I explored the personal learning network called "The English Companion." It is a ning designed for English/Language Arts teachers and offers several useful tips, guidelines, and a sense of community for those in this profession.
To give a brief overview of this P.L.N., I created a Prezi presentation.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Cyberbullying -- What it is and how to prevent it
Definition according to stopcyberbullying.org: "'Cyberbullying' is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyberstalking is NEVER called cyberbullying."
Cyberbullying is a very serious issue because it has ended in suicide and murder. Threats made from one student to another should be stopped and dealt with as soon as they are noticed. It is important that as a teacher, I keep a look out for cyberbullying, especially if it is occurring within the classroom. It is difficult for schools to get involved in cases of cyberbullying that occur off school grounds, for that matter exactly. They would be attempting to work out of their boundaries.
However, schools and teachers can get involved at the level of prevention. Teachers can inform their students on what cyberbullying is, how they can notice it, and what to do if they come face-to-face with it. Teachers can also educate students on cyberethics and laws surrounding cyberbullying. The more students know about the problem, the easier it is to report before it goes to far, and hopefully will help prevent it from happening in the first place.
In this case, a blog was created to spread harmful gossip about a high school's various students. The creator can be charged for what they have created, however the creator still remains anonymous. (http://atgeist.com/blog/cyber-bullying-case-at-lawrence-central-highlights-online-issue/).
In this case, a woman posed as a teenage boy and targeted another teenage girl, ulitimately leading to her suicide. (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20241577,00.html)
When exploring cyberbullying, I found this site very helpful: http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html
Cyberbullying is a very serious issue because it has ended in suicide and murder. Threats made from one student to another should be stopped and dealt with as soon as they are noticed. It is important that as a teacher, I keep a look out for cyberbullying, especially if it is occurring within the classroom. It is difficult for schools to get involved in cases of cyberbullying that occur off school grounds, for that matter exactly. They would be attempting to work out of their boundaries.
However, schools and teachers can get involved at the level of prevention. Teachers can inform their students on what cyberbullying is, how they can notice it, and what to do if they come face-to-face with it. Teachers can also educate students on cyberethics and laws surrounding cyberbullying. The more students know about the problem, the easier it is to report before it goes to far, and hopefully will help prevent it from happening in the first place.
In this case, a blog was created to spread harmful gossip about a high school's various students. The creator can be charged for what they have created, however the creator still remains anonymous. (http://atgeist.com/blog/cyber-bullying-case-at-lawrence-central-highlights-online-issue/).
In this case, a woman posed as a teenage boy and targeted another teenage girl, ulitimately leading to her suicide. (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20241577,00.html)
When exploring cyberbullying, I found this site very helpful: http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html
Formative vs. Summative Evaluations
At the beginning of the semester I noticed that I did not realize what formative and summative evaluations were and I did not know the differences between them.
After researching the two assessments, I learned that formative assessments are ongoing and made to realize strengths or where improvements are needed, while summative assessments are used to look back on an event in retrospect of the event.
As a teacher, I would use formative assessment to mark progress in my classroom and decide whether or not changes need to be made in order to better my students' learning or change certain habits they may have. These assessments will also provide opportunity for students to give me feedback as well as for me to provide my students with feedback. These are gradual and allow for changes to be made along the way.
In my classroom I would use summative assessments to note my students achievement over the previous grading period or semester, show evidence of achievement or lack thereof, or to document habits rather than assessing them and changing them, as a formative assessment would allow. These are to look back on what has already been done.
After researching the two assessments, I learned that formative assessments are ongoing and made to realize strengths or where improvements are needed, while summative assessments are used to look back on an event in retrospect of the event.
As a teacher, I would use formative assessment to mark progress in my classroom and decide whether or not changes need to be made in order to better my students' learning or change certain habits they may have. These assessments will also provide opportunity for students to give me feedback as well as for me to provide my students with feedback. These are gradual and allow for changes to be made along the way.
In my classroom I would use summative assessments to note my students achievement over the previous grading period or semester, show evidence of achievement or lack thereof, or to document habits rather than assessing them and changing them, as a formative assessment would allow. These are to look back on what has already been done.
Communication Outside of the Classroom
Communication:
As I have learned through experience in my previous classes as well as through my courses in education, having effective communication with the teacher is very important for the success of the classroom.
