final reflection

I really liked the technologies I explored for my personal technology project. In the teaching that I've done (I'm a Writing Fellow, so I do a lot of tutoring students with their writing) I think the thing I've struggled the most with is helping people organize their writing. We teach writing by outlining, but for a lot of people that really isn't an effective way for them to organize their ideas. I liked mindmeister and the website I found because they really allow the students to individualize their learning and take control of it themselves. I've had students physically cut out their ideas and move them around, but it's so much easier and neater to do it on a program.

I also really like goodreads. I think it's important for English students to see that their teacher enjoys reading recreationally, and doesn't just read Shakespeare and Chaucer. I really want to create a kind of reading community where my students can share recommendations with each other and with me and where my students can see what I've read and enjoyed. I think teaching my students to love reading is one of my biggest responsibilities as an English teacher, and goodreads provides a venue for me to facilitate that.

Personally, I just liked having all of these different technologies I had to learn. It overwhelmed me at times, and some of them I probably won't ever use (I despise video conferencing/comments and I think I always will) but it was really good for me to just try until I figured them out. I think I gained a lot of confidence in working with technologies and that will help me a lot. Technology changes so quickly that confidence that you can figure new things out is much more important than actually mastering one specific technology, I think.

internet safety video

This is my favorite of the internet safety videos I watched. It's very short, but communicates the idea well. I like that it's not as menacing as a lot of the other videos I watched. I felt like a lot of them were really dark and sinister and that adolescents would view them as being over the top or unrealistic and disregard what the videos were saying. This one seemed more down-to-earth and relate-able, but still clearly explained that it's dangerous to post too much online.

Personal Technology Project

My personal technology project involves mapping outlines for essays.

The objectives it relates to are:

11th grade

Objective 2
(Extended Writing): Write to analyze literary text and explain informational text. (Emphasize expository writing. Students should use the entire writing process to produce at least one extended piece per term, not necessarily limited to the type of writing emphasized at individual grade levels.)

a. Select an organizational pattern that suits the topic.
b. Provide detailed evidence and examples to substantiate arguments.
c. Support arguments with logic and text references.


In order to do this, I would first teach the students about the three main types of organization for essays (informational, persuasive and compare/contrast). We would discuss the different ways theses are written for these three different essays and different strategies for writing each type of essay. (We would write one type of each essay throughout the year.) I would initially have students think about a topic related to our class discussion that they wanted to explore more fully. I would then direct them to the following websites to explore which type of essay would best fit their topic idea. Their first assignment would be to do a rough outline of their type of essay on these websites and print them off to bring to class.

• http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/essaymap/ (informational essay)
• http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/persuasion_map/ (persuasive essay)
• http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/compcontrast/map/ (compare/contrast essay)

Here is an example of an essay map a student would produce. (the website lets you print, but not save, so this is just a scanned copy. Sorry it's kind of small.)


I would then put the students into partners with another students who was writing the same type of essay as they were. I would have them share their rough outlines and discuss their theses. I would then have them use MindMeister to create a detailed outline for their paper. I would tell them to have all the points from their essay map and then add quotes or facts and analysis of those facts. I would tell them to make these different things easy to recognize through the use of different fonts/colors/symbols for each different part of their outline. I would tell them to draw connections where they felt they were relevant.

This is an example. The purple nodes are quotes from the poem, and the green nodes are analysis/commentary on those quotes.



I would then have the students share their maps with their partner and see if their maps and connections made sense to their partner. After getting input from their partner, each student would begin a draft of their paper.

I think this is a useful tool for allowing students to organize their ideas and make sure they are clear BEFORE they start writing. Strong pre-writing makes the drafting process a lot easier, and this technology makes it easy map ideas, move things around, share with others and draw connections.

symbolism video

This video would be used in conjunction with the following UEN standards:

9th grade
Objective 3
(Comprehension of Literary Text): Comprehend literature by evaluating the contribution to meaning of several literary elements within a work of literature.
Interpret figurative language in literature (i.e., simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, and symbolism).

