Considering myself tagged.....

I was just reading in the blog of a young teacher who is very tech savvy the reasons he blogs and said the reader could consider themselves tagged. So, I will ponder the reasons I have begun blogging.

1. This is cutting edge educational technology and as an older teacher trying to keep up with educational trends,I want to be in the mix. I use technology in my classroom quite effectively I thought until I discovered the world had passed my by and the Read/Write web was in existence. So, I am trying to go up the next rung in the ladder and see if I can do it. Most of the edubloggers that I have been reading so far seem to be fairly young and are most probably children of technology themselves. I just hope I can keep up.

2. I do like to write and this is a forum for putting one's thoughts in order. It is a space to communticate to the world what one is thinking or wanting to learn.

3. I feel I have been able to network with people who do want to use technology in their classrooms; not everyone does yet in my physical world and it is good to know there is a lot of dynamic stuff going on out there.

4. Reading student blogs I see the power of writing and connecting to the world and I want my students to experience that. So, I need to practice blogging myself to get the swing of it before I can expect my students to be able to engage in effective connective writing.

5. This is fun in a way; I hope to develop into someone with a real voice. As of now, I feel somewhat tentative and lacking in something of value to share with the rest of the world.

Attempting to wiki

Now that I have begun to grasp blogging and have actually done some and will show my efforts to my current students tomorrow,I am going to try to tackle using a wiki. I have read up on them and have set one up;now I have to think of some creative way to use it with my students. But, I have a simple idea to try in a day or two just to get a feel for this "living organism". Lo and behold, as I log into my peanut butter wiki this evening, I see a notice that all educational wikis on this site are going to be ad free. That will be a blessing. And in conjunction with that, for mentioning my peanut butter wiki on this blog they will give me extra space to use. That will come in very handy next fall with my students as I try to do collaborative writing with about 70 students or more. This site uses the tagline that making a pbwiki is as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich. I did set my up easily and plan to incorporate it into my classes soon.

Beginning a long journey.......

The last three weeks have been an awakening for me. I just agreed to participate in writing a new grant for my school without realizing I was stepping into a whole new world. My use of technology thus far in the classroom has been challenging and fun but was confined to things my students did for me on the computer emphasizing reading, writing, researching, documenting, and critical thinking skills. All are valuable skills and abilities and we have produced, over a five year period, and are still producing incredibly wondeful technology-connected projects. My favorites have been historically related comic books and digital memory books based on a character in a work of historical literature. At first we only had a few computers in the classroom but the last two years have seen the introduction of individual laptop computers.

But now, I have read Thomas L. Friedman's book, The World is Flat, and am trying to consume and digest minutely Will Richardson's book, Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts. I have been introduced to the world of the Read/Write web and my life has been changed dramatically. I see a new potential for the internet in the learning process and want to begin using all the new possibilities. But, how to master them all rather quickly is the problem. Luckily, I will be attending the NECC conference in Atlanta, GA this summer and I have already carefully chosen my presentations to attend. I have also been reading voraciously blogs of other educators and just seeing what some of them are doing with their students is amazing. I only hope I can get to that place some day. In the meantime I am setting up this blogging site to begin the blogging process myself so I can model to my students. I have also started learning about wikis, RSS, furl, and many other things that three weeks ago I did not know existed. At least I had heard of blogging but had no idea of its educational opportunities.

So, now as this semester winds down, I am trying to absorb as much as I can before I actually have to begin to think of what I want to do with this new grant writing opportunity and then actually have to write something I have never done before. I have always heard the old Chinese saying that the longest journey begins with but a single step. I have just taken that step. I only hope I enjoy the journey along the way.

Great Depression Extra Material

I just discovered a wonderful new resource, a slideshow sharing site, and will try out one presentation to further enhance student understanding of this period in American History.




After viewing this power point presentation, reflect upon the impact the great depression had on the lives of ordinary people. Login to turnitin.com going to the discussion board and submitting your thoughts there.

Miss Julia's Classroom Rules

Welcome to an exciting new experience in Social Studies Education!!!
Basic rules for classroom blogging:

1. 1. Students using blogs are expected to treat blogspaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is in appropriate for class is not appropriate for your blog. While we encourage you to engage in debate and conversation with other bloggers, we also expect that you will conduct yourself in a manner reflective of a representative of this school
   
   
2. Student blogs are to be a forum for student expression. However, they are first and foremost a tool for learning, and as such will sometimes be constrained by the various requirements and rules of this classroom teacher.
   
3. Students using blogs are expected to act safely by keeping personal information out of their posts. You agree to not post or give out your family name, password, user name, e-mail address, school name, city, country, or other information that could help someone locate or contact you in person. You may share your interests, ideas, and preferences.
   
4. Students' blogs are to be a vehicle for sharing student writing with real audiences. Most visitors to your blog who leave comments will leave respectful, helpful messages. If you receive a comment that make you feel uncomfortable or is not respectful, tell your teacher right away. Do not respond to the comment.


5. Students using the free blog sites must take good care of the computers by not downloading or installing any software without permission, and must also not click on any of the ads or competitions. Additionally, students may not use blogging time to be doing anything else on the computer like gaming.