Copyright Reflection

Yikes...Yikes....Yikes! I am pretty overwhelmed by the idea of copyright. It is much easier to live in ignorance of the many, many, many rules that go along with responsible material use on the internet. The Education World article was very enlightening and complete. I do feel like a have an inkling on what is legal and what is not, but wow, there are a lot of different scenarios that call for different rules. So now I go forward, paranoid of every photo and link that I want to use for teaching. I think paranoid might be an okay place to be, as long as it drives me to check the rules. As I was building my webquest I found myself trying to determine if stories were legally added to sites. I checked the use copyright rules that were attatched with the photos on Fliker. I am glad I am aware...I think. It slows me down, but I know I'll be more responsible in the future.

Design Programs in the Classroom

I can certainly see that a program like publisher could be a great resource. I’ve always been afraid of incorporating technology into visual projects for the students because I’m afraid of the learning curve of the program. I’ve had students do posters and ads the old-fashioned way: markers, scissors, glue, and magazines to cut apart. The results weren’t great. I love the ideas of making postcards with publisher. It would be fun to explore the setting of a novel by creating a postcard from that location. It would be worthwhile to create a brochure to introduce an author or book instead of just a boring report. I’m still a little unsure on how to get past the disparity of students who don’t have a strong knowledge base with computers and design programs compared to kids who are extremely experienced. I don’t think that’s enough of an issue to ignore what design programs can bring to the curriculum and I’m willing to try!

Gwen's Site

http://sites.google.com/site/gwensenglishexploration/

UEN Site Reflection

The UEN site is fantastic. I had no idea this was available. I’ve used this site to access the core requirements and the UEN personal page, but never looked closely at what else was available. Their core information is really useful and I like the link to The Secondary English Teacher site. This location has a great chart that has all grades, 7-12, in one document. As someone who has multiple grades in every classroom, this is the best way to view the core. I love how the material is all centralized. It seems to have a really nice balance of tools for the teacher and the students and a lot of diversity in approaches.

The Pioneer site is a good resource. I was worrying about how to get some of the UVU library resources after graduation and I’m glad this is available. The SIRS search engine on the Pioneer site seems like a really good tool for the classroom. I often have students getting lost and distracted when I ask them to find information on the internet. I have had a student pull up a very…interesting…google image search that involved a playboy photo shoot that the filter just didn’t catch.

I’m generally pretty dismissive of online lesson plans, but I was surprised by some of the interesting and creative ideas. I love group projects and found two really good plans that include that method. There weren’t a huge number on the 8th grade pages, but enough to bring in some great new approaches. I also appreciated all the interactives that could be great for students who finish assignments early, as well as elements that could tempt students to my class website.

How wonderful to have a place to go for relevant videos other than YouTube. There is a lot of great material there, but it takes a lot of time to wade through the bad, the inappropriate, and irrelevant. I think this make the SIRS website also very intriguing, since that filtering process will be done for me.

What I really need now is a whole day to just explore and play on the UEN, Pioneer, and SIRS sites. I can’t wait to share the treasures I’ve found with other teachers I know!

The Internet

I love the internet, warts and all. It is a part of our modern lives, and it has amazing resources. I can’t wait to find imaginative ways to incorporate it more in my lesson plans. I currently either give kids one specific site to visit or turn them loose on the internet to research topics of interest (the school computers have a powerful filter) and let them explore without any real guidance. I really like the idea of providing my students with many pre-approved sites to choose from, and specific goals to reach at each location. This seems like a responsible way to use the internet. It doesn’t overwhelm students with irrelevant information or let them wander aimlessly. I believe in a good filter and a preview of relevant sites that I’m recommending. I also need to follow the links on these “approved” sites because sometimes they take you to unexpected locations. It is such a good idea to have a review of smart cyber rules before letting the kids work on the computer. I recently had a class I was teaching that was reading, writing, and drawing Japanese Manga. I had them research terms and types of Manga. Unfortunately I didn’t Google all the terms before I passed out the words and one student got very graphic descriptions of certain sites because of the Japanese phrase I had given him. Ooops! I still have a lot to learn!

Teacher Websites

1) Google sites is a really nice website that blends ease of use with a professional look. I really like how easy it is to both set up and maneuver around. The benefits are obvious. How great to have all the class information in one place that both the students and parents can easily access. I like how Google sites can be updated quickly and you can add in an almost unlimited number of pages and gadgets into the site. It would be wonderful to post all your assignments onto a page so no student can claim they lost their handout and didn’t know what to do. This is also a great way to get the students used to turning to the internet to get practical information, not just for entertainment.

2) The main drawback is the amount of time that it can take to make this and keep it updated. I currently have a UEN website and I have never been able to get students or parents to check it at all. I’ve put extra credit assignments and homework updates on it but with no results. It is required by the state, but it really is ignored by the students, so I don’t keep it current like I should. I think the fact that Googlesites looks so professional (while the UEN site doesn’t) could make a real difference. I have to think harder about how to make this a useful tool for the students, parents, and myself.

3) It is required for each teacher to have a UEN website for Utah Charter schools. Up to this point I created one just to meet the requirement, rather than every-day use. I’m excited to try creating a very basic page for each class on the UEN site and then linking it too a Google web page. I like all the individual pages we have been introduced so far. I definitely want to include all my handouts on my website, as well as important links, such as audio files of books we are reading, exact Amazon pages where parent can buy the books we are reading, and tutorials on the subjects we are studying. I’m still trying to figure out what the secret ingredient is to make this a useful tool.

My Beliefs

I feel unsure about the best balance of technology in the English classroom. I try to use video clips and some websites in my lesson plans. I’ve had the kids use UtahWrite.com to write five paragraph essays and have them electronically scored. These efforts have added to my teaching, but they also slow things down almost every time. I suspect it’s as much my inexperience as anything else, but it makes me think twice when including it in my curriculum.

I also have a teacher website and I have never been able to figure out how to get the kids to look at it. I’ve included extra credit opportunities, assignment descriptions, even jokes to make it useful and entertaining, but virtually no students or parents reference it. This probably shows my lack of creativity, rather than a problem with the technology. The articles we read have inspired me that there are many more options than I ever thought about, so I’m willing to put aside any concerns and see what is out there. I do believe that I don't know enough to make a fair judgement at this point.