10th grade
Objective 3
(Comprehension of Literary Text): Comprehend literature by recognizing the use of literary elements across genres and cultures.
Analyze the use of simile, metaphor, pun, irony, symbolism, allusion and personification.

If I were using this in the classroom, I would have read Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" with them before they viewed this video so that they were somewhat familiar with it. I would then assign them to watch the video and write down their ideas about symbolism in the poem and bring them to class. Then we would discuss the symbolism they saw together, emphasizing that sometimes people see slightly different symbols in the same thing, and that's ok. Then I would give them more symbolic poetry to interpret in small groups.

teaching internet safety to an 11 year old

While I was home for Thanksgiving my sister was begging my mom to let her get a facebook. My mom has decided that she's too young and that it's dangerous to let her put that kind of information online. She was really put out and thought my mom was being unreasonable. So I sat her down and talked with her about the kinds of things people put online that can be dangerous. I signed on to my facebook account and started looking up some of her friends who have facebooks. I told her to try to see if she could tell from the information on their page which school her friends went to or how old they were or where they lived. We found pictures of her friends in their elementary school t-shirts and even found a girl who had posted her phone number in her status. I actually know the older brother of one friend who had way too much personal info on her page and I told him that to help her figure out how to change her privacy settings. After doing that she realized a lot more how easy it is to post personal information online and how she really isn't old enough. (Especially because facebook requires you to be 13, so she'd have to lie about her age.) She's still not very happy about it, because apparently facebook is the it thing for her group of friends right now, but she gets that my mom isn't just being strict for no reason.

internet safety

The Ensign article I read gave these instructions for how to blog safely:

• avoid specifics
• moderate comments
• selectively post pictures
• think before you post
• be positive
• respect others' work

I think these are really important to remember, especially because blogging is such a new technology, and something we don't really know exactly how to deal with yet. We all know not to open the door to someone we don't know who looks suspicious, but there are a lot of dangers in blogging that we don't anticipate. Mentioning school or posting pictures of your house can be dangerous, especially if your blog isn't private. I think it's important that we discuss these safety issues with our students. My little sister is only 11 and wants a blog and a facebook already, but she doesn't really know what's safe to put online. I also think we need to be careful to protect our students. We shouldn't post anything about the name of the school we teach at or information or pictures of our students, especially because they are minors.

Technology Resources for Students

I LOVE the OWL at Purdue. We use it all the time in Writing Fellows. It's a great resource that succinctly and comprehensibly explains how to write well. It encompasses everything from pre-writing strategies to how to avoid plagiarism to how to paragraph well. It's a great resource to share with your students so that they can easily look up information when they need it. I know there are a lot of style guides out there, but I think that this website is more friendly to techno-savvy youngsters, and also is a lot easier to navigate. (Have you ever tried to look something up in a style guide? It's awful!)

Technology in English

I don't know about you guys, but sometimes it feels harder to integrate technology into an English classroom than it would be in a different discipline. I found this website though, which offers a lot of information about how to integrate technology into an English classroom. I really liked it, so I thought I would share it with you.

Check it out!

copyright infringements!!

I'm hoping I just happened to pick two bad examples, but the two videos I chose to watch both infringed on copyright laws.

The first, We Didn't Start the Fire, basically has video and pictures to go along with Billy Joel's song by the same name. While it was interesting to see pictures of the actual historical events, none of the pictures were credited, nor was the song itself. Since the pictures were older, and of important historical events, I'm sure it would be possible to find pictures that were ok to use for a project like this, but the video doesn't state where the creator found any of the pictures or video. I think the biggest issue is the use of the song without any credit.

The second video, Classroom Rules, had the same issue. It used more than the allowed 30 seconds of Vanilla Ice's "Ice, Ice Baby." Other than that it's just him rapping his own words to the song and dancing ridiculously, which while not pretty, isn't against any laws.

