Blog 14

The last two readings Claire Lutkewitte, Web 2.0 Technologies in First-Year Writing and Elaine Childs, Using Facebook as a Teaching Tool provided all of the links that a teacher of composition may need for teaching writing with technology. The Lutkewitte article brings every link right to your fingertips. Childs on the other hand explains how she used Facebook in her writing class, and how the students and her benefited from writing to one another through this site.

My mind this week is somewhere else. The Superintendent of the district for which I work, decided this week to "reconstitute" the school I work for, citing poor test scores and no "sense of urgency" for improvement. This means that every staff member, administrator, janitor and cafeteria worker that wants to work here in the next school year will have to re- apply. The official article is here http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-fremont11-2009dec11,0,2111040.story

The mood on campus is bleak. Everyone of my co-workers seems demoralized, upset, hurt and angry. A couple of things were particularly upsetting to me. First of all our school was not the high school with the lowest test scores, there are four other high schools in the district with lower test scores. Secondly, these "poor test scores" are a measure derived from ONE test, the California Standards Test, which measures student performance all over California. This means that the scores from students in more affluent communities with more resources in their communities are placed side by side with the scores of our students. This school is located in South Central Los Angeles, territory for five major gangs, high level of poverty, crime, drugs and violence. Well, of course students from Arcadia, or Monterrey Bay will score higher in this test, they don't go to school with hunger in their stomachs or the worry of how mom and dad will pay for electricity in their minds. It is not fair to make such comparisons, not even with other schools in the same district. The school is over populated with over 4,000 students, and understaffed many classrooms with long term subs.

I was also bothered that the Superintendent made this horrible announcement on the day that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was in town. Duncan is a supporter for the privatization of education and drastic school reform. It was all a show for the Superintendent, he wanted to be on the headlines, a hero for reforming such a "bad school". All of this occured while the entire staff had been working for months and trying to unite with the Los Angeles Educational Partnership and work towards improving our school. We were lead to believe that we could work with this organization to create a partnership for the improvement of our school. It was all a lie however, this despicable man had something up his sleeve. He made this decision before consulting with the parents or community. My students and their parents have yet to receive a letter informing them of this important decision.

The announcement was revealed to us teachers at an "emergency meeting" on Wednesday, this because the Los Angeles Times would publish a blog about this that same day, according to the Superintendent he wanted us to hear it from him. So we were all pretty shocked to hear what he had to say, during this announcement he also said that students would be required to wear uniforms. How this will improve test scores, I am still trying to find out. What I do know for sure is that many of the students are already struggling financially, uniforms will only be another hardship and burden on the parents and students. Did I mention that this is the same Superintendent that is giving away over 50 schools to charters and private operators? He is desperately working to privatize education, for his own political agendas. After his announcement at my school he, ran, not walked out of the auditorium, the man RAN, along with some security personnel that were there "protecting" him. I'm not sure how pricey these were but perhaps he should have saved this money to pay for some uniforms to give to the students.

And what about the mismanagement of resources within the district and our school? The revolving door of 7 principals and many administrators. The "instructional guides" and "periodic assessments" that are mandated by the district. We have had our share of incompetent principals and assistant principals, criminals to say the least.

At our school we have done all we were told, but now we are to blame. Well except for reading, at some point an administrator at my school told me that Silent Reading was a waste of time for students. I'm not supposed to do it, however my conscious will not allow be to deny my students of the opportunity to read everyday!

In order to be a teacher we have undergone years and years of school, teacher credentialing programs, and endless professional development and training. Many of my colleagues have master degrees and many years of experience in the classroom. It is not like we haven't worked hard to be in our classrooms. Working in the inner city is difficult. It would like to see the Superintendent teach my classes, 5 ninth grade classes for one day! Maybe I can learn from him, maybe he can teach me how to be a great educator. This would be a great idea I think, except I suspect that the Superintendent has not taught a class in years!

Lastly I was upset by his remarks that "poverty" or a "single parent household" was not an excuse for "poor test scores". Well excuse me, but I don't think he has ever lived around this neighborhood. I have. I know what it is like to walk to school and see a boy or girl being attacked by gang members for wearing the wrong color. I was at the school when someone ran inside with a gun and the whole school had to be locked down. My best friends brother was shot and as a result in on a wheelchair for life. My friend's mother had breast cancer and was unable to pay for proper treatment. My parents have been unemployed numerous times. Currently many of my students suffer the same faith. Many parents have lost their jobs. Many students do not eat breakfast at home, not because they don't want to, but because there is nothing to eat. Many of my students come to high school not knowing how to read or multiply. Just last week I my heart sank when I saw three students sharing ONE pop tart. I would say that a large number if not everyone in the community lives below the poverty line. So until I see the Superintendent live in this community, teach in this community for an extended period of time, he has no right to say that "poverty" is not an excuse for the poor scores on a test that unfairly measures their learning with the learning of students at Beverly Hills High school. Poverty and socioeconomic factors have a lot more to do than he is willing to accept. But we all know that for him the students at this school are nothing more than just a number. The Superintendent does not care about the students at our school, or any other for that matter, he can go home every night to his big house, in his lavish community, unfortunately my students go home every night to the complete opposite. My students and all of the students at this high school are braver, smarter, more courageous than he can ever hope to be.

