Thursday, December 8, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Shapes All Around Us- Digital Story (created by Mallory and I)
Here is the link to my digital story! :)
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Social Networking- In and Out of the Classroom
When Facebook first came into the social networking scene, I was a student at Southern Connecticut State University. Facebook was a way to connect, and network, with your school peers. In the meantime, you came across people you went to high school with, as well as mutual friends. Did I ever think I would be thinking "Hmmm, should I accept or deny this parent as a friend?", or "Do you think this picture is appropriate if a parent sees this?" Unfortunately, these thoughts have crossed my mind mutual times.
I try to keep my personal life as separate from my school life as I can. If I ever mention school on Facebook, I try to keep it in a postive light, unlike some educators mentioned in the following articles:
High School Teacher Loses Job Due to Facebook Comments
Superintendent Loses Job Over Facebook Comment
Now with everyone and their mother (literally, even my Grandma has Facebook) on Facebook, everyone knows your every move at every second of the day. As educators, we seem to be one of the only professions held under a microscope for every little thing we do. So what's the difference between having a picture of me on Facebook holding an alcholic beverage and a parent seeing me at a restaurant holding an alcoholic beverage? Life shouldn't have to stop just because we are educators. Yes, we are role models and definitely have high standards held. Privacy settings are available and we pick and choose who is our Facebook "friend". If a teacher chooses to post nasty comments about their school and has parents/co-workers are Facebook friends, well maybe it shouldn't be a big surprise when you're under the fire.
According to Sarah Kessler in The Case for Social Media in Schools, "Social media as a teaching tool has a natural collaborative element. Students critique and comment on each other’s assignments, work in teams to create content, and can easily access each other and the teacher with questions or to start a discussion" As far as social networking in the classroom, I feel that it does have many potential benefits, especially with websites like Kidblog.org. Kidblog offers each student in class a blog without requiring an active email address. Teachers can monitor each students blog, and the blogs are only available to be viewed by the students and yourself.
In a room of 20 students, it can be near impossible for students to review and give feedback to each other. A classrom social network can certainly give the opportunity to peers to review each other's assignments and work on assignments collaboratively. For example, students can create their blogs at the beginning of the year and create an "All About Me" blog. Students can include photos, websites, and other information that is only accessible to the students in their classroom. Other students can comment on the blogs or be required to ask 1-2 questions per student.
Another idea is for students to create projects on their blogs that are all "pieces of a whole". For example, if a class was studying minerals (like we do in the spring in 3rd grade), each student could be assigned a mineral to describe, give attributes, show pictures, etc. Students could use social bookmarking to put their links and references into a site like Delicious, which could help other students. When finished, students could use the blogs to answer different questions about certain minerals, as well as ask each blog creator questions about their minerals. Wow, the idea sounds so good that I may need to start thinking about this project for the spring!! :)
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I try to keep my personal life as separate from my school life as I can. If I ever mention school on Facebook, I try to keep it in a postive light, unlike some educators mentioned in the following articles:
High School Teacher Loses Job Due to Facebook Comments
Superintendent Loses Job Over Facebook Comment
Now with everyone and their mother (literally, even my Grandma has Facebook) on Facebook, everyone knows your every move at every second of the day. As educators, we seem to be one of the only professions held under a microscope for every little thing we do. So what's the difference between having a picture of me on Facebook holding an alcholic beverage and a parent seeing me at a restaurant holding an alcoholic beverage? Life shouldn't have to stop just because we are educators. Yes, we are role models and definitely have high standards held. Privacy settings are available and we pick and choose who is our Facebook "friend". If a teacher chooses to post nasty comments about their school and has parents/co-workers are Facebook friends, well maybe it shouldn't be a big surprise when you're under the fire.
According to Sarah Kessler in The Case for Social Media in Schools, "Social media as a teaching tool has a natural collaborative element. Students critique and comment on each other’s assignments, work in teams to create content, and can easily access each other and the teacher with questions or to start a discussion" As far as social networking in the classroom, I feel that it does have many potential benefits, especially with websites like Kidblog.org. Kidblog offers each student in class a blog without requiring an active email address. Teachers can monitor each students blog, and the blogs are only available to be viewed by the students and yourself.
In a room of 20 students, it can be near impossible for students to review and give feedback to each other. A classrom social network can certainly give the opportunity to peers to review each other's assignments and work on assignments collaboratively. For example, students can create their blogs at the beginning of the year and create an "All About Me" blog. Students can include photos, websites, and other information that is only accessible to the students in their classroom. Other students can comment on the blogs or be required to ask 1-2 questions per student.
