Social Justice!

Even though there are students who may not have computers at home, I do not feel like I should put the entire class at a disadvantage and withhold the use of technology so as to not alienate these select few students. Computers and the internet are so prevalent today that even if one doesn’t own a computer at home, there are so many resources where technological needs can be met. There are oodles of public libraries that have computers, and there are computer labs at school. There is so much free public access to computers that there is no excuse to not include it in the curriculum.

I definitely think that I would be doing my students a disservice if I do not use technology in the classroom. By not using technology in the classroom, I am setting my students up to enter college or the workforce untrained in any technological aspects and immediately throwing them into these situations unprepared. I completely agree with the social justice article when it says that “Students without these skills are at a decided disadvantage in terms of future educational and employment opportunities in our global, technological, and information-based society.” (Swain, & Edyburn, 2007). In the working world, getting hired is all about having experience, and if these students are getting no training in technology, they will not be marketable in the workforce.

I think that the social justice article had a lot of useful tips for how to get technology in the classroom: “The Digital Equity Portal has more than 150 strategies and resources for addressing key aspects of the digital divide. Many of the associated issues (access to hardware, software, digital content, connectivity, and support) do have solutions. There are computer refurbishment Web sites where schools can obtain computers and also ways to get deeply discounted computers. There is also a growing collection of free or open source software available. Educators must search for ways to make instructional technologies accessible in the class and a normal part of the learning process.” (Swain, & Edyburn, 2007) I think that there are so many ways that we as teachers can try to help out students who do not have access to technology outside of school. It might even be something as simple as taking time during lunch or after school to help students who do not have access to technology at home.



Swain, C, & Edyburn, D. (2007). Social justice choice or necessity?. Learning and leading with technology, 14-18.

Totally Awesome Power Points!

Today in class we all did power point presentations that had to include a plethora of graphics and such! I really enjoyed all of the presentations in our class today. I will not name many names, but I have to say that I really super enjoyed Brandon's and Steven's presentations. They were so fun and interactive. Music is near and dear to my heart so I am always up for looking at music theory, and I was humbled to see how little I know about Geography. I also really enjoyed how many awesome pitctures were used during the presentations. It is awesome to see the work that people put into these and the creative pictures, videos, and sounds that were included. I also loved the use of humor by many people.

Just a few not so engaging awesome things: I do not enjoy when presenters just stand at the podium and read mainly from note sheets, it's a little boring. Also when sound clips or movie clips don't work properly, it is a little distracting and disruptive. But it is great when that doesn't trip a presenter up and they just roll with it!

I think one thing I could do to improve for next time is to talk more about all of the awesome pictures I included in my presentation. I am really excited about the pictures I included, I realize I should have talked more about them. I liked how other presenters used a picture as a jumping off point for a really cool anecdote about their subject.

I love using power point presentations. When used properly, they can be such an effective way to convey information and you can make them funny, exciting, and engaging. There are definitely cons to a power point if you use them ALL the time, or if you are just a boring presenter, or if your presentations are confusing and complicated. But I love them and I love making them as exciting as I can and funny while still conveying everything I am trying to get across.

Nice job everyone!!

i cn rite jst fin kthxby

Chatspeak. Oh dear.
I don't know if I would go as far to say that chatspeak is destroying the English language, but I definitely think it is destroying many aspects of writing. Decreasing vocabulary, bad spelling, grammar and punctuation. Yikes.
After so many years of text messages and instant messages, I started noticing in myself that when I wrote emails I wasn't capitalizing my I's or using proper punctuation. When I realized I was becoming a dummy myself, I made a conscious effort to change. I have never used 'u' or 4 or things like that at any time in any form of communication. I refuse. I am not so busy with my life that I cannot and a Y and an O.
Linda Howard says in the article, "...and many young people will have a difficult time drawing the line between acceptable and unacceptable dialogue in everyday life, especially in written communications." (Is chatspeak destroying, 2007). I completely agree with her. While it is true that children are getting writing practice in school, the amount at which they are practicing chatspeak on a daily basis versus the time they are practicing proper writing is night and day. Think of how much time kids spend on instant messaging devices and sending text messages. Many hours a day.
I would like to reference something I found a couple of years ago when I was browsing 'Twilight' websites to make fun of fans of this series. The Twilight fans did not disappoint. I found a 'list of 100 reasons why Twilight is better than Harry Potter' (Which it most certainly isn't, BTDubs.)
Some of these geniuses had truly profound reasons for their love of this awful story:
"The reason it is better to Twilight: 2 words: love story. Becoz Harree Pottur totaly isnt. Da sacrifize ov life 2 save othurs isnt luv at all."
Are you kidding me? I can't even give you an A for effort....Complete and total F.

