Mod 6 Blog

Blog Link

The above link is what I commented on. It's called "Think Before You Post", By Steve Katz.

This revolves around the issue of suspending a teacher in PA because she blogged negative comments about the school that she taught in and her students even though she never mentioned where she taught or any student names. I found this to be interesting because this is what we are learning about in this class, blogging as teachers and sharing ideas. We need to learn to know when we take things to far. In my opinion though, I do not think the teacher should have been fired because noone was named in this incident. But I would advise teachers to be careful before talking negativly about their school and students like that.

Podcast

Podcasting is a good way for students who have trouble reading to listen to stories or listen to important information. I found a website that had a section dedicated to famous histroic speeches from George Washington, JFK, Obama, and Ronald Regan just to name a few. Below is the link to The Gettysburg address. This is a good way to integreate technology is other content areas such as social studies.

http://www.learnoutloud.com/podcasts/GSIH-070209.mp3

Zuckerman

Zuckerman talks about how Twitter is heavily a Brazialian and African American space. Many topics and conversations are African American. This was found doing research. Example: mostly cookout is a African American conversation. This was never intended to be this way. The interent was made to put us all on the same level.

He thinks a problem is we need to solve global problems.

I was not a fan of this video or what he had to say. I had trouble following what he was trying to say.

EPALS

This is a very awesome website for educators and students to share projects and lessons. I think teachers can use this to share lesson plans or activities/projects that they have used in the classroom. This is an easy way to share. Not only is it idea sharing, but the activity or worksheet is already completed for you. I think it's great that teachers share their work instead of hide it from each other.

It's also nice because families can use this to share their work or view their students work. They can see what their child or other children in their students class our working on. It is hard for some parents to make it into the school, so this is an easy way to share. This is also a great way to share the students work with other family members such as aunt/uncles/grandparents/family friends.

Big Huge Labs

I was able to create my own movie poster. I think this is a really unique and fun idea for students to be creative. In a previous field experience the students did something similiar. They have to create a movie poster about a book they just read. They have to choose movie stars as the main characters and promote the book as a movie. I think this is a faster, simplier, and possibly more presentable way of doing the same project. This is also a great way to intergrate both ELA and technology together.

Here is an example of a movie poster I made.

The website is called, bighugelabs.com

Creative Commons

There are many types of creative commons licensing. There are 6 of them as follows: 1. Attribute - most accommodating license 2. Attribution- Share Alike- lets other "rebuild, retweek upon work." This is "copyleft" free. Wikipedia uses this type of license. 3. Attribution- NoDerivs- Allows you to redistribute "as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you." 4. Attribution-NonCommercial- You can retweak work but you have to acknowledge the original source and be non-commercial. But, you do not have to follow the same licensing terms. 5. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike- You can remix or build upon others work, but you have to give them credit and use the same terms. 6. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs- Most restrictive license. You can't change the work, you can only download it.

by imjustcreative

photo by : imjustcreative

Twitter

These are the following links that I looked at this week: TwitterVerse I was completely blown away from the 1st links blog. Her idea of using twitter for educational purposes was outstanding and something that I would have never thought of on my own. She made a twitter account for two characters, Romeo and Juliet. She had the students 'tweet' what they thought each character would say. This is a fun and modern day way to do a graphic organizer and talk about character traits and predictions. When I originally through about twitter for school, I just thought of using it for teachers to 'tweet' lesson plan ideas to eachother. It never came across to me that the students could use this for educational purposes. Twitter Guidebook This is also a VERY good resource that I will be using. It gives you everything you need to know about using twitter, especially from a teacher's perspective. This shows why and how a teacher can use twitter. This is so helpful and great.

Ning-Post#2

http://www.classroom20.com/

I really liked this open link in the ning group. I found the comments from other teachers to be useful and insightful. There are so manny fun and interesting discussions that you can take part in such as "calenders, maps, presentations, etc." It has information for all areas of education from pre-k, elementary to highschool, special education, and even gifted and talented which never gets mentioned in places.

