Another cool thing I found was this create your own comic site from Marvel’s Super Hero Squad. It’s not that easy to use, but if you have the time and are patient I would recommend checking it out.

Finally I made my first web page! If you want to check it out here is the link! We did this in half of a class, and it was pretty lame, but funny.

I enjoyed making the Web Quest project the most becasue it was fun to make and I feel that the idea that I came up with is something that would really engage students. I got the idea of doing a “Who’s coming to dinner” activity where students have to role play a dinner party with historical figures. I think that I will try to use this lesson plan in a class in the future.

The project that I enjoyed the least was the Power Point. It was really confusing to make the first time (but I did learn how to make a non-linear power point, so the next time I had to do it, I was able to do it better) and my partner and I were confused about the kind of material that we were supposed to put on the project. While it was my least favorite it did teach me a valuable skill.

The projects that taught me skills that I have already reproduced for other classes or tutoring were the Inspiration and the power point. I have already used the skills and they will probably be things that I will use even more in the future.

The project that taught me the skill that I most want to use is the podcasting project. I would really like to make a podcast in the future becasue I enjoy them so much.

This blog has also been helpful as a way to reflect, but I have had several blogs in the past and have enjoyed writing them immensely.

That isn’t really the best use of the site, but I have been using it frequently and I find it to be a helpful site to have on hand.

The other site that I have been using frequently is Webspiration. This site is the free version of Inspiration, a software used in schools. You can use the site to create graphic organizers (flow charts)  and outlines at the same time. It works right in your browser, and while it is the cheap, free online version- it’s still really nice. I use it to create lesson plans, to organize my notes or when I tutor to help my student to organize his notes! It’s a really cool site, and if you have some spare time it’s worth checking out because you never know, it may come in handy!!

Now this week I really want to talk about sources. This is something that I have touched on in the past but it’s something that I have been thinking about this week becasue we were talking about historical sources in one of my classes on Wednesday. During class I started to think about the impact that technology may have on our idea of a primary source.  In the future the definition of a primary source may change and exclude any source that isn’t raw data.

That may sound odd, but at the moment, we consider primary sources to be ‘first hand’ accounts, but so many people have the ability to record sounds and images all the time (cell phones and other fun toys we carry around with us all the time). What if we consider only photographs, videos, and audio taken at the time of an event- basically nothing that a person has interpreted, or put in their own words a primary source, and we get away from considering things like autobiographies and journals to be primary sources?

Maybe students (or parents) should be given the option of choosing an e or print book for their child?

I don’t know but I didn’t get to see the actual book. He couldn’t remember his password so we used other resources on the internet to do his homework.

This also reminds me of something else I was doing earlier on in the day and that was researching the nook from Barns & Noble.  This is, I guess a continuation from my interest of books and podcasts that are on the internet for free, becasue I was really interested in this product.  Basically the nook is an eBook reader. You download eBooks to the reader (B&N claim you can have up to 15,00o) and, well read them. You can also get magazines and you can pay for books, or get free books, and there isn’t a fee for downloading anything, ever.

It seems nice, but you can get a free app from the iTunes store that will allow you to do the same things as the nook can do on your iTouch or iPhone.

Students have eBooks, and we have eBooks, so is getting readers the next step in the techno ladder that we are all climbing, or is it everyone carrying around small, powerful computers  everywhere? Are devices that specialize going to become a thing of the past and things like the iPhone will become an all encompassing device?

Just some interesting things to think about related to books ant technology.

Clearly as an outsider I am judging the situation. I am only there for a few hours and I don’t know what it’s really like to be a teacher in this school. However I think that the teachers also know there is more out there to help their students but they don’t know how to get to it. They don’t have the people to train them, they don’t have the funding for new technologies and they don’t know were to start looking.

A few weeks ago we did an exercise in my technology class where we looked at our potential ‘network’ as teachers and technology. We looked at how we can connect to support using social networking sites, blogs, and other resources on the Internet. The point was that we are not alone but I think that many teachers feel that they are alone. Schools are hierarchical, and the Internet is not something that is easily conquered.

How do we make teachers feel like they have support if they don’t know where to look for it? I feel like I have support, but I know other people don’t feel as connected as I do. I know all you have to do is ask for help and you can find it with a small amount of work, but not everyone feels that way. How do we make our fellow teachers feel like they can connect and get the support they need, without having to shell out money to do so?