Here's another one:
"The reason is is better to Twilight: Since it is just common sense this is like the dark! Haha. Romance means everything. Bella and Edward are like, ment 4 each other, and everything is easy...PERFENT! In Harry Potter, in that that will destroy Harmonie like...fall in love or something...and then to watch people die in a freaky way, and then there's creepy stuff...GAHH! but yea. (: I do not like his twilight is all about the idiot love to get away from her problems."

Did anyone understand that at all?

(Taken from http://movies.msn.com/superfans/twilight/twilight-vs-harry-potter-face-off/top-100-reasons-twilight-is-better-than-harry-potter/ )



Oh how I fear for the world.


Other reference:
Is Chatspeak destroying english? (2007). Learning and leading with technology, Retrieved from http://www.iste.org.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is a means of people tormenting other people via online 'social networking' sites or online communication tools.

I have had a few encounters of cyberbullying that left very lasting impressions on me. The first and most devastating was while in high school, I had a 'live journal' which was basically a blog that you wrote about random teenage happenings. All of my friends had one and encouraged me to start one. Not soon after I did, I started receiving very harsh comments on my blog. I was always teased a lot in school and the teasing continued online. People left scathing anonymous comments on this blog that upset and disturbed me so much that I closed the account and never looked at it again.

Fast forward to my freshman year of college when I was still using AOL Instant Messenger. I had a stalker my freshman year of college and one of the ways he got in contact with me was by finding out my 'screen name' through his roommate's computer, then would instant message me creepy things. When I would block him, he would just create a different name. And a different name. And a different name. It was insane. When both of these incidents happened, I was definitely not thinking at the time "Oh gosh, those cyberbulliers again!" Instead it was just a feeling of being lost and devastated. I don't even know if the term cyberbullying was around when I was in high school.

The biggest problem that school face in dealing with cyberbullying is that most of it happens off of school grounds, so how can they punish students for things that are happening outside of school? Many schools are now implementing cyberbullying rules into their anti-harassment policies. I think one of the biggest hang-ups with the whole issue is that kids may never report it. I never told anyone in high school that I was being tortured through my online journal. I didn't think there was anything anyone could do about it.

I think that schools should most definitely step in and take a stand against cyberbullying. Kids being mean to each other at school is one thing, and getting threatened is a huge problem, but to be in your own home where you should feel safe and receive this vicious text on your computer screen? It's horrific.

I think that not only in my classroom, but all over the school, there should be posters encouraging students who are cyber bullied to come forward and tell an adult. Many students probably don't even know that they can get help. In my classroom I will just have an adult discussion with my students sometime towards the beginning of the year addressing the issue and show some of the articles about teens that have killed themselves and cyberbullying was involved. I might also send a letter home to the parents to be aware and just keep an eye out when their child is online if they are looking really upset while on the computer at some point. This is a hugely important issue that schools and teachers should definitely get involved in.

Great Googly Moogly!

In googling my name I quite pleased with the results. Many of the sites that popped up brought back a lot of nostalgia. The only concerning thing was how many people have my parents address. I sure do hope that no creepy stalkers decide to show up there. Although I am pretty pleased that I have apparently managed to fly under the radar since I have moved to Portland. The majority of my search results involve my work in Panama. Some examples are an article that was posted in my college newsletter: http://www.salisbury.edu/henson/newsletters/hensonnewsfall07.pdf

There are also a handful of pictures associated with my name from Panama but they are all animals. I have nothing on a google search that I am ashamed or embarrassed about. I am proud as a future teacher to have links associated to my research in Central and South America. The weirdest result that Google yields is that I am apparently a variety of pickle:
http://www.gujaratplus.com/00-01archive/arc310.html

I suppose I should be flattered....go figure.

I believe that teachers should be held to some sort of community standards in terms of their personal lives, because we are working with children. Obviously parents would be concerned if they knew that the person spending all day every day with their children was a stripper who has cocaine for breakfast. At the same time, I do not believe a teacher should live in fear of being seen having a good time on a weekend. We are all adults and if we conduct ourselves accordingly, that should be the end of the story. One of my teacher friends no longer goes to have even a single beer at a bar for fear of running into parents. I am not saying that it is ok for a teacher to be crawling in the gutter blacked out drunk, but I should not have to feel ashamed for drinking beer at a tailgate and running into a student and their parent(s). I also do not think that it is reasonable for teachers to be judged based on their dress outside of work. If I chose to wear a miniskirt or halter top on a sunny weekend, that is my choice. I would never wear that to class, but I should not have to dress like a "teacher" 7 days a week just because I go out in public. I think the biggest thing for teachers to keep in mind is "what would a principal or my student's parents think of this?" Because word travels like wildfire and I am not trying to get caught up in any of it. As far as things like Facebook goes, don't post wildly inappropriate pictures or slander your school or the school district, that should be common sense. Keeping your facebook page private or not even searchable will avoid even more drama as well as not 'friending' your students.

