Reflection Tool 11

In 1983, I was an English teacher at a neighboring Houston school district. As head of the English department, I was assigned the task of booting up the new computers in our brand new lab each morning. This task took a great deal of time and I viewed it as a nuisance. One morning my principal asked how I felt things were going in the new lab. After compalining that the booting up process was taking a great deal of my planning time, I told him that there was very little value to the programs that students were using since they were all grammar lessons with short sentence examples and fill in the blanks. I doubted that computers would ever have a place in true teaching situations.

Needless to say I view things differently now. Computers have opened up so many possibilities for students...many of which I just became aware of in this training. I will use blogging as a tool to get students involved in new units of study. A strategy that I have used in the past has been to display a collage of pictures associated with the culture and geography of a country. Then students wrote their observations about this country on a long sheet of paper attached to the collage. Now I will do this same activity in a blog. I can make a poster, or a photo story and have studetns blog their comments.

Using the computer to research has been a long standing essential in the classroom. However, after completing Tool 11, I am more aware of the fact that I must be the one who initiates good Digital Citizenship. I will incorporate it into my lessons each time the computer is used.

I am now a believer....computers have a place in the classroom.

Digital citizenship Tool # 11

Teaching students to be responsible in the digital world is extremely important. If we are truly giving them these tools to use we must help them understand that with the rights to use them come responsibilities. The Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship could be used as a starting point. Throughout the year I will discuss and explore what each theme means. Students can generate examples and non-examples of each theme. I will post an anchor chart to remind students of these responsibilities. Teaching students to be good researchers is an ongoing process. In order to get good pertinent information on any topic, the student must learn to go beyond the first site they find. After finding appropriate information, students must be taught to take notes and then use the information in a format that follows the guidelines of the assignment. This takes time and a committment of the teacher to circulate and guide students as they research. As part of the students social use of the internet, they must understand the implications of what they say to others and how they say it. I liked the lessons available in Texas Schools Safety Center from Tesas State concerning Cyberbulling. I will use these to develop awareness through the activities in those lesson plans. Teaching Digital Citizenship is so important that we should integrate it into our lessons each time we send the students to the computer.

Tool #10

Having never used an i pod, i pad, i touch or an i anything, I find the idea of using them a bit overwhelming. Yet I have had students bring theirs to class and use them for research. It was facinating to see how quickly they were able to find the info. they needed. Google Earth looks like a valuable tool for teaching geography and map reading. Being able to have a birds eye view will make the idea of land elevation much more concrete for students. It also allows them to see landforms more clearly. I would also give the math games a try. Several of these inculding Sudoku, Wooden Labyrinth and Hangman, are fun for the students when using paper and pencil, so using an iPad would make it even more exciting. I do worry about the lack of socialization this creates. Will students be so involved with the i devices that they distance themselves from classmates? Time will tell.

Tool #9

I can see Jing being use by students when they collaborate on a project. If they are working from home, they can use this tool to share visuals that they may want to incorporate into a project.

Skype opens opportunities for a penpal situation. The great part is that students see each other while they are communicating. I used Skype last year while on a Fund for Teachers. Science at Sea experience in Alaska. It was a fabulous tool to share with colleagues and students while learning in Alaska.

Tool #8

As a World Cultures teacher, I feel it is important to give the students visual examples of other cultures. Watching the experiences of other students, opens my students' minds and increases their awareness of cultural differences and similarities in other parts of the world. I chose Pennies for Peace because it is a current issue with a component the allows students to become involved in the process of bringing education to students in poor, war torn areas by collecting pennies. My second video will be used in my math intervention class as a fun and snappy way to reinforce fractions. I will continue to use video to reinforce my curriculum.

Tool #7

I really enjoyed Photo Story. I have used it before in my classroom for student product after research. During those lessons, I assisted students, but did not ever totally complete one on my own. It was a good experience finding pictures to use with my curriculum. My only problem was adding the music. I am still not completely happy with that part of the story, so I will continue to fiddle with it until it is what I want. Then I will post my Photo
Story for all to see.