Over the past couple of days I have had the wonderful privilege of "stalking" Joli Barker.  When I first googled Joli there were heaps and heaps of links I was a little overwhelmed.  I had no clue where to start and to be honest I was a little intimidated.  I saw links with titles like "Teacher of the Year" and links for various other awards.  Not knowing where to start I just started to open links and soon I had about 15 different tabs open in my browser.  Not only is Joli an award winning teacher but she has so many different ideas and thoughts.  There was so much to read and explore and it was so fun doing it.  I want to be in her second grade classroom because from what I have found and learned about her it seems like they are doing very cool things as a classroom.  Joli does many different things, is an ambassador to different organizations and has won many different awards for what she has done in the classroom.  Some of the different organizations that she is apart of are:

• ePal ambassador
• Smithsonian Classroom teacher
• Member of Smithsonian Center for Education's Advisory Board
• Shout learning educator
• Discovery STAR educator

Some of the different awards that she has won include:

• 2013 TCEA Educator of the year
• 2011 and 2012 Microsoft Innovative Teacher

Most of the technology that I saw her using was for her classroom.  Although many of the different technologies she was using had a hint of her personal life they were mostly connected to the work she was doing in education both in the classroom and outside of it. 

When she was going through school Joli had a hard time connecting what she was learning in the classroom to her world.  When she hit 19 she realized that she wanted to become a teacher.  She gave many reasons why she wanted to become a teacher and they were all great and made me think that I would have though of them myself.  Some of the reasons that she gave for wanting to become a teacher were: because she wanted to connect what was being learned in the classroom to the students outside world, she wanted to make a difference in the lives of the students and the community and because she wanted the children to understand why and how what the students are learning connects to their lives.  It is evident by her blog and different sites that she believes that learning does not only happen in the classroom but outside of the classroom as well.  There is more to learning than what is just inside the classroom walls. 

Throughout this class I have learned about so many different tools that are technological and can be used in various ways throughout the classroom.  Some of the websites that I saw Joli using were:

• Prezi
• Blogger

        The Fearless Classroom
        50+ Ways to Use Glogster
        Mission Innovative: Raising My Own Bar
        WOW! Write Our World
        Action Team

• Glogster
• edWeb
• BrainPOP
• Twitter
• Haiku Deck
• YouTube
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• ePals
  

She uses these different websites for her classroom.  The blogs that she has are mostly reflection and things that she is doing in her classroom.  The other websites she uses with her students, for her students and with her parents.  Of all the things I looked through she really puts 100% into whatever she does.  There are so many different resources out there and the way that Joli uses these websites is great.  I read through some of her Prezi's and it just gets me really excited for all of the different ways that I can use these types of technology in my classroom.  The one blog that Joli has focuses completely on a website and program that has many different functions.  She highlights some of the functions that she has thought of for it in her post 50+ Ways to use Glogster.  This was a website that I had never heard of before.  I went and did a little bit of research and there was so much information.  Luckily the post Joli did about the website helped me understand it so much.  There is not just one function to this website there are countless ways that you can use it.  These are just some of the ways that are highlighted by Joli:

• Ice Breakers for the Students
• Student of the Week Posts
• Class Newsletter to the students and/ or parents
• Cooperative learning tool for the students
• Timelines: that the students can create
• Biographies about the students and about different people that they are learning about
• Spelling tests and to learn the words
• Homework reminders
• Scavenger hunts for the students

This was one of my favorite posts from her because I learned about a new tool that she uses in her classroom that could be used many different ways. 

One of Joli's blogs is completely devoted to talking about fearlessness in the classroom from both the teachers and the students.  This is such a great topic because what does it mean to be completely fearless in the classroom.  Joli explores this topic with her students and herself as a teacher.  There were many different posts about different ways of being fearless and all of them are really good ideas.  Some things that I would have never thought about.  She has produced a global dictionary with her students with words that were new or exciting to them.  She talk about fearless parents relationships, letting go of the fear of change, being fearless in independent learning (allowing the students to do different tasks in their own ways), allowing students to set goals for themselves and asking teachers to facilitates this thinking in return.  Another thing that she suggested was to not be afraid to ask more fearless questions to your students.  Rather than just asking simple questions like who was the main character or what happened in the story to ask "Who do you think is the most influential character in the story? Why do you think so?" She had different ways of motivating students to be more fearless in the classroom. 