Blog 13

For the first time this semester I was really bothered by the reading. The article, "Working with Wikis in Writing-Intensive Classes", by Cleary et al failed to convince me that wikis work to improve writing in the classroom. Even though at the end of the article they acknowledged that projects like this do not work excellently the first time around, I have a feeling that even if a teacher fine tunes this tool and embeds it into the curriculum it will not work to develop writing skills for students. I understand that collaboration, peer work and revision are essential components in writing classrooms, but this article in particular did not really show me how the group work that was conducted for this study helped to improve content and quality of individual student work. I will admit that I am a bit biased when it comes to "group papers", because having had experience as a student with a project such as this, for the most part there is always an unequal distribution of work within group members. There is always one or two members that produce more work and participation than the rest. On the other hand quality including every member's ideas for something such as refining the thesis of a group paper can lead to a lack focus. In the article Cleary described a similar problem, "Both groups were inclined to sacrifice focus to achieve consensus by including everyone's ideas." It is always nearly impossible for all group members to agree on the thesis, objectives, sources and even organization of a group paper.

The article did demonstrate beneficial aspects of wikis such as, "wikis open up the artificiality of static drafts by fostering and making visible the "dynamic" and "messy" nature of writing." The article also demonstrated how wikis allow for writing classes to be ongoing projects where students can return to previous postings, peer feedback and even their own ideas. But even with all of the evidence provided I believe that what troubled me about this particular article was that even though the authors admitted to their own faults and areas of weakness in the study, they themselves seemed unconvinced of the point they were trying to prove. "While we cannot directly link the wikis to improvement in student writing and while some students did not embrace the possibilities arising from the unstructured nature of the wiki environment, we found wikis very successful in creating collaborative writing opportunities that helped students connect with each other. We assigned collaborative writing assignments in all of our classes." So the students were more social with one another. Wonderful. And they even sat with their own group and shared snacks. Cool. Call me cynical, but I thought that after reading this I would be able to see how wikis would help me help my students with more than just being cordial with each other.

Blog 12

The article by David Elias and Deborah Brown, Critical Discourse in a Student Listserv: Collaboration, Conflict, and Electronic Multivocality clarified many questions about Listservs in the classroom. I very recently became aware of Listserv's,their function and purpose in the the classroom. When I joined the Listserv for English Grad Students at Dominguez Hills I received a couple of emails that I thought were for me, instead I was shocked to discover that the emails that were coming from this Listserv were not necessarily intended for me. This was more of an open forum in which participants would receive forwarded emails and messages that are accessible to every member of this particular Listserv. Though at first I was a bit confused about the hows and why's of Listservs after speaking to my classmates and other people that are members of various Listservs I began to see the useful qualities of such a system. One quote from the reading that sums up my initial reaction to being a member of a Listserv is, "The listserv as such a system allowed for a wide variety of contributions, including many that built on and moved away from discourse that was strictly about the teaching of writing. This sort of openness can be distracting, but it can also be useful in helping students understand how the teaching of language arts (and anything else, for that matter) is embedded in social contexts and practices that are themselves objects of critical reflection."

So after some exploration through the reading and the actual emails that I received as part of the Listserv I began to see more clearly. The Elias and Brown article also touched on a recurring theme of our assigned readings, the theme of networking and how through these mediums students are able to participate and become a part of emerging literacies such as those provided by social networking sites that provide avenues for writing. The article was very honest in explaining the different ways in which the Teacher Assistants and prospective English teachers used this forum to hold meaningful discussions, vent their frustrations and network with other teachers about issues at hand. At the same time the "openness" allowed for a free flowing of ideas, concerns, praise, contructive criticism and dialogue. Elias and Brown demonstrated that Listservs are tools that can be of extreme use in the classroom.

"Teachers Begin Using Cell Phones for Class Lessons", an article that made me think...

