Carla's Glass & Ceramics: Technology In The Classroom While Using Blogs

     Hello! While using technology in the classroom can be very time consuming, especially trying to get all the students signed up for Blogger (or which ever site you use), it is well worth the expense. Once everyone is on the same page, it is an easy place to post information about a lesson and the students have an easy access place to post as well. I am fortunate enough to be a part of a great trip coming up this summer. This trip includes all subjects of teachers from different grade levels. We all do have something in common; we are all teachers in the great state of West Virginia. Wondering what we will be studying? Glass and Ceramics in West Virginia.
      I am taking this opportunity and stretching it out to using other technology as well (cross curriculum if you will). I am currently teaching a self-contained special education classroom in all subjects (ranging from health to all the core classes). My students this year have used a new technology called Gigapan. This is the same type of technology that is used on the Mars Rover. This machine will take a regular household digital camera and allow you take a panoramic picture. Once the picture is "stitched" together, you can zoom all the way in to see a flake of dust on an object. Teaching in a classroom where hands-on learning is the focused way of learning- Gigapan is the winner when it comes to looking up information on certain subject. I plan on using Gigapan in my lessons as we go on this trip this summer.
     I am going to take the Gigapan equipment with me and take some panoramic pictures of the glass companies and history of WV. I will also be including links to my Gigapan pictures and video of different places we visit.

Here are some pictures of our first class:

Now that you know a little about the history of myself. Please allow me to switch gears. Next year I will be co-teaching back where my heart belongs in science. I love teaching and colloaborating with others in fields other than special education.

I will using blogs in the classroom every week, if not every day. I plan to use them as a science notebook. Huntington High School is fortunate to have mobile labs on wheels. We will use these labtops to create our blogs and then obviously use them in the classroom. I will expect my students to make videos and stream them on their blogs. They will follow each other and we will create a blog site as a class as well. It would be really great if we could blog with other age levels as well. Reason number 1 of why I am glad we are a diverse groups of teachers traveling and learning together.