Have you ever found yourself searching for the perfect website or technology tool, to help your students learn a concept that always seems to evade them, only to try a google search and realize hours later that you found nothing of real value?
Integrating technology into the classroom is not an easy task. It involves time, research, knowledge and patience, a combination that results in many giving up before they really begin. Thoughts such as "students get enough technology at home," "technology is about entertainment and it is not my job to entertain," or "technology does all of the work for students and takes the thinking process out" plague teachers minds and are used to justify decisions made to ignore digital technology and continue doing what is comfortable and gets us out of the door quickest at the end of the day.
Now, let's be clear, the purpose of this blog isn't really to convince you that the digital revolution is upon us and now is the time to dive and begin teaching your students differently (although clearly I am passionate about that). Instead, it is meant to be a place for resources and help with the sometimes...no, often overwhelming world of digital technology. Through this blog I hope to provide the teachers at Terry Fox Elementary with a place to find easy-to-implement ideas for using technology both personally and professionally. Now, I'm no expert, just passionate and through my PLN (personal learning network) have discovered lots of ideas that I think others will find useful too. This site has a very specific target audience. All of the tips and ideas will be posted because I think my colleages at Terry Fox Elementary will find them useful within our teaching context. So enjoy, and please contribute any comments, suggestions or ideas you have for making this site more useful.
Thanks,
Julie