Blog 11

The Lowe article along with the Reyman and Benson article made me think about the pros and cons of blogging and keeping web logs in the classroom. The idea that blogging is another form of literacy, "network literacy" was incredibly eye opening to me. I must say that prior to reading these articles I was completely turned off to the idea of incorporating some sort of online writing such as blogging with my own students, though the reading did not completely change my mind, (I teach 9th grade), it did make me see how beneficial it can be for a older group of students. Lowe really explained the idea that, "blogs enable key interactive features of social, networked communication, such as linking, commenting, and trackbacking." Network literacy is just another way to help develop the other literacies such as rhetoric and composition, critical thinking and argument analysis. The best definition for network literacy was, "Unlike normal conversation that is essentially private but interactive, and unlike broadcast that is inherently not interactive but public, blogging is interactive, public and, of course, networked - that is to say, interconnected." Having students write through this "interconnected network", is key as teachers of writing embrace technology and its different aspects. Blogging encompasses, conversation, reader response, analysis, feedback, and in a way the publishing of material for an audience. All of areas will help writers develop their skills, but also their ability to receive and provide positive and constructive feedback from their peers. In my classroom I feel that this is essential, especially when working in Peer Editing Groups. I feel that if my students can get into the habit of reading and sharing their writing with their peers is a productive manner, then they will be better prepared for future projects in which they may be faced with "blogging" or "web logs" as part of their curriculum.

What I appreciated best from the Reyman and Benson article was the way in which the explained how blogging or web logs place a greater sense of responsibility and ownership on the students and their writing, "for students to go public with their writing to receive feedback, on the grounds that public writing in classrooms de-emphasizes teacher authority and promotes student- writers’ abilities to see themselves as responsible writers and to view writing as a social activity." The idea that through web logs students are at the center of their own learning is amazing. Many times teachers feel that the only way to impart knowledge on students is by being the focus or at the center of most lesson plans, however by placing this sense of ownership on the students and their writing students will more likely produce well thought out, and meaningful writing.

Something so public as posting writing on the world wide web can be misconstrued as dangerous, unproductive, and not suitable for the development of students as writers, but I believe that when done correctly as a part of an English Classroom, this can be a wonderful project. Overall the research presented by the Reyman and Benson article convinced me about the benefits of incorporating writing in public forums such as blogging and web logs in the classroom.

Blog 10

Both readings for this week offered great advice on tools and resources for English Teachers. The Handa article offered an array of websites that support and enhance learning in the English classroom. Though I have not been fond of most of the visuals or images presented in this book(to me they seem to offer more confusion than clarification for whatever they are trying to explain), the figures on page 168-169 were actually beneficial to me. These worked well at the beginning of Handa's article because they defined and explained each of the terms she later discussed. The discussion of Exploratory Hypertext and Constructive Hypertext once again brought into light the whole idea of online writing vs. traditional writing and the existence of "linearity" in both. The section on web page evaluations was extremely helpful to me since I am working on a project that deals with website evaluations for a unit on Greek Mythology. I checked out a couple of the links that Handa recommends and they will be very useful to me. The Speakeasy Studio & Cafe website that Handa described in the section for Using Existing Resources really caught my attention, however after trying multiple times to access it I was unable to. After trying to figure out what happened to this website, I found out it no longer exists. :( Overall Handa's article seems to offer a lot of online resources and websites that seem to be of use to teachers, assuming that the websites still exists.

The Moran and Herringtion article also brought up a recurring theme, how to evaluate hypertext writing. At the beginning of their article they posed two questions that they set out to analyze. The questions were, "What criteria should we use when evaluating hypertexts?", and the second question was, "Is it possible to evaluate hypertext and non-hypertext using the same criteria?" pg 247-248 I really appreciate Moran and Herrington's honesty and the candid way in which they accept that they have no true answer to their second question. I really appreciate how they used criteria that applies to both traditional and hypertext. Focus and central claim, constructive thinking, organization, syntax, and degree of difficulty are all important areas for evaluation and grading student work. The brief but to the point discussion in this article about these areas will certainly help me in creating rubrics for my own students.

Blog 9

While reading Doug Brent’s article “Rhetorics of the Web: Implications for Teachers of Literacy” I became a bit frustrated and dizzy. First of all I was not entirely sure about what his real argument was, but as I continued clicking and reading through the article he read my mind. Brent stated that, “If this seems altogether too chaotic, maybe it means that hypertext just isn't a good medium for argument in the first place”. That was exactly what I was thinking! I know that when writing this he had a specific purpose and objectives that he wanted to accomplished, so I wonder if part of his goal was to make us question about how arguments may get lost when presented in hypertext form in which a reader reads differently than he or she is accustomed to. Frustrated and dizzy as I was I continued reading and clicking and found something that confirmed my suspicions when analyzing Kolb and his belief in the viability of hypertext and rhetoric he acknowledges that, “he is not convinced that hypertext is a very good medium for argument as we have come to know it, and neither am I.” I wonder if writing this article in a “nonlinear” way was Brent’s way of demonstrating his beliefs in the complexity and confusing nature of presenting a rhetorical argument in hypertext. Perhaps I am one of few that are bothered by the way in which he made his point. While I read and clicked I found myself wishing that this article was written in paper, but then I thought that this maybe was a better or the only way to write an article about rhetorics of the web.

