First Entry

In the name of robots competing against one another, I had to miss my first Edtec 700 course, so I'm really starting out a day (or five) later than my colleagues, and I just hope the effort is appreciated. I am, after all, writing this while in Maui on my Spring Break. The opportunity cost for my doing this now is reaching more and more staggering levels as each minute passes. Thus, this initial entry will be brief, serving mostly to acquaint yours truly with the methods of posting a blog on blogger.com, and inform all of the existence of my own, previously created blog for my classroom which can be found by visiting hightechhigh.org, clicking on the high tech middle button, then clicking on the "digital portfolio" button, and scrolling down through teh drop down menu entitled, "HTM staff" until finding my name (Joseph Hartman). I've found the use of a blog professionally to be invaluable as a teacher. I try to make new entries every other day, but I think I'm averaging something closer to twice per week. Despite this, the use of my classroom blog has done so much in terms of keeping parents and students up to date with what is happening not only with respect to schoolwork and projects, but with my own life, so that personal meetings or concerns can be efficiently addressed at time of mutual convenience. Often, parent concerns that have come to my attention have been responded to in my blog. this not only gives an answer to the specific parent who raised the concern, but also provides it for any other parents who might have a similar concern or question. The feedback I've gotten from the use of a classroom blog has been incredibly positive, and I look forward to seeing what I can do with an exclusively personal one, as well as ones for my students for use in projects and schoolwork. -joe