This past week has been very stressful and overwhelming for me as I finished setting up my classroom. Today was my first day of teaching. I didn't realize it until now, but there is not enough time in one day! It feels good to finally have the job I've been working towards for so long. Teaching is definitely a lot more work than I thought, even with all of my practicums and student teaching.

I've been going around my building observing the use of technology in classrooms. What I found the most use of, with no surprise, were teachers using an elmo. As strange as it seems, kids are actually engaged by the elmo. I'm not sure if this is because it's something different that they don't get to see all the time or because they actually use it hands-on, but I could clearly see that the students were focused. This led me to thinking about all the teachers that have elmos just sitting in their rooms gathering dust. Why not use it? It doesn't hurt to try. It doesn't even have to be a transparency-it's just a paper magnified so the whole class can see. I was also thinking of literacy centers and thought of a way to incorporate the elmo into poetry. The students could have a poem and put in on the elmo to point to & read. There could be 3-5 students in that center group and some of them could be pointing/reading on the paper while the others are following along and reading as it's projected. I'm sure there are many other creative ideas that have been done with the elmo. I'm still trying hard to have a TPACK mindset and not a technocentric one!