“Even documents posted in html and broken into separate nodes often contain "next" links at the bottom of each page to encourage the reader to put them right back in linear order again, which makes one ask why they should have been broken up in the first place.”

And this quote just threw me completely off! Why compose html documents and break them apart, if in the end the reader (ME) will be tempted to arrange and read such text in a linear fashion?? I truly do believe that hypertext is different than print text. I believe that linearity is extremely important. Hypertext indeed enables the reader to be more interactive with the text and feel more ownership of what lines are read, what is clicked, ignored and re-read, but print text offers a sort of simplicity and order that hypertext fails to provide. It would be interesting to see if any research has been done regarding the existence and absence of “linearity” in different types of texts. While there may be differing opinions about what this “linearity” does to text, I believe that the fact that Brent discussed this in his article is proof enough that we cannot be quick to give preference to one over another.

BLOG 8

The readings for this week in both ENG 570 and 577 seem to go hand in hand. Wysocki's "On Visual Rhetoric" compliments the topics that have been discussed in both classes. One quote that stuck out to me is "Our culture throws more visually shaped texts at us than we grew up learning to expect or to be comfortable analyzing." pg 185. Our culture has become plagued with visuals: visuals that say one thing but mean another, visuals that are symbolic, visuals that are ironic, visuals that are meaningless, visuals that are thought provoking, visuals that make us cry and laugh. As I suffer thhough the perils and joys of teaching English to high school students I am aware that visual rhetoric is a topic of learning that my students will inevitably encounter. And just like Wysocki suggests, "Learning to analyze and use visual rhetoric can help people in our classes compose effective texts..." pg 183 Students must be provided with tools for analyis that they can consistently refer to when working on their writing. So what are these tools? Though I am not entirely sure, I do agree with something that was recently mentioned in ENG 577. If students are to analyze and write about visual rhetoric, they must also compose their own visual rhetoric pieces. My classmate Lauren actually mentioned one assignment she did with her students in which they produced some sort of text/image poster. She spoke about the great success she had with this particular assignment and how her students seemed to have gained a lot of knowledge and insights on visual rhetoric. This along with the readings and recent discussions in class leads me to believe in the importance that as students learn about the qualities and emergence of visual rhetoric in their world, they must also be allowed to produce their own pieces. By allowing students to create, they may be better prepared to critically analyze their own work, but also the images and words that immerse their lives on a daily basis.

On a different but similar note, I have been spending a lot of time lately on a visually and brain stimulating website http://www.exploratorium.edu/ this is the website for the museum the Exploratorium which is located in San Fransisco. It is filled with interesting stories, facts, teaching tools and other cool things. For stuff that English teachers may like click here http://apps.exploratorium.edu/10cool/index.php?cmd=browse&category=13

Donor's Choose

Today has been an exciting day for me, my projects on Donor's Choose have been funded. For those who don't know, Donor's Choose is a philanthropic- type website that is dedicated to provide resources to students that attend high need schools in the inner city. Teachers can sign up, write proposals for items they need for their classrooms, for example books, dictionaries, science supplies, stationary, music instruments, etc, etc. They must explain why these are needed and how they will be used to enhance student learning. Once proposals are posted on their website donors and organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation browse through proposals and donate to those they feel strongly about. Once a project has been completely funded, the teacher receives and email and responds to acknowledge that the resources requested are still needed. Once these steps are completed the resources are shipped to the teacher at his or her school!! Part of the process also requires thank you letters from the teacher and students that received the resources.

A couple of my colleagues have been using this website for some time, and most of their proposals have been funded. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I posted two proposals a little over a month ago, and as of today both of them have been officially funded.! It is amazing to see that there are people out there that believe in giving to students that are less fortunate, all in an effort to improve the quality of education. I know that my students will be extremely appreciative of receiving the books and dictionaries that I requested. This website is awesome!!
http://www.donorschoose.org/

Blog 7

There is ample evidence that people do not learn anything well unless they are both motivated to learn and believe that they will be able to use and function with what they are learning in some way that is in in their interest. -The New London Group


This is by far one of the most honest and real facts about the dynamics of learning that I have ever read. I was truly impressed with the entire Anderson article, "The Low Bridge to High Benefits: Entry-Level Multimedia, Literacies, and Motivation". So far this has been my favorite reading. All of the classroom activities he presented are highly engaging and seem to be truly motivational for students. The evidence he provided in the article demonstrates that if students are motivated they are bound to spend more time producing work that is of higher quality. The idea of creating assignments that incorporate alphabetic literacies as well as emerging literacy skills such as multimedia literacies is extremely innovative and inspiring.