Connectivism- Post#1

A learner is like a chameleon, constantly changing to fit in with its surroundings. I say this because I find that with technology people constantly have to change what they know and how they do every day activities according to the latest technology and fads. “Many learners will move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime.” I find this quote to be interesting because what I take away from this is that people will stumble upon knowledge that they may have not been looking for. For example, this reminds me of how now and days many people get their degree in one field, but may choose a career in another. With today’s economy, I see that one’s qualifications in one field may be applied in another. For example, I am learning to be a teacher, but throughout my studies I am still gaining knowledge on sociology, physiology, and biology, things that I will not be teaching. “Constructivism assumes that learners are not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. Instead, learners are actively attempting to create meaning. Learners often select and pursue their own learning.” People try to choose what they want to know. People have the ability to try and learn about things that are interesting to them, and apply them to their own lives and interpret them in their own ways. If someone does not “have” to learn something, often time’s people won’t pursue to learn it on their own. “Learning is one of forming networks with eachother…most of us enjoy conversations.” This quote came from one of the youtube videos. This shows that learning can come from the internet. A great deal of learning comes from technology and social networking sites such as MySpace, facebook, blogging, etc. Social networking is a great way to share knowledge and thoughts with other people.

Article link: Article
Video for more information: Video

Blog# 2 -- Safety

Here is a list of things to teach your students about blogging on the internet. This will insure safety for them:

• Never reveal personal information, your real name, where you live, your parents names, telephone number or where you go to school
• Never meet anyone you talk to online without asking a trusted adult first.
• If anyone you are talking to makes you feel uncomfortable or is using inappropriate language let your parents know, and stop talking to that individual.
• Never give out credit card information without parent approval, or to someone you do not know over the internet, or for all to see.
• Don't reveal personal or inappropriate pictures of yourself or others
  

I found this article to be very interesting about internet safety in schools. It tells that blogging may not be as dangerous as everyone says it is, if it is used properly. It can actually be quite beneifcial to students. Listed below is the link:

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2007/08/07/schoolboards-net-dangers-over-rated-bring-social-networks-to-school/

Blog Post# 1

As a Literacy Specialist Major, I chose to relate my blogging to reading and writing in the classroom. My activities will reflect NYS Standards for Elementary grade level.

Three ways that blogging can be used in the classroom are:

1. Daily or weekly journal writing. This is something that students can do in the classroom, or when they are at home at night, or even over the weekend. This can be a way to stay in touch with their classmates in a monitored way. The students may be asked to write thoughts of the day, or what they learned, poems, songs, etc. This also is a good way for classmates to read and respond.

This meets NYS standard:

Subject: English Language Arts (1996)

Learning Standard 4 : Language for Social Interaction

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction.
Students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.

Key Idea : Reading and Writing
Written communication for social interaction requires using written messages to establish, maintain, and enhance personal relationships with others.

Performance Indicator : Read and discuss published letters, diaries, and journals to learn the conventions of social writing.

2. Newsletter. Blogging can be used in the form of a newsletter. This can be a good way to communicate with parents weekly. In the classroom the students can learn how to use the blog and they can even help create the newsletter. When they are home, they can assess the blog with their parents to read the newsletter. This is a good way for parents to interact with their children and get involved with their school work. The newsletter is also a good way for the students to stay informed on class and/or school upcoming events, field trips, half-days, fundraisers, etc.

To take this one step further, the parents (with the students help if needed) can post comments on the blog, or questions for the teacher. This can be an open line of communication. With parents and teachers busy work schedules, it's hard to schedule meetings or phone calls to talk to the talk teacher.

This would address the NYS Standard:

Subject: English Language Arts (1996)
Learning Standard 4 : Language for Social Interaction

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction.
Students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.

Key Idea : Reading and Writing

Written communication for social interaction requires using written messages to establish, maintain, and enhance personal relationships with others.

Performance Indicator : Exchange friendly notes, cards, and letters with friends, relatives, and pen pals to keep in touch and to commemorate special occasions

3. Book Reviews. Blogging can also be a place where students can write reviews on books they are reading inside and outside the classroom. They can write what genre the book is from, and give pros and cons to the book. This will help their classmates decide if they want to read that book too or not.

Subject: English Language Arts (1996)

Learning Standard 3 : Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation.
As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.

Level : Elementary

Key Idea : Speaking and Writing

Speaking and writing for critical analysis and evaluation requires presenting opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information, and issues clearly, logically, and persuasively with reference to specific criteria on which the opinion or judgment is based.

Performance Indicator : Express opinions (in such forms as oral and written reviews, letters to the editor, essays, or persuasive speeches) about events, books, issues, and experiences, supporting their opinions with some evidence

Performance Indicator : Use effective vocabulary and follow the rules of grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation in persuasive writing.