C4T Assignment #4

Tears

I was delightfully surprised to discover that the teacher blog I was assigned to review this week was Mr. Michael Fawcett. Mr. Fawcett and I had recently become Twitter contacts as a result of an earlier EDM assignment and my attempt to branch out and make connections with educators I may gain valuable insight from. 

Mr. Fawcett's blog site "What Now? What Next? So What?" included an interesting blog titled "Tears". The blog depicted the story of a driven young, nine year old student of Mr. Fawcett's who had donated most of his day planting trees in honor of Arbor Day. I was both shocked and impressed that Mr. Fawcett communicated with this student via Twitter. Not having the opportunity to ask the young student about his volunteer experience, he tweeted to inquire. The student replied with 4 words, "I'll make a doc," and he did! It's not surprising that a teacher would be moved to tears when presented with the opportunity to reach a student who seems so motivated to make a difference and learn. I should also mention that this student, with his parent's permission, regularly tweets and follows Mr. Fawcett's blog. What an inspirational story. If we could all be so lucky......

Summary  

As I stated earlier, it was a treat and surprise to receive Mr. Fawcett's blog as my C4T Assignment. It was delightful to read about such an inspirational young student, his early dedication to volunteering, and appreciation and use of technology. I complimented Mr. Fawcett and the student's parents on their nurturing of his interests, skills, and education at such a young, impressionable age. I would relish the insight of Mr. Fawcett's secret of connecting with his students on a professional level to peak their interest and encourage their fostering of technology.

Final C4T

In my final C4T assignment, I reviewed and commented on a post by Michael Fawcett left on his blog December 15th, 2011. Mr. Fawcett announced the updated ingenious app feature added by Google, Scribbles. The post reiterated the opinion of Dr. Strange regarding the disastrous first attempts of Google, but in this case, they seemed to have come through in the end. 

I told Mr. Fawcett that I could imagine using the Scribbles app as tool for students to play games like "Draw Something" as a fun way to practice or study lessons. An interactive approach using technology like this would be much more exciting than sitting quietly and completing a worksheet.  Mr. Fawcett seems to have a true passion for his students, teaching, and technology. I'm thrilled that he was my final C4T assignment. What a way to end the semester!