I am extremely drawn to the Playlist Assignment and can not wait to try it with one of my classes. I have begun playing with the lesson plan in my head and am thinking of ways to modify it for my own students. This assignment would work well with creative writing as well as with academic writing. For example for a creative writing piece the task would be to: If you could create your own city what would this look like? Write a story in which you describe your ideal society/ community. Describe the people, places, practices, and environment with as much detail as possible. Make sure that you describe how each song is relevant and significant to your story. Include lyrics and links to the songs. For a more "academic essay", I have been thinking of the following assignment: What are your academic/ career goals? Write an essay in which you describe the journey you will need to take in order to achieve your goals. You may focus on one specific goal or more than one. Describe what steps you will need to take in order to achieve these goals. Also, anticipate obstacles and what your response to these will be. Include lyrics and links to the songs.

Though this is a rough draft of the lesson plan I eventually hope to create and do with my own students, I feel that I may have something that will engage my students and encourage participation. A large part of my students are musically inclined, they love to listen to their ipods, participate and attend and support, the "Battle of the Bands" contests at school and know what is current or "hip" when it comes to singers and songs. I anticipate that we will need some time brainstorming and drafting and eventually some time in the computer lab. I feel so very excited to try this activity and can not wait to see the work that my students produce! : )

Blog 6

One recurring theme in both the Manning and Gouge articles for this week was the idea of keeping things simple. Both women stressed the importance of refraining from utilizing every bell and whistle that online classes offer. According to them when designing an online course professors are better off maintaining everything accessible and easy to follow. Online classes will undoubtedly provide students with an opportunity to learn and apply new technological aspects that are learned in the class, still a successful online course will not be the one that is extremely demanding and complicated, a successful online course will be one in which most students learn and retain new knowledge. This will occur if students are not overwhelmed by the material presented. Throughout her article Gouge refers to this as "low tech/ high usability". It is therefore clearly important that a professor creates a course with tasks and assignments that most of the students will be able to tackle and complete with some degree of success.

In her article Gouge also explained the importance of offering a technology survey to the class at the beginning of the semester in order to modify, change and arrange certain aspect of the course all in an effort to serve and reach a majority of the class. She states that, "Choosing a set of technological tools that will maximize learning involves first finding out who the target audience for the course is then investigating what their experience with available technological tools are." This will process will inevitably lead to more participation and productivity from the entire class. If professors design courses keeping their specific student populations and their needs in mind more of the learning objectives and goals will be met.

After reading these articles I am convinced that the idea that "less is more" works well in all types of classrooms. In my own classroom this is something that I constantly practice with my own students, instructions are kept brief and assignments are direct and concise. Perhaps the only are in which I can work to improve is in collecting input from the students at the beginning of the semester. However unlike Gouge and Manning it is much more difficult for me to survey my students about their current performance levels. The district for which I work for has instituted mandatory "instructional guides" and with these come "periodic assessments" that must be administered and submitted by specific dates. This approach was created on the belief that all students are at the same performance levels and have the same instructional needs, this leads to the false idea that "one size fits all" as far as learning is concerned. What Gouge and Manning describe in their article can easily be achieved at the college level, unfortunately this is not possible for me because I don't have the flexibility to meddle with the "syllabus".

It would be wonderful to figure out different ways in which teachers like me who work at the high school level can create a curriculum for our own classrooms that is designed with the specific students needs in mind. Personally I think that it is appalling to teach a class of students with the belief that all are performing at the same level. College professors have a great advantage of designing a curriculum such as the one described by Gouge that was informed with the students and their level of performance in mind. What are some ways in which I can implement what Gouge and Manning described when I feel trapped by the district mandated curriculum?

Blog 5

Like one of my classmates stated the Tulley and Blair article seemed somewhat "outdated" in what it had to say about gender and technology. The belief that males are more into computers than females is based on false notions and assumptions that lie heavily on the gender double standard that has placed females into the category of people who are completely oblivious and uninterested about the world of technology. Over the years these ideas and beliefs have been shattered by the increasing number of females that have demonstrated achievement and knowledge in areas such as medicine, education, media and of course technology.

The Blackmon article was more in touch with current reality dealing with pedagogies that include all students, regardless of gender and ethnicity. Simply because the World Wide Web is available to all, does not mean that different ethnicities are equally represented in cyberspace. Blackmon makes a great case creating assignments that allow students to analyze the different communities that they can relate to. I believe that this allows students to explore cyber communities that extend beyond ethnicity. By doing this students are presented with the opportunity to feel connected to a community that perhaps they had never before explored. Through this activity students discovered and explored their connections to different communities and what this implies in the realm of their own education and development as human beings. Though I do not feel that I would try this activity with my current 9th grade classes, I do feel that 11th or 12th graders would be better suited and would reap greater benefits by exploring and writing about their connections to different communities.

