Although I haven’t been the most prolific cohort 21 blogger since our first face to face meet up, my mind has been busy with questions about edtech.

Fellow cohort 21 member Andrew Ruston asked me to flip the question about introducing tech in the classroom. What is the problem I have been trying to solve in my work that technology might be able to help with?

The first experiment with this kind of thinking happened around teaching printing. My students regarded it as lacklustre to say the least. I decided to carefully introduce teaching printing on the smart board in the grade one classroom, including a “sick letter clinic” game in which students manipulated letters so that they were in the right placement. Such a simple idea but they were captivated. They enjoyed using the smart board in new ways, the lesson was more interactive, and the students were engaged during the teacher directed part of the lesson.

Bolstered with this small success (which I imagine as dipping just the tip of my baby toe into the water of technology), I began talking with other faculty at my school about utilizing technology in the primary grades. Former cohort 21 member Jillian Green and I decided that we are both going to look into iPad apps to alleviate another problem: the students’ cumbersome task of transporting and logging in to laptop computers during literacy and math centre time. Surely iPads will be easier to deal with, we realized. My first goal for the year, then, is to research and experiment with math and early literacy apps.

My second goal, as I am a brand new teacher, is to find out how I can leverage technology (more specifically, Twitter and Diigo) to help me with my “new teacher” questions. To enumerate those questions here would likely be boring, and needless to say I have lots! I am looking forward to our meet-up tomorrow: to connecting with the other members, having more courage to ask some #firstyearteacherquestions and learning more about Twitter and Diigo!