Technology in the Classroom is a Disaster waiting to Happen!

"Mr. J.P., I have a problem, Glogster is out and I have a Philosophy presentation..!"

"I can't get connected to the Internet."

"Oh yeah, the sound system is not working, why? Beats me!"

Rings a bell? You know you've been there. I remember back in the days, when a Power Point presentation, a white screen, a huge CPU and a projector were the coolest thing around, I had this practicum doctor as a Biology teacher who ran into a tech problem and would simply cancel the session for that day. Well, so much for significant learning...

'Tech' here, 'tech' there, 'tech' everywhere

It is pretty much clear to all of us educators that everyday we walk into our classrooms we stand before a group of digital learners.  These kids, who do not know a world without internet and communication as we know it, are not going to learn what we tell them the way it was attempted to be taught to us back in the last century.  Well, learning is not the product of our teaching, it is the product of the learner`s activities anyways.  So, what activities are we providing our students to engage them and learn what we intend for them to learn through these activities?

Switch Facebook into Study Mode!

Turns out to be (we like it or not) that 90% of social media activity happens on Facebook.  So, the idea of us teachers infiltrating into our students´ virtual world of social streaming must have Facebook in it; again, either we like it or not.

Google, Study Blue, Twitter, Socrative...all in one!

I have recently come across so many blogs about Twitter and its benefits; of how it can be used to increase our technological and educational collaboration.  I just find it neat that a micro-blogging service not meant for it is being used by so many devoted teachers around the world to enhance education and collaborate!  So I am not going to post about the benefits of Twitter for you as an educator;  trust me, you´ll eventually fall into tons of blogs with that kind of information.

My First QR Codes Activity

You probably have used QR Codes in your classroom for a while now.  In my particular case, well, I am starting to technifying my classroom so this was my first experience with this technology.  I am proud of myself since I came up with this activity all by myself.  This does not mean of course that nobody has done it before;  it´s just that I have not heard of.

First Day of School!

After investing so much time into research of technological resource to incorporate to my classroom, I must confess that I was truly excited about having my students back in school.  That day came on August 22.  Ah, was it refreshing to see those faces again, hear the noise in the halls, hear the sound of the chanting and the school spirit which permeated the whole campus!

I'm a terrible parent!

Over four years ago, the Lord blessed me with this tiny human being that I would happen to call "son"...yeah well, and his given name also... The thing is that was the day in which I discovered I was going to be a terrible parent. For real.

Thank you note/Agradecimiento

Blessings to every one.  Just a little space for thanking you again for visiting and for your subscriptions.  Wow, thank you so much for that.  Please do not forget to write your comments and links to your own blog.  I am looking forward to subscribing to great blogs from you.  Once again, thank you!  I declare that this school year is going to be a fruitful and joy-filled one.

BE BLESSED

Bendiciones a todos.  Sólo deseo aprovechar el espacio para agradecer su visita nuevamente y por sus suscripciones.  Wow, gracias por eso!  Por favor no olvide dejar sus comentarios y enlaces a sus propios blogs.  Estoy esperando suscribirme a sus propios blogs.  Una vez más, ¡gracias!  Declaro que este año escolar será fructífero y lleno de gozo.

SEAN BENDECIDOS

Primer Día de Trabajo/First Day of Work

(This post is written in English below.)

Hoy fue mi primer día de trabajo en el Instituto Cristiano Bilingue Sunshine; fue una jornada muy buena y productiva.  Tuvimos un desayuno un tanto dietético.  Luego tuvimos un momento de adoración al Señor en el cual Él nos preparó para el plato fuerte de la mañana.  Compartió con nosotros la Dra. Emma Amelia de Sosa, (Nuestra asesora espiritual y fundadora de la escuela y de MUNA Internacional)  una palabra muy oportuna y de ánimo.  Dentro de lo que  nos compartió puedo resumir algunos puntos:

"I hate school"/"Odio la escuela"

I recently came across this Twitter hashtag (#Ihateschool) since it was posted by a student of mine that I happen to follow. Now, I don't take full responsibility for her hatred, but I definitively take some and feel that as educators we could (and should)do something about it in general.

...And vacations are over.../...y se acabaron las vacaciones...

Yep, vacations are over. I am not going to say "finally" over because, well, we did not want them to be over just yet, did we? We are certainly not excited about it necessarily. I am a teacher, and I am not sure but I think we are the professionals with the largest amount of vacations. It is two months (my dad doesn't get anymore than two weeks). However, that just makes kissing the break goodbye more difficult.

Tecnología en la Educación

El año escolar 2011-2012 está por comenzar en nuestro instituto.  He dedicado tiempo para investigar sitios de interés para la integración de la tecnología en el aula de clases.  Luego de leer muchos blogs, sitios, comentarios, wikis, haber visto videos y conferencias en línea, me he encontrado aturdido

Felices Vacaciones

Me encuentro disfrutando de unas merecidas vacaciones y pues a punto de alistarme para lo que será el año escolar 2011-2012. Como cada año, trato de hacer alguna innovación. Gracias a Dios, la institución donde laboro (sunshine.muna.hn) invierte mucho en tecnología para la labor pedagógica.

Este año he pensado en crear una página web. Lamentablemente no sé mucho de diseño de páginas web, solamente lo que he leído por ahí. Pero bien, con ayuda creo que podré tener una paginita más o menos decente. En realidad estoy muy emocionado.

Bendiciones!