A second wind after Thanksgiving Break

During the summer I decided that I needed to re-examine the Texas TEKS and make sure that I was actually covering them.  I was surprised to discover that there were technology TEKS that I was responsible for teaching. 

After some searching on the web, I discovered this thing called “Blog”.  I thought that I would be able to use it to kill two birds: technology and writing.  I am not a writer and I am not a good teacher for teaching writing.  Everything the kids write sounds akward to me and I am not certain how to fix that.  So, this seemed perfect.  They could write often about their lives and hopefully for an audience of other kids and then they could read other kids writing and have attainable goals.  Too often, kids try to write like their favorite authors and not like thier peers and they can’t.  They aren’t 40 year olds. 

There were two flaws with that master plan: can first and second graders blog? Are they allowed to in my district? I had three computers, but one didn’t have a hard drive.  I was told that first and second graders are not allowed to blog. I just got the hard drive two weeks ago for the third computer.

So, in the meantime, I bought a digital camera by Fisher Price that I thought we could use as a way to jumpstart journal entries and moved on. The kids have had a great time taking random pictures during recess and lunch.  I have had a great time looking at them, but I haven’t found the time to teach them how to upload them or then to use them to write with. 

This is frustrating.  Having the multi-age class has led to a lot of frustration with my expectations.  The first graders are outnumbered and I tend to forget that they are first graders and then I give them an assignment that they can’t handle. The balancing act is difficult and given that, technology just seems like too big a hurdle.

There is light at the end of the tunnel though-my class is being separated into first graders and second graders and the district will allow first graders to blog now.  I am hoping that that will give me a second wind.