Reflective Blog #3

I do believe that bullying is a big issue that we, as future teachers will be dealing with possibly on a daily basis. Yes, we can monitor the children in our classroom, then they are right in front of our eyes. Yes, we can monitor the kids to make sure they don't have cuts, bruises, burns etc. But how do you monitor what they do at home? How do we monitor how they are feeling on the inside? Cyber bullying is just as big of an issue as regular bullying and it is a lot harder to control and monitor.

Cyber bulling would allow the bully to be somebody they are not and act out of the ordinary, because in reality the chances of them being caught or getting reprimanded for what they are doing is very slim. It is difficult to trace the origination of a web chat or an email without the help of experts. If the victim is brave enough to speak up and say that they are being bullied online, is it easy to find out who the individual is that is doing the bullying? No. So how can we stop it? As teachers we need to look for signs that our students are being cyber bullied.

I think that it is going to be very important to bring this up in the classroom, and let the students know that it is ok to speak out about being bullied and not be embarrassed or scared to say anything. The more the students are aware of it, the more comfortable I would hope they are with myself as the teacher, their classmates, and the classroom environment. I do believe that it is important also to make the students aware of some of the outcomes of cyber bullying; and that it is not right! As future elementary school teachers we need to set a good example for our students because many of them do look up to us as role models.

Since most of the cyber bullying will be done while the child is at home on their computer we need to communicate with the parents too. It is their responsibility to monitor what type of websites their child is visiting and who it is they are talking to. I think that a newsletter should go home to the parents and make them aware of cyber bullying and let them know that you are concerned with their child's online use. With the communication and support from both the concerned teachers and involved parents, it will hopefully reduce bullying and cyber bullying in our schools.

SOME HELPFUL LINKS

http://www.kidpower.org/who-we-serve/how-to-stop-bullying.html?gclid=CM2PjLbwn6ACFQ8eDQodL09kbA

This is a website that may be helpful not only to students, but also to parents. It provides different ideas to help kids understand bullying and offer a variety of opportunities that will turn into fun learning experiences.

http://www.webwisekids.org/index.asp?page=webDangers

WebWise Kids makes kids aware of the dangers online and also did include a true life story about a girl named Katie; I think that these true stories will really get the kids attention. Also provided are a list of mind boggling statistics about cyber bullying and online dangers.

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html

Stop Cyber Bullying is a user friendly website that offers prevention tips, parent roles, and most importantly gives a clear thorough definition of what cyber bullying is. It also gives explanations as to why kids or individuals chose to cyber bully.

http://www.connectsafely.org/?gclid=CMPtsYu8oKACFQQNDQodtQ6JZQ

Connect Safely provides many safety tips and waring signs for cyber bullying. It also provides Safety Advice and gives people the opportunities to become a member of the website and become part of their 'community'.

http://www.ncpc.org/cyberbullying

NCPC stands for National Crime Prevention Council and helps guide teens and young adults in the right direction. It provides information about why and how teens are cyber bullied, how to prevent the bullying, and what the outcome of cyber bullying is. There are also other links that are provided for further information about cyber bullying.

http://www.loveourchildrenusa.org/

Love Our Children is more than just a website about cyber bullying but about real life statistics about the Children of the USA. Throughout the table of contents there are different topics such as: parenting education, legislative updates, success stories, inspirational etc.

http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/adults/default.aspx

Stop Bullying now has helpful tips on what we can do as adults, educators, friends and even possible victims themselves. It also gives examples of what different parts of the country are doing to try and prevent any sort of bullying not just in the schools, but in the neighborhoods and communities we live in.

http://www.cyberbullyingprevention.com/

Cyber Bullying Prevention is an organization right out of our home state of Illinois and does provide free seminars and workshops to make individuals of our community aware of the issue. This website includes videos, workshops, and other detailed information about cyber bullying.

http://middle-school-life.suite101.com/article.cfm/cyberbullying_prevention_tips

This website is specifically geared towards the middle school age, which in my opinion may not even need it the most. Yes, the kids are at a difficult age, but they somehow got this way. This website gives examples of cyber bullying, some of which you wouldn't think even is considered cyber bullying, but it is.

http://www.cyberbullying.us/

Cyber Bullying Research Center has day to day updated information about cyber bullying and the children of our country. Most importantly it has a link for people like us to 'share your story', I do think that this will help children take the first step into talking about their troubles.

Reflective Blog #2

Halverson, R. and Smith, A. (2009). How New Technologies Have (and Have Not) Changed Teaching and Learning in Schools. Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 26(2), (49-54). Retrieved February 15, 2010 from EBSCO Host Academic Search Complete.



The author states, "First, massive investment of public resources attempted to create universal access to technology in schools. Second, public research investments created high-profile examples of how to use the technologies for progressive instructional practices. Together these conditions were supposed to spark revolutionary changes in classroom practices." But where is the money coming from, how can we fund the expense of these new technologies in the classrooms? Once the funding has been taken care of it is up to the learners to succeed. The author states, "Learning goals are determined by the learner, and the learner decides when goals are satisfied and when new goals are in order. Technologies for learners emphasize information resources, such as search engines, wikis, and blogs, that allow for information retrieval, browsing, incidental learning, and participation.



Silk, E. Higashi, R. Shoop, R. and Schunn, C. (2010). Designing Technology Activities that Teach Mathematics. The Technology Teacher. Retrieved February 15, 2010 from EBSCO Host Academic Search Complete.

The author states, "Mathematics taught within well-designed technology education lessons provides students opportunities to learn math in contexts that they understand and that can lead to cross-discipline connections. Contributing to math instruction helps convince school and district administration that technology education should continue to be supported." Math is a difficult subject for many students to grasp, and the more ways to teach the subject and attempt to connect with the child the better the chance they will understand it. The author also states, "even when we were successful at getting students to develop general mathematical solutions, it continued to be challenging to get them to communicate their ideas explicitly. Students can learn a lot by simply explaining their ideas to themselves and to others."

