Blog Post #14

As assigned, I explored Jose Picardo's blog entitled Box of Tricks. Mr. Picardo is a foreign language teacher at a high school in England where he teaches Spanish and German. He is passionate about teaching and he incorporates technology whenever he can into his language lessons. Reading over his blog was very interesting. He gave some great sites that are valuable resources for teachers. I was particularly interested in the information he gives on making the use of interactive whiteboards more effective. I currently have one in my class, and I am always looking for new and inventive ways to use it. I especially enjoyed reading over his blog resource page entitled A-Z Resources for Education. It had some many great sites and ideas that I decided to add it to my PLN.
I also watched Mr. Picardo's video entitled Top Ten Tips for Using Technology in the Classroom. In this video he gives tips to teachers on ways to get started and be more successful with using technology in the classroom. Mr. Picardo says to use streaming video and music to enhance your lessons. There are plenty of good videos out there readily available from YouTube and Teacher Tube, and he thinks each teacher should have an I tunes account. He also suggests using teleconferencing such as Skype to bring the outside world into your classroom. You could Skype with a classroom from another country or skype with a professional in the field your students are currently studying. Picardo also thinks teachers should create interactive exercises with sites such as Hot Potatoes, learn ways to use the interactive whiteboard more effectively by using sites such as Triptico, and create their own podcasts by using sites such as Garage Band. More of Picardo's suggestions include starting a classroom blog or wiki, making use of social networking sites, and using the numerous amount of free tools the internet has to offer. His last tip is to make the most of your students' gadgets, such as ipods and cell phones.
I think these tips are all great, and as a teacher I would love to start using them all. However, I think it can sometimes be overwhelming, so teachers just starting out with technology should start with one thing at a time. I think starting with "baby steps" will make things easier and teachers will not get overwhelmed. When teachers get overwhelmed, they sometimes go back to more comfortable way of doing things. I am glad I was introduced to Mr. Picardo's site. It gave me lots of new information and lots of new things to try in my own classroom.