After reading Jeff Utecht’s (Have you noticed that the word “tech” is in the middle of his name?) post on his Skype with us on the first day of pre-planning, I posted the following comment: “I feel as if I am standing on the threshhold of something BIG. The possibilities and potential of what we can do this year are endless. Can you imagine a student approaching academic subjects with the same engagement and excitement they have for video games and texting? Can you imagine students with special needs using such a familiar technology to learn? In this age of leaving no child behind, how can we turn our backs on such a resource as this?”Jeff replied:
“When you talk about students with special needs I thought I would share this
with you. I'm dyslexic and I know just how powerful this platform can be for
someone who struggles with reading and writing. I'm not saying it works for
everyone and you don't have to have special learning needs to use technology but
I've seen it transform some amazing kids. I talked about this on my blog way
back when it might be of interest to you on a couple different levels.
1. We all start with one person reading our blog
2. The power of a real live audience and the freedom to write about what you love and what you want is a sure way into every students heart.
3. I still can't believe people care about what I write...not only care but care enough to put my blog in the top 10 of educational blogs out there (by some crazy person's standards)
My spelling is horrible, my writing and mechanics are horrible. It took me two
hours to write that post about Chets Creek and I know there are still errors all over it. But you know....I don't care. Before my blog I didn't write. When I started I was writing (according to Word) at a 4th grade level and reading at about a 6th grade level. Some 700 blog posts later I consistently write at a 9th grade level
and have read more books in the past three years then I have the rest of my
life. But the really interesting thing to me is, not once has someone commented
on my bad spelling, my grammer errors, or my run on sentences. Not only that, I
now write for two magazines, just finished a chapter for an Education and Web
2.0 book, and am being asking to write more and more. I just keep telling myself
"If they only knew......."Anyway...thought I would share. I've seen students
blossom when we allow them to write their way, write for their niche, and just
learn to love writing. We can only truly learn when we learn to love what we
do.” Nothing we could write says it better.Check out my students' blogs in the sidebar of my blog. They'd love to hear from
you!
Written by: Cheryl Chascin (and Jeff Utecht)
1 comment:
I loved reading your kid's blogs. Thanks for sharing!
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