Some of the stories in the article flat out hurt my head while some of them were pretty troubling. The teacher Tamara Hoover who was fired because nude photographs were found on her partners site... this bothers me. I don't know all of the details of the story, but if we assume that the teacher did not broadcast or make her partners website publicly known within the school, then someone went searching for it and discovered the pictures. I do not think it is fair that this teacher was fired. They were professional photographs not being distributed or published anywhere. She most likely didn't say in class "hey you should check out my parnter's website." This goes back to my 'teachers shouldn't have to live in fear' philosophy. She is an art teacher, and her partner is a photographer, nude photographs make sense to me. I wouldn't want my students to see it, but my partner shouldn't have to hide their work because people are going to snoop.
As far as Anu Prabhakara goes, I think she was asking to get canned. First, I think not talking badly about your school, the parents, or students should be a no-brainer. ESPECIALLY on a social networking site, ESPECIALLY if you are 'friends' with your students. If you are with your friends or family, bash away, everyone needs to vent. But venting on a social networking site, come on. That is asking to be found and fired.


References:
Carter, H, Foulger, T, & Ewbank, A. (2008). Have you googled your teacher lately?. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(9).

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Ah, technology. Can't live with it, can't live without it. I would consider myself to be a digital immigrant teetering on the verge of digital ALIEN. As Prensky says in Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: "Today's older folk were "socialized" differently from their kids, and are now in the process of learning a new language." (Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the horizon, 9(5).) Sure, I grew up with the original nintendo and a commodore 64 computer with a floppy disk drive. But I also grew up reading and playing outside far more often than I was glued to a television or computer screen. The majority of the computer and video games I played were educational (Reader Rabbit, Number Munchers, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing) and a great deal of the television I watched was at least remotely educational (Sesame Street) I was never playing fast moving, mind altering video games. After I reached a certain age (maybe 13 or so) I stopped playing video and computer games all together and only read books and played outside (I did watch television.) I got a cellphone at the end of high school but was not allowed to 'text.' One thing I am a strong believer in is that the reason I am such a fast typer is because of instant messaging on the computer.
I mostly base my spot on the technology-savvy scale by comparing myself to my brother, who is four years younger than me. My brother had many video game systems and played complicated computer games. He had a cellphone at a much younger age as well. He never enjoyed reading, and would spend the majority of his time playing video games with his friends. In one of Prensky's articles he says: "They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, video games, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all other toys and tools of the digital age." (Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the horizon, 9(5).) Compared to me, my brother is definitely a digital native.
The majority of my technology experience in college was focused on complicated laboratory equipment. I learned things like NANO drop technology and cell counters, but during this time was also when SMART boards were being invented and I had not yet seen one. Through all of high school and college students and teachers were still using overhead projectors and power point presentations. When I entered teaching as a substitute I also used overhead projectors and wrote on clear film with overhead markers. It was not until my first day of graduate school that I saw a SMART board for the first time and I still have not used it.
I think that technology has improved learning through the use of the internet. Being a science teacher, one of the handiest things we have is being able to jump on the internet and immediately pull up a picture or a diagram or a video of something we are trying to explain. Whereas before, teachers would have to request VHS tapes, we now can search for almost any video we want and have it instantly. This is a huge resource. There is a lot of other amazing technology available for teaching science, but realistically, schools will not be able to purchase the majority of it. I do not think much needs to change from what is being used in the classrooms now in order to have valuable learning experiences. I think that Prensky is overreacting when he says: "school often feels pretty much as if we've brought in a population of heavily accented, unintelligible foreigners to lecture them. They often can't understand what the Immigrants are saying. What does "dial" a number mean, anyway?" (Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the horizon, 9(5).) I think that students frequently feel their teachers are old, lame geezers who couldn't possibly understand what they are going through, but I do not believe that students learning is being severely hindered by having to look at a powerpoint presentation rather than learning via intergalactic video game.
These articles did not change my mind on the use of technology because technology is already going to play a part in our classroom. There is going to be a compromise among the generations. I am not going to go home and spend my free time playing Grand Theft Auto in order to better relate to my students just like I know that they are not going to go out and buy a bunch of punk rock vinyls in order to better understand me. I will learn how to use SMART boards and classroom related technology if it will improve my teaching style, otherwise I think that my enthusiasm, experiments, and some good old fashioned powerpoints will convey my lessons just as well. We also have to think realistically about what our school will actually be able to afford to have in it.

Introduction

Welcome! My name is Keri and I hail from Silver Spring, Maryland. I am getting my endorsements in Biology and Integrated Science and would really like to teach high school Biology.

My favorite animal is the Plesiosaur. Dinosaurs are totally awesome and I still cling to the hope that Nessie exists. If Nessie exists she is definitely a Plesiosaur.

I would love to ride around on a giant swimming dinosaur!

RAR!!!