Wilson, J. Notar, C. and Yunker, B. (2003). Elementary In-Service Teacher's Use of Computers in the Elementary Classroom. Journal of Instructional Psychology. 30(4). (256-264). Retrieved February 24, 2010 from EBSCO Host Academic Search Complete.

The author states, "the lack of preparation and training, and inconsistent levels of success achieved by students and teachers as reasons not to use technology. However, Guba (2000) suggested elementary teachers want to be competent in the use of computers and see them as valuable in enhancing students learning but class load and time management were varies to implementing computer-assisted instruction in the classroom." This article shows the results and computes data about the use of the computers in the classroom to show it's effectiveness. The author concludes, "faculty should be encouraged to model and integrate computer technology."

Simonsson, M. (2004). Technology Use of Hispanic Bilingual Teachers: A Function of their Beliefs, Attitudes and Perceptions on Peer Technology Use in the Classroom. Journal of Instructional Psychology. 31(3). (257-266). Retrived on February 20, 2010 from EBSCO Host Academic Search Complete.

The author begins, "studies have been conducted to describe teacher technology use, attitudes, and self-efficacy without including a multicultural component in their framework. Studies on bilingual teachers and technology practices regarding incorporating cultural aspects in the curricula using technology are scarce. Therefore, bilingual teachers, were surveyed." It is very important that the teachers are well educated and familiar with the technology that they will be incorporating in the classrooms. If the teacher isn't able to present the learning material properly using the technology the students won't get the same learning results. This article displays the results from twenty-five elementary school campuses that did participate in the study; the results varied greatly. The author concludes, "Bilingual teacher technology use has been described as a function between the teachers' believes, attitudes and the school culture. The teachers' beliefs and attitudes are interrelated. Attitudes may be improved by giving teachers more exposure to technology."

Chang, C. (2008). Development and validation of the Computer Technology literacy Self-Assessment scale for Taiwanese Elementary School Students. Adolescence. 43(171). (623-634). Retrieved on February 26, 2010 from EBSCO Host Academic Search Complete.

The author begins, "because of the increasing importance and pervasiveness of technology, educators have recognized that its integration into education is one of the important issues for educational reform and innovation." It is important to prepare elementary students for the future and not only teach them subject-specific knowledge, but also teach them about technology. This article presents results of a study for different grade levels. "In order to determine possible differences based on grade level, fifth and sixth graders' scores were compared on the subscales of the CTLS." The article concludes, "the first expected relationship between Internet experience/behavior and computer technology literacy. Overall, students who used the technology for their learning tasks, were more competent."

Reflective Blog #1

Classroom Blogs

How to Learn English - http://how2learnenglish.blogspot.com/

This blog seemed to be very confusing and the layout didn't help much either. The colors were very plain and nothing stood out as to what information would be most helpful. I did however like in the heading different languages saying what I would think is "English" or "How to learn English". When you watch some of the videos they don't translate from one language to another, they just demonstrate how to pronounce certain words and gives a definition of the word and may further use it in a sentence. I do not believe the title to this blog fits properly. I wouldn't recommend this blog to other educators.

Writing, Reflecting, Sharing, Producing and Questioning - http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=84725

This blog immediately grabbed my attention. The colors weren't too drastic and it was very easy to navigate. I think that the sections were labeled accordingly which made browsing much easier. This blog is very interactive and evens has examples of student work and participation. Going forward, it also has the listed assignments for the students right online (I think this is great - some students have poor organization and may have forgotten to write down the homework). I would most definitely recommend this blog to other educators.

Educational Blogs

Free Technology for Teachers - http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

I am on the fence with this blog. It seems to capture the right idea about connecting with the students; they are glued to their cell phones and facebook, but does that mean we should encourage more online learning? All students don't learn the same way, and some may have a more difficult time than others. The links that are used on this website seem to be very helpful and a great way to find out different ways to make your classroom more interesting. I may change the layout of the page so all of the links aren't on the same side. I would most certainly suggest this blog to other educators mostly to get their input and their recommendation.

Yes Tech! - http://shoemap.edublogs.org/

I think this blog is organized perfectly. I really like the calendar days displayed for each day's post, and more importantly I like the video. It is much easier to stay focused on an animation in my opinion than reading some boring paragraphed text. The colors are very calming and easy to look at. The font size and style aren't obnoxious and highlight what is important in the paragraphs. I would recommend this to other educators.

Teacher Blogs

Math Videos Online - http://www.math-videos-online.com/free-math-videos-online-blog.html

Since I am in a math concentration I immediately wanted to view this blog. Math is a very difficult concept for many students and the more variety I have to present the material the better chance they have of understanding. The tool bar along the left hand side of the page is very convenient and helps navigate through the site. If I can understand this website I am sure that my students would pick up on it quickly as well. It isn't too busy and seems to be very user friendly. I really like the layout and the fact that it's simple. I would most certainly recommend this to other educators and may even possibly keep this link and hope it's still like this in a few years from now for my own use.

So You Want to Teach - http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/

I don't like this blog. It is too busy and there is too much to look at, I don't know where to begin. There seems to be too many links that will lead you to other sites and you may not know how to get back to where you started. One thing that I do like however, is the color scheme. I most likely wouldn't recommend this blog to other educators, I may ask them to view it and see if they could better assist me in navigating through the site. Once you look into the site a little further and spend some time viewing the different links it does give some good advice. Ex) How do I keep my students quite? Once you view this page however, it does give advice but it also gives a numerous amount of other links, which I think is just too much.