1/29 My thoughts

I freely admit I left class last night feeling a little frazzled, primarily because of my confusion with Office 2007. Is it me, or is it completely counter-intuitive?? I can't find anything anymore. I work on a Mac and I always have, and so PCs have always freaked me out a little bit. Thankfully, over the years Mac OS and Windows have become increasingly similar. But the 2007 Office interface looks NOTHING like the Mac version, and I can't "feel my way" through it like I used to. Had it not been for the kindness of Liz who had the unfortunate job of telling me where everything is, I don't think I would have been able to keep up with the assigned tasks. And I can't even practice at home, because I'm on a Mac. Ugh!
I came home and discussed the Podcast assignment with my husband, who is a total computer geek. He started talking about Garageband and all the great things I could do with it, and I told him we'd be using Audacity, which he'd never heard of. He assured me that it doesn't matter that Garageband is a Mac application because a podcast is web-based, which thoroughly confuses me. If I start working on a file at home and try to bring it in to class to modify it, it won't matter that it was created in a Mac-based program? I'm confused, hopefully he'll straighten me out.
About the quiz templates we worked on---I'm not completely sure I'll ever be using that particular Excel quiz format as an English teacher. I don't plan on assessing my students in that type of short answer format, but you never know. Also, based on what I've observed in my fieldwork, it doesn't seem that schools around here have the resources to routinely test students on PCs. There are commonly only a few computers per classroom, so it would seem that testing a whole class would take longer than standard pen and paper. I assume it could work for independent practice/homework, but then they could just look up the answers. I'd have to think about potential applications, I'm sure it would be useful for something in an English classroom, I'm just not sure what exactly.
I do like the idea of incorporating technology into the curriculum as much as possible, because I know it is the format most comfortable for my future students. I do plan on requiring my students to create and keep reading journals in the form of blogs--I have talked to current English teachers and parents who assert that simply by virtue of the electronic format, kids are much more excited about journal-writing. Whatever it takes....

Day One in Computers

This is the class to which I've most been looking forward this semester. I have TONS of fabulous ideas swirling around in my head for future lesson plans that will rely on multimedia, and I'm anxious to learn how to make them a reality. I know that in order to reach my future students, I need to meet them where they live and are most comfortable, and my only regret is that I have only one semester with a friendly guide to help me figure it all out. Honestly speaking, I felt a little anxious before tonight's class, expecting to be the only student not intimately familiar with all the "new toys." But the class seems very user-friendly and not nearly as intimidating as I'd feared. I think it's going to be a great semester.

So here it is

My big debut as a blogger!