"What did you do today? Play around on the internet on your little netbooks?" They were referring to my Web 2.0 activity.
Here's what I did today:
- Watched a student's technological confidence blossom when she figured out-with only a little help from her group-how to save a picture she took with her webcam to her computer and upload it into PiZap for editing. ("I did this all by myself! I think I can really do this stuff!") This is the same girl who pleaded with me the day before to do everything on paper.
- Let my students get to know me by hanging out at each team's table for a few minutes, making up ways to remember their names, telling stories about how my younger dog once bought a paint sprayer on eBay, and answering their questions about me and all the rumors they've heard from their older siblings (all true).
- Start to build relationships with my students by asking questions about them. ("If you were ONE Web 2.0 photo tool, what would it be, and why?")
- Observed students have true discussions and engage in true learning when they would show others sitting around them what they were doing, and then hearing other students excitedly ask them, "How did you do that?!?" (I also observed them getting to know each other this way as well.)
- Showed an entire class how to troubleshoot when the entire network crashed at the start of the period.
- Listened to students walk out of my room at the end of the period excited about using technology this year. ("Wow, this class is fun! I can't wait to use this stuff!")
What did I do today? I watched my students learn.