Mrs. Thorp!

I finally started a conversation with a teacher! Mrs. Thorp's Blog is one that I used for my national blogs of teachers. I contacted Mrs. Thorp two days ago and she has agreed to talk to me! YAY!

From Mrs. Thorp!
Rachel,Thank you for taking the time to respond on my blog. I would be happy to have a conversation about technology and teaching. Let em know how I can help you or what format you want to use.Have a wonderful day

My Response!

Mrs. Thorp,
I have really enjoyed your blog and I am using your "Candy Button" idea right now to try and help my brother in math. I thought that I would tell you a little about myself, I am a Junior at the University of South Alabama and I am getting my Degree in Elementary Education. I have lived in the same town in Alabama my whole life and I want to teach at the same school I attended. Thank you for responding to my comment and I wanting to ask you a few questions! First of all, I was wondering where you are located? Did you use technology to teach while you taught third grade? (if so what did you use?) What made you want to start a blog?

Mrs. Thorp

Rachel,
I am glad that you like my blog and that it i useful to you. I am happy that you are studying to be a teacher. We really need dedicated teachers to help the next generation of children learn to love learning.
I will try to answer your questions.
1. I live in Lansing, Michigan and taught third grade for the last 8 years before retiring in a Lutheran school. I have also taught preschool in Lansing and third grade in Bay City, Michigan.
2. Yes, I did use technology in the classroom, but just in the last eight years. We had computers in the classroom , but I also had a laptop which I brought back and forth to school. I used the computer to keep track of grades and attendance. We had a projector that I could hook up to my computer so when I found something on the internet that was useful, I could show the class on the screen through the projector. i made power points very often on my laptop that I also would project on the big screen. I did this a lot in social studies. Our course of study for third grade social studies was Regions of the United States, so during social studies we went on a virtual field trip to all the regions. As we watched the power points we pretended we were sight seeing through the states. To keep the parents informed on what we were doing I created a trip blog. In this blog I shared with the parents what we were learning on our trip across the United States. Here is the link to the blog: http://thirdgradetrip.wordpress.com/2007/11/07/third-graders-visit-west-quoddy-head-maine/
3. I also you used a web page to post my assignments and spelling words each week. Many parents like this because they could see the assignments before I gave them to the class.
4. Right now I am blogging still even though I am not teaching in a classroom. My intended audience is parents and teachers of third graders. I wanted to help parents who want to help their third graders do better in school. Sometimes parents want to help but for some reason do not want to ask their child's teacher or maybe they are homeschooling and need some help. I would like to be there for them if they need the help. I also have some teachers who read my blog because they are looking for some new ideas.
I hope this is helpful for you. I f you have more questions that I can answer, let me know.
It is encouraging for me to know that there are young people like you who want to be teachers! Stay with it. There some children out there who will be blessed to have you as a teacher!
Mrs. Gladys Thorp