Post 5: An Influential Teacher

This may not be completely related to educational technology but it has to be with education and eventually involves technology...
My high school choir director, Mr. Cloud, passed away at the beginning of this month after a long battle with cancer. Though most of his students, including myself, had not seem him in 4-5 years, news of his death spread like wildfire thanks to Facebook's News Feed. Soon enough a group of over 140 of his former students in his 7 years directing at my high school was created and plans for a reunion performance at his memorial service was scheduled (thanks to http://doodle.com).
Though Mr. Cloud had made significant impact in my life, I did not know how great his influence was on all the members of his former choirs until I saw the messages flooding in after his death. Mr. Cloud has touched the hearts of countless people, including myself and the rest of the Rowland Organization of Choirs students. Not only did he teach us about music and performance, but he also taught us to be ourselves. To be comfortable in our own shoes. To be confident in our own unique talents... He made us who we are today and we are grateful to have had such an amazing teacher, mentor, and friend.
 I was lucky to have had Mr. Cloud as my teacher and mentor from freshman to junior year in high school. He was a goofy teacher that was always very inviting. His classroom was always open during lunch and was bustling with students. He led a groups of misfits to find confidence in themselves and their talents. Our choir groups always had an encouraging family-like dynamic within them as well.
As I met with a group of his former students for practice, we were discussing how it seemed to be Mr. Cloud's last gift to us. Because if it weren't for Mr. Cloud, most of us probably would have gone on with not meeting up together. Though we are all greatly saddened over his passing, we are also grateful for having known him. (And 'yay' for technology, making way for all of us who had lost contact with eachother, reunite)

Post 4: SMART Board integrated curriculum

On my final day of fieldwork with my class at Davis Magnet School, my teacher suggested something that I found to be quite interesting. As I was interviewing her regarding the use of technology in her classroom, she mentioned how great it would be to have a SMART Board integrated/utilizing curriculum. She found that while the SMART Board was a great tool to keep students more engaged, but there wasn't enough materials for her to use the smart board for. We were thinking... wouldn't it be great if there was a curriculum that was filled with activities and tools to use with the SMART Board to teach the state-required materials? Because currently, she is having to dig around for stuff online to find things that are only somewhat relevant to what her class is covering. While not every school has the privilege of having SMART Boards in every class, for those that do, I believe that it would be of great help to the teachers for there to be SMART Board integrated curriculum. I'm sure SOMEBODY is already working on compiling resources and tools for such a curriculum. Maybe we'll be seeing them being used in schools in the future.