Toni Twiss's Page

Toni, thanks for explaining all the letters. : ) I am the only teacher at my school using Web 2.0 technology and one of the few in a very large school district. In fact, as far as I can tell, our IT department is following my lead so they can make decisions based on what I am doing and want to do moving forward (this is an incredibly scary thought). As a result, I am trying to soak everything up and then pass it along...

As for my (former) student, I think we all assumed from the very beginning that he understood English because he was from NZ. Whoops!

Toni, it appears that there are a lot of abbreviations that I need help on! Let's start with ICT, LMS, VLE. I think I have a handle on VLE (virtural learning environment?) but I could be way off base so I would prefer I get some clarification.

What I an finding ironic in this whole abbreviation confusion (on my part) is that I just had a student placed in my class that came from New Zealand and his primary language is Tongan. It was apparent within a few days that he could not read or write in English and struggled with math. Additionally, he was placed in 8th grade when he should have been in 7th. It took a few days to get him placed in the right grade and in a program that would support his learning a new language. If I can't fgure out abbreviations (as a professional educator) how frustrating it must be for a 12-year old to follow whole conversations!

I have used cell phones on a limited basis within the classroom. As not all of my students have Internet access with their phones or are limited in their ability to use their phone because of the service plan they have, I have not been able to do nearly as much as I want. I look forward to seeing what your thoughts are.