The section on "Feeling Erased in Cyberspace", made me think about my own students and their own feelings about accessibility to resources such as technology and beyond. For the most part my students are all aware of the lack of resources in our school and community. Students know that our school does not have enough teachers, books, classrooms, supplies, computer labs and even desks. My students all know that they live in the "ghetto", South Central, they are also aware about what this implies when their academic achievement is compared through Standardized Testings to students from other more affluent communities.

What puzzles me about all of this however is the fact that despite their awareness about the lack of resources in our school and community, a large number of students posses some sort of portable electronic device. The questions that Blackmon asked her own students about technology made me wonder about what type of responses I would received if I asked my own students these questions. I want to ask my own students, "Is technology equally accessible to all people?" and "What happens to those that don't have access to technology?" Would my students believe that technology is equally accessible because they or some of their friends own ipods and cell phones? Would they feel like they don't have access to technology? I believe that I will learn a lot from my students by asking them to write about these two insightful questions.

A Winter Jacket That Charges Your Gadgets

I read this article and was just amazed at how far technology has come. I will not longer look at a jacket the same way!


http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/a-winter-jacket-that-charges-your-gadgets/?em

Texting While Driving

The NY times has posted an interactive game that allows readers to see the effects of texting while driving. It's sorta cool, I tried it myself and what I saw was definitely eye opening!



http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html?ref=technology

Blog 4

Random Thoughts

So after exploring Prezi for many, many hours I have discovered that it is not as bad as I thought it would be. It is not easy, but it is manageable once one get accustomed to moving things around in the "canvas" that this software provides. My ambivalence comes from the fact that as far as projects are concerned I am used to putting things together with paper, glue stick, and scissors. I like molding and creating with actual paper or objects in my hand. Though Prezi is completely different to what I am used to, I can see now how I will make it work for my Tech Autobiography. Before actually setting out to create this, I plan to create other smaller presentations with Prezi in order to practice and learn as much as I can from it. Spending time getting to know Prezi is enough to remind me that the best way to learn something new is by immersing yourself in the new material.

One word that stuck out this week both in the reading and in the class chat session was "pseudonym". The class seemed torn between the significance and usage of pseudonyms in the classroom, personally I believe that this can work if students are given guidance and instructions about creating appropriate pseudonyms. I understand what many classmates said about pseudonyms and voice and identity for students, but I also believe that this would not be limited if everyone in the class was to know upfront the real identity of every student behind his or her pseudonym. Even when working at the high school level, students should have some sort of rules about what types of pseudonyms are acceptable and appropriate in the classroom setting. I don't believe that this is limiting their "voice" or depriving them of any type of creativity necessarily. For example letting students know that profanity or vulgar language will not be accepted as part of their pseudonyms, will remind students that there are some boundaries and rules in place in order to maintain focus on the assignment at hand.

While reading and commenting on a classmates blog, an idea sparked in my head. In her blog she wrote about students creating an ABC Power Point about a book they have read. The idea is that for every letter students write a word that pertains to the book, for example, A for About the Author, C for Character, etc, etc. I have done something similar with my students without the Power Point aspect. After doing some thinking I was brainstorming about a way in which students could write "book reviews", and post them online for the class to read. My students do Silent Reading everyday, these are books that they select on their own, they are also responsible for maintaining a reading log. My dilemma with Silent Reading is that I do not feel that they are particularly fond of the traditional "Book Report", that they are accustomed to writing for each book they complete. I think that if they are told to write about how good or bad the book was they will feel more ownership of the assignment since they will be allowed to give their personal opinion about the book. Then when it is time for selecting another book, students can read what their peers recommend. I would like to know if there is a way in which these "Book Reviews" could be posted on some sort of classroom website that all of them can go to and read on their own. I am sure there is a way, however because I am not technologically savvy, I am clueless as to where I would even begin to put this together. Any and all ideas will be greatly appreciated?

Blog 3

This year I was lucky enough to be assigned five ninth grade classes. Not one, not two, but five! This is my first year teaching ninth grade, for the last couple of years I have taught tenth grade, tenth grade was tough but I had no idea how difficult ninth grade would be. The peace and quiet that comes with the first days of school was quickly gone. After a couple of weeks of being scared of the high school world, my pleasant, quiet, compliant, students turned into technology monsters. I quickly realized that what I had was babies masquerading as ninth graders, it was worse, these babies came with electronic devices. I-pods, cell phones, PSP, MP3, side kicks, flat screens, you name it, if it’s electronic and portable they have it!!!