Joli uses the technology that has been provided for us in the twenty-first century in many different ways throughout her classroom and even to connect to more people across the globe.  She believes that technology is not just about what can be done in the classroom but what can be done to push the boundaries of the classroom.  She provides so many different examples of how teachers can use technology in the classroom and what can be done to help push the boundaries.  Things like ePal and being able to connect with students and educators from all across the globe is something that would be so cool to incorporate into any classroom. 

While I was going through her blogs a quote from her really stuck out to me:

Though I have never been in Joli's classroom I think she is a fantastic teacher.  She has so many different ideas about what it means to be fearless, how we can use technology in the classroom and how to show students what they are learning really matters in their world.  Her blogs, different tweets and many other spaces show that  she is just so passionate about what she does and is very careful about how she relates to her students and the parents in her classroom.  I would love to be a fly on the wall of her classroom or even sit in on her classroom because there are so many different things that I think I could learn from her.  Just by reading through her blogs and exploring the different sites that she uses I feel as though I have learned so much from her already.  My favorite thing from her is her blog on fearless learning and teaching.  There is SO much to learn there! It is definitely something that everyone should check out because there are some wonderful ideas.  It is a great challenge for all teachers: to become more fearless.

Looking at Liz Kolb's blog is it a little bit overwhelming because there are so many different resources and ways that a teacher can incorporate cell phones into the classroom.  I have always had a hard time trying to envision using cell phones in the classroom.  I always thought that cell phones would be distracting due to texting and the internet but there are so many bonuses to having cell phones in the classroom that my views are changing.  Liz shows many that cell phones are helpful and useful in the classroom. 

ClassPager is a way to communicating with students and allowing them to answer a question directly to the question that you have asked.  I would envision using this with the parents in my classroom.  I am hoping to teach elementary school and so this would be a tool to communicate with the parents and allow them to ask questions or answer ones that I have asked them.  I can see this working if I needed help in the classroom or needed for the parents to send something with their child the following day. 

TextClues is a app where you can text directions to your students or anyone for that matter and then once they find the first clue then you can text them the next clue.  I can see myself using this app for when we are trying to do something outside or when I want my students to find something on their own.  I can give them clues as they get closer or when they find the things that I am wanting them to find I can give them clues to the next item.  I think this would be a fun way to interact as a class and get to explore the world outside. 

Remind101 is an app that we have been using in ECMP355 and it has been such an effective way to communicate with students and parents.  I really like the idea of having this way of communicating with different parents, classes or even colleagues.  I like that the people who you are texting cannot get your cell phone number with.  I think it has been effective way of communicating with us in this class and I would totally use it in my classroom.  I think I could probably even use it when we are in class maybe during silent time and I need to communicate something with the students.  I could text them if some more instructions needed to be passed on and I didn't want to interrupt the whole class.  I could even maybe send them to individual students.

The list of apps that I could use in the classroom from the blog and the session could go on and on because there are so many great apps out there.  These are just the couple that I saw and thought that there was some way that I could incorporate them in a realistic way. 

When I was in elementary school teachers sent home notes and papers through an agenda if they needed to contact a parent.  If the teacher REALLY needed to get a hold of the parent they would call.  Now it seems that everything is done through technology.  Parents are expected to check the teacher's website or blog in order to learn about what the students are doing in school, what homework they have or notes that need to be communicated with the parents.  Parents get emails, texts or phone calls about upcoming events and what the child needs to have in order to be successful in the classroom. 

I want to be a teacher who communicates through all types of media but still have an agenda as a important part of our daily routine.  I want to be able to incorporate technology with old school.  I don't really know how I would do that.  I realize that it is not necessary to be sending notes home every week or day when it is possible to update a website and have all the students and parents able to access it.  The things that I am concerned about is that not all parents and students are going to have access to the technology that most of us are used to today.  There may be students who do not have access to a computer or internet on a daily or weekly basis.  What happens then? We don't want a student or two to be left out because they are not able to gain access to the technology.  How do you balance the two? Wanting to be in a technological advanced world while still trying to include everyone. 

My hope is I am able to have a blog or a class website so that parents can follow along with what we are doing as a class and what is coming up in the classroom.  I want to be able to provide the students and parents who wish to have updates sent to them through email the ability to do so.  If there are parents who would rather have updates through paper I would like to provide that option as well.  This is my greatest wish that there can be a balance between the two so that all my students are able to access the information that they need to be successful in the classroom. 

Does anyone else have any other ideas on how to incorporate a blog or a website effectively while still including all students and parents including those who do not have access to internet or a computer?