This blog will accompany my SAT Prep tutoring. I hope this blog will invite students to interact with me when they have a question about their homework. I also hope to create a community where they can discuss and post essays. I envision this as a way to communicate also when they can not attend class or will be late. This blog will allow me to meet them in their comfort zone, and it will get away from the traditional paper and pencil test preparation. AS the blog grows, they can talk about the test with one another. I learned that discussing the test can alleviate their anxieties.
I also hope to create a teacher’s page where SAT prep teachers and tutors can share ideas. Because I am not in the classroom, this is an area that will suit my needs. As a professional in the educational field, I hope to bring the power of the Web to any situation. I hope to help teachers see that it is not as difficult to integrate technology as they might think. I want technology to be a tool, as common as pencil and paper. I want students to reach far beyond what I know, becoming a teacher to me and to their classmates. Students will take ownership of the information, and therefore would be engaged and immersed in the content. I think the online environments has everything teachers need to be better teachers. It is true that nothing can take the place of a teacher imparting his or her knowledge on students, but the Web can add to the presentation of their knowledge. The Web can help engage students who would not be engaged by traditional teaching methods. It is not often that the average person can create something new. Everyone is his or her own inventor. Web 2.0 puts the power into people’s hands to be more creative, thoughtful, and connected. Nothing else has made the world so small, and the infinite nature of it is fascinating. My students will bring something unique to make a class different each time.
20
Mar
08
A blog will make a good sounding board and prep area for your students. Web 2.0 allows our students to create, share, and publish which is valuable to all.
The idea of this shared space for students or teachers could share ideas and, as you state, help to lower some of the test anxiety associated with the SAT and other tests like this. It seems that the key to this undertaking might come down to the “advertising” of the blog siet to groups who might need this forum.
Good luck.
I agree with that integrating technology is a critical part of teaching. Before it was just for word processing (remember the floppy disks
). Technology can encourage students to take ownership of their learning.
Sachiko