The tenth graders I had in previous years were not nearly as electronic savvy as these current students. Sure there was always the inevitable cell phone going off in the classroom, or a student secretly texting under the desk, but I had never experienced a room full of students that seem to be permanently attached to portable electronic devices. After participating in the last couple of chats with the class I noticed that one recurring topic seems to be the link between knowledge of technology and age. A couple of classmates have mentioned that as technology progresses, it becomes more accessible and this leads to younger and younger students being more knowledgeable about the tech world. Now I clearly see the connection between this theory and my own students. I am still awfully shocked as to how much difference a year makes. It is surprising how much more these students know about cell phone applications, converting files and even skype, than my previous classes. This does speak to the strong correlation that exists between age and technology. As our world becomes immersed in technology, the average age for how familiar a person is with computers seems to be lower and lower.

While it is wonderful that my ninth graders know so much, it is not wonderful that they seem to have no control over their obsession to checking their comments on myspace, or trading ipods during class time. True, they are coming from middle school and are new to the world of rules and expectations during class time; still I have made it very clear that electronic devices are prohibited in class. But even my threat, “If I see it, its mine”; doesn’t seem to be working so well. There are many days when I think to myself, “If I hear another student “accidentally” sharing his or her Lady Gaga or 50 Cent with the entire class because they were trying to adjust the volume to their ipods, even though they were not supposed to have them out in the first place, I will have a meltdown!”

It is not enough that these ninth grade babies, whine, and complain about all the work, cannot control their talking, but they truly believe that updating their status and mood on myspace is more important than homework. Besides the fact that these portable electronic devices for the most part interfere with their attention span while in class, I am also worried about what this means or says about the students and their ability to compose essays, or conduct academic research. While in fact they are knowledgeable about all these gadgets, all of their attention seems to be focused on social networking or music, completely disregarding the academic aspects. My ninth graders know all about sending forwarded texts, but know nothing about MLA formatting or compiling a bibliography.

The past couple of weeks have been draining. My students are still having trouble transitioning into high school, remembering the classroom rules, and the importance of homework. I am still trying to understand where they are coming from as far as their obsession with electronic portable devices. They are 13 or 14, they have no real sense of self control, they are learning about high school, and they are MY students. I have to teach them English and learn how do deal with their strong connection to technology. Perhaps this means incorporating their devices into the class for an assignment or two, I am not entirely sure how or when or even if this will work. What I do know is that we have to work at this together. After a conversation with a colleague that teaches seniors, I have also began thinking that every grade level is different. While tenth graders were more responsible and prepared, ninth graders will undoubtedly need more guidance, instructions and review time. For my students and me this means having to review classroom rules every other week because “Freddy” keeps throwing spitballs, but that is ok, we are slowly making progress.

Blog 2

When I was a child my sisters and I would literally sit at the door waiting for my dad to come home from work every afternoon. Dad would walk in, greet us, “Hi girls”, and go straight to the kitchen and wash his hands. My sisters and I would watch him eat dinner as my mother shared the neighborhood gossip. After dinner my father would go outside, cigarette in one hand and Spanish newspaper, ‘La Opinión’ in the other. Dad would sit as we watched him disappear behind the gray newspaper, skimming through the headlines but devouring the sports section. These events unfolded day by day, I grew up watching my father come home tired and weary from a hard day’s work, but never skipping his daily reading routine. While he was at work mom often wrote letters to her sisters and family, they lived out of state. Mom would also tell us stories about her and dad writing letters to one another while they were dating. She would write often, he not so often, but she nonetheless told about her anxiety at waiting for the mail to arrive. On a good month he would write at least once a week, she told my sisters and I about her frustrations while choosing the “right words” when responding to his letters. She cared, but he didn’t need to know how much. Yes, she liked his family very much, but she would prefer if once they married they had their own home. Listening to my mom’s stories about her younger years and her letter writing habits with dad, and watching him read the newspaper every evening are my first recollections with literacy.

Having no formal education beyond the high school level my parents always instilled in us the belief and value of an education. My parents were always involved in our school work, attending parent conferences, taking us to the public library and keeping track of our grades and progress. My parents provided us with trips to the public library and books; we didn’t have a computer at home until my older sister started high school.

My first encounter with a computer occurred when I was in grade school, fourth grade. I remember going to the computer lab, my classmates and I were instructed to pay attention and wait for instructions. The computers were large, white, the screen was dark, the letters green. Computer lab time was only once a week and all we were allowed to do was play a game that involved adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Though my memory is a bit unclear I do remember that the purpose of this game was to save some fuzzy animal or fruitlike character from exploding by providing the correct math answer. I didn’t really enjoy computer lab time in grade school.

