Interview

I really don't have anything completed mainly because it took me most of the time to get my password into both bloglines and my blog to work correctly. Lately, for whatever the reason my password is never good and I have to go through this process of getting the password and/or link to Google and verify everything. Frankly, it is driving nuts and believe me I'm not forgetting the password. When I finally did get in, I didn't really understand the assignment.

Ning - Social Networking!

I just got through checking out a social networking site called Ning
and it looks like it could be a great tool for the future English classroom. Although, I haven't created a social network at this time, I did check out related information for the creation of one. I noted that when you do create a social network it can be listed as private, a feature that I know many of us would enjoy if we were to use this in the classroom. All in all, this site offers an opportunity to create your own profile questions, and to upload all kinds of media, such as photos and videos. From what I could see the possibilities are almost endless!

Now, with the end of the semester approaching, I will share with you the wonderful source of the above information and various other new technology related informational sites I have posted at various times to my blog.

I received the information about the site in an S.O.S.: Help for Busy Teachers e-mail from Kathy Schrock. The e-mail is part of a free newsletter subscription I have through Discovery School.com, and offers plenty of useful technology sites and tips that can be used in the classroom. I would highly advise signing up for this e-newsletter(Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators) by going to the Discovery School website. Although the main focus is on science, there are enough extras that make this more than worthwhile.

Small-Biz Owner Blogs

I found this article quite by accident while I was looking for an old Las Vegas article dealing with students and guns in school.

The article, What Small-Biz Owners Can Learn From Blogs, might deal with small business owners, but it is a real nice reminder of how more and more of us are using the internet for not only fun and games, but also for educational and business-related purposes. It's also a great way to show students that there are more uses for blogging than just fun. It helps to show a link to the real world that many might not think of when using blogs.

Take a look at the site and see what you think. There are some really good blogs here.

Cyber Bullying YouTube Video

This is the Video about Cyber Bullying referenced to in our Movie Maker and iMovie Videos for Project III.

watch video

I e-mailed this to myself from YouTube and the following information was a part of what I received. Basically, the information is provided by the maker of the video BlueSky2006. There is a website included at the bottom of the message for anyone interested in learning more about Cyber Bullying. This is a serious issue that continues to grow almost as rapidly as weblogs and it definately deserves our attention -- Barb

Video Description

In the short time I have been active in the YouTube community (since December 2006), I have found cyber-bullying to be prevalent, and it really needs to stop. It's mean, hateful, disrespectful, abusive, and it hurts people.

Cyber-bullying is turning YouTube into trailer trash - people have also committed suicide because of it.

FYI: You can also be arrested for cyber-bullying.

So treat others the way you would want to be treated, and there will be more peace in the world and more peace on YouTube.

Many adolescents face being potential victims of violence in their communities, schools and homes on a daily basis. For some young people, those external threats create a hopelessness and depression that can lead to suicidal thoughts or actions.

The spike in teen suicides in the United States is staggering. In 1950 the rate of suicide for 15-19 year-olds was 2.7 per 100,000. Two generations later, in 1990, the rate had increased to 11:1; a jump of more than 300 percent. Current statistics suggest that a young person in America attempts to take his or her life every 42 seconds.

Though few would argue that bullying alone is to blame, the current literature includes many references to students being driven to suicide by peer abuse. In 2003, the journal Adolescence published a study on bullying and victimization which describes how "exposure to repeated insults and rejection by peers can generate deadly results such as suicide or homicide." Clearly, ongoing victimization can create or exacerbate adolescent depression and low self-esteem, perhaps raising the risk of a suicide attempt.

Bullying is not isolated only in schools. It happens in work, in church, and in other arenas in life.

Bullying Statistics: http://www.highlands.k12.fl.us/~msdp/BullyingStatsResources.htm

Question?

Does anyone know why my blog archive is showing up in Spanish? I didn't change anything and everything else is in English. This is kind of weird.

All right, after I posted this the first time around it seemed to fix itself. Still though, I'm wondering if anyone else has had this type of thing happen?

iPods banned in schools?

I read with both shock and dismay an article on Yahoo News entitled, "Schools banning iPods to beat cheaters."