Another idea is for students to create projects on their blogs that are all "pieces of a whole". For example, if a class was studying minerals (like we do in the spring in 3rd grade), each student could be assigned a mineral to describe, give attributes, show pictures, etc. Students could use social bookmarking to put their links and references into a site like Delicious, which could help other students. When finished, students could use the blogs to answer different questions about certain minerals, as well as ask each blog creator questions about their minerals. Wow, the idea sounds so good that I may need to start thinking about this project for the spring!! :)
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Thursday, November 10, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
New Literacies
When I originally heard the term "new literacies", I immediately thought that it was using technology in the classroom to improve reading and writing. I guess you can say that is the broad (very broad) definition. There is definitely a lot more to new literacies than just that!
Dr. Donald J. Leu, professor at the University of Connecticut, refers to "Literacy as Deixis", meaning literacy rapidly changes. Children beginning kindergarten this school year have much more of an advantage than children who began kindergarten 3 or 4 years ago, due to the amount of change in technology that schools are integrating.
New literacies integrate 21st century skills and technology into reading, writing, and communication. Since they are constantly changing at such a rapid rate (like Dr. Donald J. Leu mentions in video 1a in the following link: http://ctell.uconn.edu/canter/canter_video.cfm?movie=1a_new_technologies.mov), educators need to trained at these rapid rates as well. Does this happen? Unfortunately, not so much. For example, I know a teacher in Connecticut who received an interactive white board in her classroom at the beginning of the 2011 school year. As we enter the second week of November, she is finally receiving training. Yes, this is great technology to have in her classroom. But, this is quite a disadvantage to her students when it cannot be used to it's full potential.
As educators, it is very important for us to be aware of the NETS, or the skills and knowledge we need to change the way they teach, the way we work, and the way we learn in an increasingly connected global and digital society. Don Knezek, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, speaks more on this below:
Reading through the NETS for students and teachers, it is a bit overwhelming to me. I see different strands that I feel at this point are out of my control without the proper funding, supplies, and training. The NETS for students definitely are set to prepare students for the 21st centutry, specifically the 21st century job market! The NETS are high standards and seem to be based off of higher level tiers of Bloom's Taxonomy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomy).
In my classroom, I have tried my best to incorporate my interactive white board for each and every lesson that I've done. Our reading anthology series, StoryTown, has a digital edition for students to read at home. During shared reading, I pull up the digital edition on the interactive white board and play the audio for students. Vocabulary words are highlighted and I can also underline or circle certain parts that I want students to focus on. Also, Time for Kids (part of our social studies curriculum) has a digital edition that I use on the interactive white board. Articles come alive with video and audio clips and I feel that my students seem to be more engaged when we do the lesson this way (as compared to last year). My students have used Net books to publish stories they have written in class. It has also given me an opportunity to let them transfer their skills from Computer class in our classroom.
Dr. Donald J. Leu, professor at the University of Connecticut, refers to "Literacy as Deixis", meaning literacy rapidly changes. Children beginning kindergarten this school year have much more of an advantage than children who began kindergarten 3 or 4 years ago, due to the amount of change in technology that schools are integrating.
New literacies integrate 21st century skills and technology into reading, writing, and communication. Since they are constantly changing at such a rapid rate (like Dr. Donald J. Leu mentions in video 1a in the following link: http://ctell.uconn.edu/canter/canter_video.cfm?movie=1a_new_technologies.mov), educators need to trained at these rapid rates as well. Does this happen? Unfortunately, not so much. For example, I know a teacher in Connecticut who received an interactive white board in her classroom at the beginning of the 2011 school year. As we enter the second week of November, she is finally receiving training. Yes, this is great technology to have in her classroom. But, this is quite a disadvantage to her students when it cannot be used to it's full potential.
As educators, it is very important for us to be aware of the NETS, or the skills and knowledge we need to change the way they teach, the way we work, and the way we learn in an increasingly connected global and digital society. Don Knezek, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, speaks more on this below:
Reading through the NETS for students and teachers, it is a bit overwhelming to me. I see different strands that I feel at this point are out of my control without the proper funding, supplies, and training. The NETS for students definitely are set to prepare students for the 21st centutry, specifically the 21st century job market! The NETS are high standards and seem to be based off of higher level tiers of Bloom's Taxonomy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomy).
In my classroom, I have tried my best to incorporate my interactive white board for each and every lesson that I've done. Our reading anthology series, StoryTown, has a digital edition for students to read at home. During shared reading, I pull up the digital edition on the interactive white board and play the audio for students. Vocabulary words are highlighted and I can also underline or circle certain parts that I want students to focus on. Also, Time for Kids (part of our social studies curriculum) has a digital edition that I use on the interactive white board. Articles come alive with video and audio clips and I feel that my students seem to be more engaged when we do the lesson this way (as compared to last year). My students have used Net books to publish stories they have written in class. It has also given me an opportunity to let them transfer their skills from Computer class in our classroom.
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