BACK TO SCHOOL, RING THE BELL

As of next week, I am officially going back to school. It's kind of funny though; I remember my second semester of my senior year at Bucknell, school suddenly didn't feel like school anymore, in that it was surprisingly easy. Maybe it was because after student teaching, anything was easy in comparison, but it felt like I just knew how to "do" school. I also wonder if, now that I teach, going to school is actually a lot more exciting than it might have been had I chosen another career path. I know it's dorky, but I am really looking forward to learning. Plus, I've been doing a TON of workshops and read some really cool articles about the focus of my program, which is educational technology.

One of the main focuses of the sophomore research workshop is the necessity of teaching online reading, and how different it is from offline reading. One of the aspects the articles discussed was the need to teach how to use keywords to search for something, rather than just tell about the need to use key words. I still have trouble with that sometimes, but my kids immediately give up after about one try. It's definitely a teacher's blind spot, in that I never even thought to review this, and just kind of expected them to know, because that's what was expected of me.

Perhaps most importantly, they all discussed the need to communicate their findings with others through collaboration. Let's be honest - I know my kids all IM about the papers I assign them, and that they all have Facebook accounts; I do, too, and communication is a vital part of our everyday lives. So why don't we TEACH them how to communicate in a way that fosters their understanding using all of these technological tools that they are already using? I am super pumped to learn more about how to apply them in my classroom, which, hopefully, this program is going to help me figure out.

Speaking of Facebook, I opened up the Fort Knox-like security I had on my Facebook account to allow my friends who have always complained they can't friend me to give them access. It's reconnected me with a lot of old friends, but the other issue has become the recently-graduated seniors who are trying to friend me now. So far, I've kind of just ignored their requests, because I sure don't want them to see my page, but in some ways, I figure I could just do the limited profile thing and not worry about it. I mean, they're going to college now... I don't know, I guess I will keep ignoring them until I figure it out. Any suggestions as to what you'd do are welcome...