Electronic Contact

My electronic contact for this assignment was Ms. Dayle Timmons from Chet Creek Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida. Ms. Timmons is a Primary Inclusion teacher and a Literacy Coach. Earlier in this semester we had to find a blog from a K-12 school in the United States and write a summary about their blog. While searching the internet, I found Ms. Timmons blog. I thought that Ms. Timmons blog was very interesting and creative. When I posted my blog post about Ms. Timmons, she contacted me and said that if I needed any help on an assignment that she would be glad to help. I then decided she would be a great electronic contact since she was so willing to help me.

For this assignment I asked Ms. Timmons, what types of technology she uses in her classroom and how is it used. Ms. Timmons answered back with many different technologies use in her classroom and at her school. Ms. Timmons’ school is up-to-date with all of the new technologies. The technologies are used daily in their classrooms.

The technology that Ms. Timmons uses in her class the most is an Elmo projector (this is a document camera, which is sort of like an overhead projector). I thought that the most interesting thing that Chet Creek Elementary uses the Elmo projector for was to broadcast in-school news programs. The news programs are broadcasted on a daily basis.

Other technologies that Ms. Timmons uses are various types of blogs (throughout the school and her classroom), and a wikispace. Ms. Timmon’s classroom blog can be located at http://curiouskindergartners.blogspot.com and she accesses the site often to keep the students updated on what is being posted. This blog is used to post different assignments and activities that the students complete. Another blog that Ms. Timmons’ uses is http://travelingchet.blogspot.com. This blog is to expose students to different places around the world. The theme of the blog is “Around the World in 180 Days”. The way the blog is used is when Ms. Timmons or her students travel they take Chet, the traveling bear with them. For example, if a student goes to Disney World they will take Chet and take a picture with him. When the student returns school he/she will write a blog post about their vacation and post the picture they took with Chet.

Ms. Timmons says “that on a professional development level their grade level keeps a wiki”. This site can be located at http://firstgradecce.wikispaces.com. Ms. Timmons say “this is where they house all of their resources”. Ms. Timmons told me that they just finished writing a new unit on persuasive writing and it is located on their wiki.

Chet Creek Elementary school also has a blog. This blog contains teachers that have done something interesting with technology in their classroom. The school nominates two teachers which they call “geeks” these teachers blog about their technology at http://ccegeeks.blogspot.com. The school also has a blog for teachers. Teachers use this blog to post information that they have learned from a conference that they attended. This blog can be located at http://livefromthecreek.blogspot.com .

Ms. Timmons told me that her school was constantly trying to look for interesting ways to use technology in their classroom. She said the major problem teachers have with trying to find new technologies is that many sites are blocked.

I really enjoyed the electronic contact with Ms. Timmons. I thought that all of the information she gave was very interesting and helpful. By speaking with Ms. Timmons she taught me to broaden my horizons. As a future teacher I now know that there are many resources available for me to use in my classroom. This contact with Ms. Timmons also taught me that although there are many technologies to use in the classroom, technology is always being updated. So as a teacher (when I become a teacher) I should stay up-to-date on technology. Technology is not only helpful in the classroom it is also another way to keep students involved and interested.