Latest projects

There hasn't been much time to blog lately. We have been doing a lot in class, have had two cases of influenza a in the family, and have spent some time out-of-town. Between all of that, blogging has taken a bit of a backseat, at least this blog.

My blog for my students is humming along rather well. (www.philoteacher.wordpress.com) All of my students are now on twitter and have blogs. I'm in the end stage of getting all of their blogs on our websites' blogroll and into my rss reader. Although this blog you are reading is made in blogger, my student blog is in wordpress. I'm learning  a bit about how these different blogging tools work. And I have students using tumblr asking me questions as well.

I am very pleased at how well my students have done in their use of technology. We aren't immersed, but they seem to be able to follow directions and get the work done. They also are engaged. Furthermore, using technology has solved a problem endemic to my school: students finishing work at the last minute in the hallway right before they walk into class. My students are forced to sit down in a relatively quiet space (at home I presume) and focus on their work.

This week prepping lessons has taken a lot of time. I have been home first with my son sick with influenza a and then with influenza a myself. I've been creating lessons using screenr for my students. I can create a lesson that is quite similar to what I do in class, except of course I am not there to interact with students. I have mitigated that somewhat by being available on twitter during certain class times. I had hoped to host a webinar with one class, but I could not get the technology working. That will come in time.

Here is the link for my class website - www.philoteacher.wordpress.com and here is a sample of a screenr lesson I prepared for my students.(Listening to this now, I realize how sick I was when I made it. My thoughts are a bit jumbled and my voice sounds very weak. Usually I am more articulate and much more animated in presentation.