At the Teacher's Desk

At the Teacher's Desk is a teacher blog space. Here teachers can make posts about challenging and eventful situations they have encountered and other teachers can leave comments about how they would handle the situations. The teachers desk is a great example of a personal learning network(PLN)for teachers. I read several post that I believe will be helpful to me as a new teacher.

Using Technology for Effective Communication was one of the first posts that caught my eye. This post listed several ways to communicate with people around the world not only by phone but also by using the Internet. Communication is an important part of a teachers job. Teachers have to communicate with students, parents, other teachers, principals, and special classroom guests. One forms of communication the post suggest is twitter because it is a quick direct message tool. The only problem that I seem to face when using Twitter is that people do not check it on a regular bas sis. This past week I experienced this fault first hand. After missing class due to the storm I direct messaged everyone on Twitter and I only received one message back.

Another post that intrigued me was Using Skype to Connect ESOL Students with Foreign Language Students. We have recently began discussing skype in class and I think it is a wonderful toll that teachers should take advantage of. Skype presents a whole new way to teach and learn. When using skype to learn about different countries around the world students learn more then any text book could ever teach. They learn about technology, geography, language, culture in as little as fifteen minutes. Skype allows students to experience different cultures without leaving the classroom, its like a field trip only a lot cheaper and less stress full.


The Pencils and Crayons to be Banned in Schools post also caught my eye. This post caught my eye for a slightly different reason though, it was humorous. I feel teachers need to have a good sense of humor in order to keep from going crazy. This post played on the fear of the unknown. People feel technology will corrupt the classrooms because they are afraid of change. Teachers should not be afraid of technology but should embrace it because it was created to make their lives easier.

This was a great collaboration professional block that i will bookmark and visit time and time agin as a new teacher.