C4T #1

For my first C4T assignment I was assigned to read and comment on The Spicy Learning Blog. This blog is by Royan Lee who is an intermediate literacy teacher in Ontario, Canada. In reading Mr. Lee's blog, I was surprised at how much I was both inspired and challenged.

The first post I read and commented on was titled, "Where I'm From". In this post, he had gone back to an apartment he had lived in as a child. He talked about how the cultural diversity of his neighborhood shaped his identity as a child, and the experience of going to school. He shared how

school was a place that did for him what the internet does for us today. It allowed him to learn about the world outside his home, and helped to understand both his culture and others. Mr. Lee wrote really beautifully about his kindergarten teachers. He wrote about how his teachers were larger than life figures to him. They taught him to sing, share, and provided a safe place for a child to be. He ended the post with a poignant reminder that as teachers we should be that for our own students. In my comment to Mr. Lee, I thanked him for sharing such a beautiful story, and I told him that I hope to always be the kind of teacher that helps to touch a student's life and helps them to see the world in a better way.

For my second comment on Mr. Lee's blog, I read a post titled, "How Evernote+Skitch+Mobile Device has replaced my Document Camera and IWB". This was a post about how you can use applications on your smartphone to do things that you would do on very expensive white board technology, like smart boards. In my comment to his post, I told Mr. Lee that I had no idea that I could use my iphone as a tool in my classroom. I told him that I thought it was very exciting that there are so many tools available to teachers and that I can't wait to get into a classroom to use them.

I really enjoyed Mr. Lee's blog. I ended up reading all of his posts, and they really made me think. There was a post about a photo essay called Where Children Sleep. I really enjoyed that too. I know that we will be assigned new teachers now, but I will definitely keep following The Spicy Learning Blog.