The whole article dealt with how school districts are trying to stop students from cheating on tests by banning iPods. I was shocked that school districts found it necessary to do this. One paragraph in particular caught my attention and made me think of Dr. Stearns.

"Mountain View recently enacted a ban on digital media players after school officials realized some students were downloading formulas and other material onto the players."

The reason I thought of Dr. Stearns was because of the "downloading" of formulas. All I could hear in my mind, when I read those words, was Dr. Stearns asking us "Why are we concerned with getting students to memorize the formulas? They can get this information anywhere." I have to say this is so right. This paragraph is an excellent example of "traditional" education in action. Instead of being concerned with how students might be using the iPods to cheat, I think that more emphasis should be concentrated upon how iPods can be used in the classroom to make the lesson clearer and more exciting for students.

I have to add that I was disappointed with this article mainly due to the fact that the writer didn't balance her article very well. She waited until the last two paragraphs to introduce Tim Dodd the executive director of The Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University.

Dodd, commented about how the university not only provided students with iPods, but experimented with the students and the devices to see if they could be utilized for learning purposes. The journalist quoted Dodd as saying, in the last paragraph, "'Trying to fight the technology without a dialogue on values and expectations is a losing battle . . . I think there's kind of a backdoor benefit here. As teachers are thinking about how technology has corrupted, they're also thinking about ways it can be used productively'."

This comment should have been placed a lot closer to the beginning of the article, since journalism handles the most important details first and uses the not so important details at the end of the article. To me, this is stating that, although, the topic is worthy of comment, it really doesn't mean that much overall. It's almost as though the journalist was treating this as an afterthought and that is what really upsets me the most with this article.

Check out the article and let me know what you think. I've linked it twice in this post, because I really think this is an important article.

Exploring History

Once again I have discovered a really neat site, thanks to Kathy Schrock. It is called Old Magazine Articles, and I really enjoyed looking over some of the articles and cartoons I found at this site. The articles were published from 1860 to 1922 in a wide array of magazines from those time periods.

Some of the topics deal with weird science, such as the egg laying hens that were fed wine to "up" the egg production, and the cartoons showing a German occupation of New York City. That one was quite strange, but intriguing when you think about it.

Besides those items what I really found neat about this site are all the articles that can be found there. Some of them are very nostalgic and I can easily see the connection between then and now that could be made by using these in the classroom. Students would be able to glimpse the world of say, WWI, and then be able to compare and/or contrast it with Vietnam (or another war), and then go further to take a look at what is going on today in Iraq. Many critical questions could be asked and students would be able to use the internet during the process.

Some other topics I noticed while browsing the site included the Civil War, Prohibition, Women's issues, Immigration, the Titanic, the Ku Klux Klan, Native Americans, Opinions about Americans and even old movies.

Savanna Smiles

When Dr. Stearns asked us to comment about someone we admire or would like to be more like I immediately thought of Savanna K.

I greatly admire how Savanna is always so well organized, enthusiastic, and cheerful. Don't get me wrong, I have seen Savanna in a down mood before, but most of the time she is very upbeat and caring. She is so well organized that she always has her work completed and always seems to have something intelligent and thought provoking to say.

I wish in some respects I could be more like this. Unfortunately, I have trouble thinking on my feet (I know probably not a good thing to admit, especially when wanting to be a teacher, but . . .), and quite often I will come up with something intelligent to say well after the fact. In Savanna's case though, she never seems at a loss and is always considerate of others. All are skills that I know will be a great asset for her when she begins teaching.

Savanna is the future teacher I know that I would love to have had.

Teachable Moment With Charity

Charity was interested in learning more about how to change the colors in the posting text while writing a blog post. It was interesting to show her this, because from there the short hands on lesson became an extended lesson on working with changing colors and text fonts within the actual blog template. Charity is now happily changing all of her fonts and colors and smiling while she does it.

Google Tips - Neat Blog

Kathy Schrock shares a lot of great information based upon teaching and technology. She has a blog and this entry features some Google search tips. Many of you probably already know these, but I thought some of them might be useful for those who don't. Also, her blog features other items and I believe is accessible through this link.

Try it and see what you think.