Fall of 2009 we had our family photo updated; I’m 40, Andrew is 10 and Ava is 5. My children are the best part of my life, my main focus and I thought I’d share a picture on my blog. Andrew just finished up football season, plays the violin and is enjoying 4th grade. Ava is my little fire-ball! She seems to be excelling in gymnastics and thinks Discovery Kindergarten is awesome! Andrew and Ava keep me extremely busy and I love it!

http://www.phschool.com/home.html is currently my favorite educational web site for students that works in conjunction with all our new resources.  Students can access their math book, video tutors, examples, vocabulary quizzes, puzzles, practice quizzes and tests and so much more!  I have been very busy trying to learn all it’s possibilities, in addition to promoting it with my students and parents that have internet availability.  Parents really don’t have to understand all of the math skills taught at each level of mathematics, but having the capabilities of using this site with your student could really help at home!!

I am very new to blogging, and found my first theme that I picked to cause an enormous amount of frustration.  My troubleshooting tactic was to pick a different theme.  I tried to do what was stated in the directions, but found it easier to just pick a different theme!  Yes, honesty is always the best policy!

The name of the first blog I explored was What’s Happening in Room 8, http://jmyrmel.edublogs.org/, and it was so cute!  The pictures and videos linked with music made the blog very fun to explore.  I really like the newsletter at the bottom and the way the teacher set up her newsletter.   It was also very easy to navigate around and find what I was looking for at that particular moment.  Should have known it was a third grade classroom, I often wonder what life would be like if I’d stayed teaching at a third grade level!  This was a great blog.  I loved the colors, photos and the way it was set up.

Idea from this blog:  I think middle school students would enjoy a video clip of photos of themselves using Animoto.com to set it up.  This might draw more students in to view my blog if I added some fun “extras”, just for fun!

Second, I went into several blogs to see which one I wanted to explore.  I went into one titled A Really Different Place and the print was so small and there seemed to be an overwhelming amount of resources.  I had to leave and go to a different blog that was easier to read and navigate around on.  I really enjoyed the pictures and simplicity of The KinderKids’ Blog, http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=51141.  The pictures, video clips and readability made this a site that would draw parents and children to visit.

Idea from this blog:  Make sure the reader doesn’t have to move closer to the monitor to read the printed material.  The printed material should be a font size that is easy to see.  Again, pictures and video clips are fun for the students and parents to view – I know middle school students would enjoy this feature.

The last blog that I took time to view were from my building, RPMS.  The blogs that I view were Mrs. Hall’s, http://blogs.muskegonisd.org/hallh/, and Ms. Stingle’s, http://blogs.muskegonisd.org/stinglet/.  I wanted to take time to see what was going on in the blogging world close to home.  Both colleagues teach in my building and have been to the same training sessions that I’ve attended.  I give both teachers much credit for their initiative to jump right in and set up their own blogs after an in-service at the school.

Ideas from these blogs:  I will need to make it a habit to go in and update my blog either daily or weekly, so it can stay current for parents to get information.  Also, I do think pictures, video clips and color add so much to a blog!!

During the 2007-20008 school year, many teachers in my building started to use educational blogs.  At the time, I was not ready and still unsure about all the details – so I continued to learn through my colleges.   What a great communication tool for students, teachers, parents and administrators to use on a daily basis!  When reading all the different ways that weblogs could be used for teaching different subject areas, I began to think about how I would be able to incorporate my new interactive math materials and an education blog.  I would think that having the resources already in digital form, it would be easy to incorporate it into a blog for students and parents to easily access.  I could post the daily assignment for parents to read each night and also give the location to find a handout – if the student did not have it at home.  What a great idea for students and parents to ask question for clarification, as many readers may have the same question – but never ask.  I can’t wait to start blogging!

I’m very excited to learn new ideas using technology to engage my students in learning mathematics.  I am amazed at how fast technology is changing year to year; if I don’t keep up – I will be lost, as many individuals are in our fast pace world.  I will admit I do get frustrated easily when something doesn’t work or if I get lost.  Being brutally honest, I think I have fewer patients as I get older – but that can be our little secret.

At Reeths-Puffer Middle School, we have just purchased a new resource of materials for the level of Mathematics that I currently teach.  Prentice Hall Mathematics – Course 2 is the name and the site is http://phschool.com/ .  Given the web codes and registration codes, we are able to access all the wonderful resources to use with our students or to encourage our students to use.   Students can access their interactive textbook online!  They have video tutors, math games and so much more – it’s very cool!  The issue is time and training; we need to be given the time and training to utilized this wonderful resource to engage our students.  If the teacher doesn’t feel a certain comfort level with all the technology that goes along with the new resources, will it be used to it’s fullest potential  – if at all?  One other issue is how to use all of the resources with ALL of our students, even the many that don’t have internet access at home.

Again, I hope to learn 23 new things that I can use in my classroom or in my everyday life.  I want to stay current with technology and establish a comfort level of use to apply them in my teaching.

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