOREDOM...it is good to be bored!
*HUMANS!
really think of schoolers that text as they WALK down the street but don't respectfully acknowledge the real human beings around them....
Yes it is amazing that our children will have so much access to powerful information...but not all of it is necessary if I was a teenager with my cell phone in school I would not be looking up facts about another country I would be texting TrixieJo in the next room about what time we were going to the mall!
Anyway these are just my very unorganized reflections about the amount of technology the whole world will have in 5 years...it blows me away...borderline scares me...Kdog will probably do a job that does not even exist right now, but hopefully she will still enjoy quiet times on the lake, a real book, or even daydreaming...I pray with all the connections she can make with phone and computer when she gets older she still will dissconnet and be okay with the stillness and love the people around her instead of getting a false sense of connectedness with the net as she sits in an empty dorm room behind a screen.
PS I won't even go into my thoughts about Baby J....that seems to0 far away and overwhelming!
And MISS Kdog comes home form being at that cabin all week....where she only used the cell phone twice and checked her email once =)
When I Said Slow...
16 years ago
I remember the days without mobile phones and computers! And i'm only 31! It doesn't seem like that long ago.
I was laughing to myself when you wrote that you would help k-dog with facebook. I'm sure that will be so yesterday when she hits 14!
Love,
Amanda x
I remember dreading the beginning of the school year. Knowing that my days of freedom were numbered. I hope the next few weeks are relaxing and peaceful!
Wow, you don't have to go back to school until the end of August? My old team leader called me today, and the teachers are headed back to work TOMORROW! So early!