Though my grades were always superb, my favorite subject in school was always reading. In middle school I developed an obsession for reading and improving my reading level. The Accelerated Reader Program was a part of my school’s curriculum; this program involved a lot of computer usage. We were initially given a reading assessment, assigned a reading level and encouraged to read books at our reading level. After reading a book, we were to take a test that would determine how many more books we needed to read before moving up the next reading level. I believe that this was my first clear memory of using computers on a nearly daily basis, this because I would read so many book that I always needed to take a test.

All of these assessments and tests involved loging in with your name and password, reading the passage, the multiple choice questions and clicking on the correct answer. Though I enjoyed this program and computer class in the seventh grade, I think that I still preferred reading to any other subject in school. Computer class in seventh grade provided me with typing skills as well as more knowledge and greater exposure to technology such as Word Processor and the Web. This was interesting and all, but I think that my love for books prevented me from igniting a true spark of interest for computers. High school brought more “Computer Classes”, greater knowledge about the Web, and research possibilities as well as more comfort with typing and working on a computer.

I think that my high school friends and their enthusiasm for what great fashion, music, or movie star websites they had discovered created in me a greater desire to spend more time with the computer my family had at home. The more time I spent with it, the more I saw it as a valuable tool especially for school. Still, my love and preference for books continued to grow beyond this new trend that had completely fascinated my friends. While they spent countless hours a week in front of one, I spent maybe three or four. So while I developed a closer relationship with the computer, I think that I was in college when I finally felt truly comfortable and knowledgeable about this technology.

I’m not sure why it took me so long to feel genuinely acquainted with a computer, but I think it may have something to do with my love for books. I enjoy sitting in front of a book for hours, I do not particularly enjoy sitting in front of a computer for longer than I need to. Though it has become indispensable as a part of my teaching career I always try to limit my computer usage to completing necessary tasks. I know how easily hours can be consumed in front of a computer. Grading, paying bills, research, email, and homework are ok, and are done on a frequent basis.

Recently I discovered that my students responded positively at having the vocabulary presented through a power point presentation. It was wonderful to have a class full of ninth grade students sit quietly as they attentively copied the vocabulary and notes being projected. Their feedback has inspired me to try to integrate more technology based activities into the lessons. My students’ early experiences with computers are definitely different than my experiences with the silly math game that I played in the fourth grade, which is why I feel they are highly prepared to work with the new computer technology that is immersing every aspect of our world.

Blog 1

After having a very lively discussion with my fellow classmates about the importance of integrating technology into our own classrooms many ideas came to me. The very first is that for the most part a majority of the educators I know are in favor of an education that integrates and embraces technology or different aspects of technology. I believe that this desire stems from an urge to keep up with our ever evolving world, but also as educators we often seek to enrich our students learning experiences with real world applications.

Technology keeps evolving and with it, inevitable change, whether it is the way we communicate or what devices we use in our daily lives. This presents us with multiple opportunities to want to learn and teach our students curriculum or lessons that have technology embedded within. We feel that this will help our students keep up to date with the changes and advances that occur on a daily basis. At the same time we want students to learn through lessons that they will find truly valuable not only because these involve the usage of a computer. So in essence we all seem to want the same thing, we want to use computers and technology in the classroom.

When facing this challenge we also face other dilemmas. First, where do we get the resources we need? Second, how do we create relevant lessons that aptly integrate the use of technology into the different content areas? As a high school teacher in South Central Los Angeles I know firsthand what it is like to lack basic resources such as textbooks, library books and of course computers. During the class chat I discovered that a couple of my classmates also teach in the inner city and they also know what it is like to want to integrate technology into the classroom. Teachers in the inner city are told of the supposed “money for technology” that is poured into our schools yet have nothing but outdated or broken computers to show for it. This makes it frustrating and disheartening, especially when we want our students to have the same resources and access to facilities that students from other more affluent areas have always had.

As the discussion of resources continued, a second question seemed to prevail, how do we successfully integrate technology into the curriculum? Apparently there are many resources, ideas, websites, and lesson plans that have been put to use by other educators, but still there is no clear consensus about the type and purpose of technology when applied in a classroom setting. Some uses that were discussed were research techniques, typing projects, and even creative writing through text messaging. Personally I think that differences in opinion on this topic vary according to a teacher’s own experience with technology and his or her apprehensions or beliefs in technology. If a teacher’s computer and technology skills are highly advanced then he or she may feel more comfortable and confident in wanting to integrate different aspects into the curriculum.

As educators our primary goal is to teach our content area, but there is no reason why we cannot do this as we simultaneously integrate technology into the curriculum. Though there are many questions and issues that arise when this topic is discussed, the goal is common. We are all aware that students would benefit from advancing technological skills especially computer knowledge and usage. One thing that I realized at the end of the discussion is that if teachers really want to make this a reality, we must face the challenges one at a time, otherwise we may become overwhelmed with a deluge of issues that stem from an area of constant change, technology.