Parents:
To communicate with parents, I plan to have a specific section of my class website designed for them. Here I plan to update monthly or weekly, depending on the schedule, upcoming events and activities for our classroom. I will also post permission slips here, as well as classroom policies and rules. Parents will have access to other ways of contacting myself, such as a phone number and email address.
Students:
Students will be able to access the website as well. Here I will post assignments, classroom worksheets and notes, resources to help them complete assignments if I feel they are needed, as well as a forum posting section if an assignment requires interaction among students. They will also be able to see a calendar of upcoming events and assignments to prepare them ahead of time. Students will also be able to contact me via email or the forum if they have individual quesitons.
Both:
I will have a classroom website that will include information for everyone to have access to. There will be specific parts for both parents and students, but each group will still be able to view both. I also plan to send home with the students, as well as email to parents, a monthly newsletter with students for those who may not check the website frequently. In the newsletter I will include recent and upcoming events, as well as a section dedicated to students who have shown improvement or done outstanding on a recent assignment. This will hopefully encourage students to strive to do well in order to get their name in the newsletter.
Other Teachers:
I am hoping that the school I work out will have some sort of wiki or website that will allow for communication with other teachers. However, if this is not the case, I hope to connect with both other teachers in my department as well as those that will also be interacting with my students and create a page or forum in which we can all communicate with each other. I feel this is important because oftentimes teachers can connect lessons across subject areas, unifying learning for the students. I think it is also important that I know what students went through in previous Language Arts classes as well as future ones, so that I can know where they are coming from and where they are going in their studies and hopefully make the bridge from one year to the next easier.
As I have learned through experience in my previous classes as well as through my courses in education, having effective communication with the teacher is very important for the success of the classroom.
Parents:
To communicate with parents, I plan to have a specific section of my class website designed for them. Here I plan to update monthly or weekly, depending on the schedule, upcoming events and activities for our classroom. I will also post permission slips here, as well as classroom policies and rules. Parents will have access to other ways of contacting myself, such as a phone number and email address.
Students:
Students will be able to access the website as well. Here I will post assignments, classroom worksheets and notes, resources to help them complete assignments if I feel they are needed, as well as a forum posting section if an assignment requires interaction among students. They will also be able to see a calendar of upcoming events and assignments to prepare them ahead of time. Students will also be able to contact me via email or the forum if they have individual quesitons.
Both:
I will have a classroom website that will include information for everyone to have access to. There will be specific parts for both parents and students, but each group will still be able to view both. I also plan to send home with the students, as well as email to parents, a monthly newsletter with students for those who may not check the website frequently. In the newsletter I will include recent and upcoming events, as well as a section dedicated to students who have shown improvement or done outstanding on a recent assignment. This will hopefully encourage students to strive to do well in order to get their name in the newsletter.
Other Teachers:
I am hoping that the school I work out will have some sort of wiki or website that will allow for communication with other teachers. However, if this is not the case, I hope to connect with both other teachers in my department as well as those that will also be interacting with my students and create a page or forum in which we can all communicate with each other. I feel this is important because oftentimes teachers can connect lessons across subject areas, unifying learning for the students. I think it is also important that I know what students went through in previous Language Arts classes as well as future ones, so that I can know where they are coming from and where they are going in their studies and hopefully make the bridge from one year to the next easier.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Communication Tools Workout
My group was Claire and Nick and we chose to communicate via facebook chat and message threads. We communicated a lot in the beginning to figure out how we split up the assignment, but did not much after that except when we had questions for each other. I think facebook was the best way to go. It was easy to use and everyone knew how to use it. It went well, but probably would have been faster still to just talk. I haven't ever done anything like this before, so it was a new experience for me. It was hard to have a conversation with three people using technology; a three-way feature would have made it easier, which is why we switched to facebook threads instead of chat. I would have liked to figure out what we were doing quicker, so we could have had more class time to complete the assignment.
Strengths to this assignment include using creativity to figure out the best method of technology to use, as well as getting students to communicate in a different way than they normally would on a school assignment. Students use technology to communicate everyday, so this put a whole new perspective on it. A weakness might be that a more complex assignment would be nearly impossible to complete, unless students had a more advanced way of communicating with each other.
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