My name is Melissa Merz. I am currently a 1st Grade teacher! I have had the privilege of being in this grade for the last 4 years, going on 5! I love this age...they are so excited to learn! I am completing my Masters in Education in Reading this summer and can't wait to see where life takes me.
In my personal life, I have been married to my husband for (almost) 10 years...we celebrate our anniversary this October. We have 2 amazing, but crazy kiddos; our son is 7, our daughter is 4. As a family we love to travel, especially to beaches! We will be checking out a new beach, Indian Shores, later this summer.
Blogging is all new to me, but I love learning new things and helping others learn too! =) Any tips or tricks, please share!
BLOGGING?!!? As a fairly confident person in technology, I find myself floundering in some areas of technology integration. BLOGGING is one of them! I am unsure of how it works, how it is viewed and overall the point in having a blog. I also, in general, find myself hesitant when incorporating technology into my 1st Grade classroom in regards to writing. I don't feel it is a bad thing, but one I am unsure of the best approach, ease of sites, knowledge of students, etc. I think, like anything else, we need to expose our kids to these resources. Having taken courses to complete my masters, I am amazed at how many useful tools their continue to be that I had no knowledge of prior. We want to expose our kids in the same way.
Incorporating writing into technology needs to be carefully and meaningful thought and planned out. By researching best practices and ways to incorporate it into our curriculum is the first step for all educators. Then it is imperative to teach students the nuts and bolts of technology. Once the groundwork is set, it is then that educators can start building writing skills through blogs, emails, etc.
As a teacher and parent, I think the hardest, and most worrisome thing about having kids publish their work or commenting on others is the respect factor. People don't realize their comments have consequences; for themselves or for the publisher. It can cause upset to the author, or it can create personal issues for the person commenting, and vice versa. Teaching children that everything that is written, is permanent. Working on having them think before they write is crucial.
