Sherry+Turner

My name is Sherry Turner and I am a seventh grade teacher in Surry County. I love middle school because each day is a new adventure. My county has just begun the 1to1 initiative. I am very excited because I enjoy using technology in my classroom. I am hoping that once my students have their own laptops to use, I can reach them on their own levels. I am a digital immigrant, and am in the process of trying to train some of my colleagues in basic technology skills so they will be ready to meet this challenge. My students assist me quite a bit in learning new ways to teach them. I could go on, but I'm out of time.....

A Message from Palmer Seeley: Sherry, having worked for three years with students who have their own laptops, I can tell you that the laptop is a great tool for you to reach them on their level as you predict. However, the tool can also produce a distractions, so we as the teachers must learn to manage the classroom differently.

Thanks for the response, Palmer. I agree 100%

In my session, I learned how to use Trailfire. This is a fabulous tool for using the internet in the classroom. Our instructor taught us how to actually create a trail of websites where we can add sticky notes with instructions, questions, and more. The students can be given a URL to go to the trailfire and they can even make comments or answer the questions right on the sticky notes themselves. You will be able to see who made which comment, also. There are tons of Trailfires already made, and you can search for one that is already created. This is a fantastic tool for showing students differences in the websites, and helping them learn how to determine the validity of the sites they view.. I will be using this tool VERY OFTEN!

Here's my wiki, which also has a link to my trailfire.

http://www.cmsnavigators.wikispaces.com