A lot of the literature and research out there points to the idea that talking to your children and students about the issue of internet harassment in frank terms, regularly, is the best way to combat cyberbullying. Clearly preventative measures are the best measures not only because the case law is new, and precendents are still hazy when it comes to cyberbullying, but because many people believe that cyberbullying may leave lasting effects on both victim and bully.

The issue is so new that there are disputes about what the effects are (and many people are using existing data on bullying and extrapolating it to apply to cyberbullying) and how lasting they can be.  In my opinion there are clear cases that show that cyberbullying can get out of hand fast due to the ease of using technology. Plus schools can do little to punish cyberbullys.

Unless students use school computers or make school unsafe, public schools can not legally punish cyberbullys.  Students have the right to freedom of speech and becasue this is a new problem there is not much case law that points to one clear standard over another except Tinker (1969)

This article by Nancy Willard is only 2 pages and explains the legal quagmire schools are finding themselves in.

I have never attended a public school, nor have I ever taught at one. I am observing one now, but I have a limited experience at the moment.  My question to you is what should schools do about cyberbullying?

Well when I told my friend about this he was astounded. He asked why do these schools do this for free? What do they get out of it? Maybe they do it as a public service, or to promote the school, I don’t know. But they do it. There are other sites as well. I mentioned one last week, Bibliomania, that offers over 2000 texts, fiction and non fiction. There is also Wiretap, Eserver, Text Archive, and the Online Library from U Penn; these are only the ones I have saved but there are tons more. There are also ones just for specific authors.

I found out about this site on H.P. Lovecraft after listing to the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast and they said that you can get all of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories on-line because the copyright has run out.

You can get recent books illegally, but if something has been published before 1933 it’s in the public domain and can be offered of free download on the Internet. So the question is what do you want to read tonight?

How about everything William Blake ever wrote?

Or how about Hamlet?

How about some Science Fiction?

I hope you enjoy these sources and check some out becasue they are great. I am working my way through H.P. Lovecraft’s short stories at the moment, and trying to read some Xenophon when I get a chance.

Many museums like the Louvre have virtual tours that you can take without leaving your classroom. The Smithsonian has a tour lead by Ben Stiller and London’s Natural History Museum has a host of really cool resources online. Plus don’t forget all the books you can see on the Gutenberg project’s site.  These are all things that you can bring to your students, quickly and for free. When you are studying Social Studies it is imperative that students are able to see, analyze, and discuss primary sources so that they can form their own ideas about history and civilization.

Students text books may have some good pictures, and excerpts but due to space the books can’t have everything. These museums and other places like the Gutenberg project, and Bibliomania.com have books that people can view and download for free!

The resources are out there, we just have to go get them! As teachers we can act as guides, taking our students around the world by showing them art, texts, and objects from cultures all around the world whenever we want to. The resources out there aren’t infinite but they might as well be!

In addition to primary sources there are secondary sources out there that are a good way to introduce an idea or concept that students may not been to familiar with.

If you want to get students interested in a topic a film clip is a really good way to learn about something. I find that the images and sounds of documentaries are really stimulating, and memorable. Take for example this clip on Tibet.

It is from a documentary that I saw about 9 months ago about a man named Nain Singh Rawat who walked from India to Lassa (the capital of Tibet) and back. He was a spy for England who made maps of Tibet for the English when Tibet was closed to the world. This is a good way to introduce the geography and history of Tibet to students who have never really seen or imagined what Tibet is like. (As a side note Tibet may not seem important, but seeing as it controls a large quantity of Asia’s fresh water and is under the control of China, it is important and Tibet’s geography is direnctly related to its importance).

This is only an example but you can find documentaries, lectures, video tours, maps, etc. on almost anything you want so long as you look in the right place.

Basically there are so many things that we can bring into our classrooms that it seems like a waste not to take the opportunity to  bring in as many things as we can. The real question is how much is too much?

This is something that I think teachers need to work to break down. We should encourage students to come talk to us or the school counselor if they feel they have an issue they need to address. Additionally we should try to send out the message that people with mental illness shouldn’t be stigmatized. Now the question is how do we do this? I have no idea!

Students with mental illnesses are just as important as our special education students, and for that matter ALL of our students, but we lean more how to help developmentally disabled students then students with mental health issues.  I don’t know why this is, but it is something that need to be focused on more.

This week I would like people to post what they think teachers and schools should do for students with mental health issues.  I think that this is an issue where technology can help connect people so that ideas can be shared.