C4T #4 Summary

My C4T #4 was Henrietta Miller and her blog was called classroom chronicles. She teaches 5th grade and lives in Sydney Australia. The two blog posts I commented on were "Thinking in the Classroom" and "A Year of Firsts". In the first post she brings up the topic of allowing mobile phones in the classroom. She asked her students and their parents opinions on whether or not this would benefit the students. Her responses were split pretty evenly. Some of the points that were raised were the idea that since not all students can afford the best devices, how could you make sure they all had equal access to use these devices for learning? Also some of the students worried that it might be too much of a distraction. But there were positives to it too like how the devices could be used to take pictures, used as stopwatches, and calculators. I responded by saying that this is a tough question to solve and if there was a way to make sure all students had equal devices and monitor their use so it doesn't become a distraction, then this might be a good idea for classrooms.
In the second blog post, "A Year of Firsts" Ms. Miller discusses all that she has done this year pertaining to technology and teaching. I think it is interesting that she started blogging in January and is now speaking at conferences and teaching her fellow staff members how to take advantage of technology when teaching. She explains how her class has has used skype and podcast among other things. This reminded me of EDM. I responded by saying that her post was inspiring to me since I am learning about these things and plan to use them in my classrooms. The fact that she had accomplished so much in one year is impressive.