I wish she was my computer science teacher

I spent a lot of time looking at teachers' blogs on Sunday, and the one I found most interesting and insightful is coolcatteacher.blogspot.com. The author of the blog is Vickie A. Davis. She is a computer science teacher in Camilla, Georgia at Westwood School. I was very impressed by her because not only is she a teacher, mother, wife, active community member, and devout Christian, but she writes on her blog daily. She has a passion for helping her students to understand and use technology in meaningful ways. Her blog is an instrument for her to teach other educators to use innovative technology in their classrooms and also encourage them in their daily struggles as teachers.

Her audience is a combination of teachers, administrators, the technologically inclined, and parents across the nation. She is very aware of her readers and often asks for their input or comments about her posts. Interacting with them on a website called cocomment is a regular occurance. She has a large community of readers as seen by the number on her "feedburner" (it reads 602), but she doesn't appear to be in a specific community.

The appeal of her blog is that she genuinely enjoys her her job and she is constantly updating her audience on the latest technology. Not only that, but she teaches them how to use the technology she mentions with step by step instructions. In addition, she is very professional about it. She doesn't bad mouth her colleagues or students in any way, shape or form. As a future teacher myself, I think her blog is inspirational because it's positive and aimed at helping other teachers to be the best they can be. Most importantly, she is very humble. Her blog has numerous awards, and she has a vast number of readers, yet she doesn't claim to know it all or to be the best teacher. Her readers sense that, and it draws in more readers daily.

I am going to try to keep up with her blog because it has a wealth of information to offer. I noticed that she uses wiki pages in her classroom so I went to the website, and I ended up making my own because I thought it was so cool! At first glance, I was a little overwhelmed by all of the new vocabulary (skyping, podcasting, wiki pages, blogosphere), and I am learning new technology "lingo" with each one of her posts. But her class wiki pages defined the terms listed in parentheses above, which helped a lot.

Vicki's blog is one of the top blogs in her profession right now, and it is paving the way for a whole new era of teaching; a world where teachers are constantly being renewed and sharpened by one another; creative ideas are racing from one side of the globe to the other; and students are learning in ways that keep them engaged and connected to the world around them.