After majoring in Computer Science and Economics in undergrad, I knew how important technology was and what a growing field it continues to be. Now more than ever, students can be instantaneously connected to the world of knowledge that was unreachable in the past. They have every fact they've ever wanted to know right at their fingertips. This can be both wonderful and scary, but I choose to see it as wonderful. The Cool Cat Teacher recently wrote a blog about the Kindle and all of the features that it has. I wasn't even aware of everything that it could do, so her blog was really helpful. She writes in an interesting, but simplistic, format that almost anyone can follow. She even talks about how she organizes the books on her Kindle (I'm an organization freak, so I was thrilled about this) and the different categories she uses. Her blog would be beneficial for students to read to get an understanding of what some of the different technology tools that are available to them can be used for outside of just "reading books".
Cool Cat Teacher also blogs about other education related topics that don't center on technology. One of my favorites is her blog titled "Navigating the Rough Water of Teaching," which is complete with numerous pictures that look like this:
In her blog, Cool Cat Teacher says something that has been on my mind a lot:
"I've heard that teaching is the most impossible job everyone thinks they can do."
Nearing the end of our summer term, I have come to realize that teaching is NOT something everyone can do. I will admit that I, too, once thought that teaching was a common knowledge task that just took effort, but I was very wrong. Teaching takes time, effort, dedication, and hard work. It is difficult, but it is rewarding. It is not impossible, despite sometimes feeling that way. The best way to work through the difficult times is by looking to other, more experienced teachers for guidance and support, and I think Cool Cat Teacher's blog is a great resource.
Follow her here to get in on all of her insights: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com
Hi, Morgan,
ReplyDeleteI also looked at this blog, and another thing that I like about it was the frequency of her posts. The first blog I look at was last updated in January, and before that post, the last post was in October of 2012. I noticed you wrote about how organized you like to be, and for me, there's no way I am going to give some of my precious bookmark space to a blog that is only updated a few times a year. I agree with you that a nice thing about her posts is that she doesn't just focus on the technology side of things. That kind of surprised me to see things on reading in a post about the Kindle. I mean, I know the Kindle is used to rad books, so reading is a major part of the Kindle, but still, I expected it to be more about the functionality of the Kindle or neat tricks some people might not know. This made her blog a bit more interesting than one that just focuses on technology only.
Hi Morgan,
ReplyDeleteThe edublogger you picked sounds pretty interesting! I don’t already have a lot of skills around using different kinds of technology, and I really need to get organized, so maybe I could benefit from checking out the blog!
The quote from the blog is something that really resonates with me, too. Almost everyone has had the experience where we’ve been a student in a classroom. It is easy to look at what teachers do, and not understand or appreciate all the work, skill and energy that goes into it. I had a lot of teachers that I admired growing up, and I’m finding that my appreciation for their dedication continues to grow as I learn about all that we need to be able to do to be effective teachers.