On a side note, I second Ashlee's comment that it will be a very bleak day when I rap to my students. Really, no one wants to see me rap. It would be ugly.

social networking

I was asked to tell you a little bit about stumbleupon, which is something I use that could be a form of social networking.

StumbleUpon is basically a tool for you to find websites that interest you. You sign up for an account and it offers you a list of interests you can select. I'm not sure how many options there are for other disciplines, but I know for English you can choose things like British or American literature, poetry, linguistics, writing, etc. Then you download a toolbar that has a "Stumble!" button. When you push that button it takes to to a website that is categorized under one of your interests.
The websites are found by actual people. When I find a website that I think is interesting and that other people with similar interests will enjoy I can push a button that says "I like it!" on my toolbar. Then I categorize the website under one of the categories and it will come up when someone who has selected that website stumbles. It's nice because it's an easy way to find interesting websites without having to sift through everything on the internet yourself.
You also can use StumbleUpon as a social network where you can find friends with similar interests to you and send them messages. When you visit websites through StumbleUpon you can tell it whether you liked them or not to help it 'learn' your preferences. All the websites you have said you've liked are stored on a page under your account, which makes it easy to see the kinds of things other people like as well as offering a convenient place for you to find all of the websites you liked without having to clog up your bookmarks.

As a disclaimer, I tend to waste a LOT of time stumbling, so don't get it if you're prone to get distracted by pages and pages of craft projects or recipes or movie trailers or short stories like I am.

I also have a goodreads account, which I think is another good social networking tool for English teachers. It allows you to select books you like, books you want to read, and to make lists of books. You can connect to other people through the site and share recommendations with them. I think it's a really good resource to learn more about books and get suggestions for new books to read, as well as organize all of the books you like. I often have a hard time remembering everything I've read and enjoyed, but organizing it all on goodreads makes it easy for me to look it up.

personal learning network

Google reader kind of overwhelmed me before, but I think I actually can use it now. That is excellent.


I subscribed to a couple of English teaching blogs that offer ideas about how to teach English at a secondary level. I also subscribed to two library blogs, one of which offers information specifically about new young adult literature. As an English teacher, that's something I really want to stay on top of so that I can offer suggestions to my students. I know a lot of classic literature, but I think that contemporary YA books are often excellent as well and especially useful in helping reluctant readers.

widgets

In addition to a link to my profile, my blog list and labels, I also decided to add a widget showing what I'm currently reading. I think that as an English teacher it is important to always be reading something that isn't required and to share those books with your class. I think if students see that I enjoy reading they'll be more likely to read recreationally as well.
I also added a picture of my pet rabbit, Sebastian, because I love him and I think he's very cute. He's a siamese sable Netherland Dwarf. He's full-grown and only about 2 pounds. He is adorable. I'm kind of like those obnoxious grandparents who share their photos of all their grandchildren, but that's ok.

goals for this course

First: a little background

I like to think I'm adequately experienced when it comes to technology. I'm fairly willing to play around with new applications or websites until I figure out how to use them. I'm good at things I use (powerpoint, word processing, iPhoto, iTunes, facebook, etc.) but there are a lot of technologies I don't really have much experience with. Although, I do remember making really bad, simple html websites with really bright solid color backgrounds and really bright too-big font when I was in elementary school. However, I haven't really done much with websites since then. (Was it just at my elementary school that everyone did that? We thought we were so cool.) I also tend to just use things personally. I fiddle around with iTunes playlists and organize and edit my pictures a little bit, but with the exception of facebook I don't really use technology to commuicate with anyone. I don't have a flickr account or a twitter. I use stumbleupon, but I don't have any friends. If you have stumbleupon you should be my friend so that I'm not so antisocial.

therefore my goals for this course are:

• use technology to actually interact with other people
• learn ways that I could use technology in teaching English
• be comfortable with technologies I would use to create a class website (like voicethreads or blogging)