Glogster

Maine Memory Network

After reading all the information about the Maine Memory Network, the lesson plans that are already made, and how students are using it as a tool I came up with a lesson incorporating it. I would have my students, during a Maine unit perhaps, look up all the information they could find about the town they are from, or a town that their parents are from. After they had successfully gathered all the information from this website I would have them write a story about their town. I would have it be a personal narrative where they talk about their favorite part of the town, and I would require it to have some information on the website. I believe this would be a great way to interest them in their history and the history of the town, while still incorporating their own story into the writing.

How to Help Someone Use a Computer

In the web page that we had to look at there were two lists. The first list was "First you have to tell yourself some things." This list basically said that we need to remember that no one automatically knows how to use technology. In the second list, "Having convinced yourself of these things", all of the suggestions can basically be summed up in one sentence. Don't do it all for them, don't do anything for them, explain it all. One this in the first list that really stuck out to me was "Nobody is born knowing this stuff." This rings with me because I have some issues with technology, and unless it gets explained to me I wont completely understand it. In the other list the phrase "Don't say "it's in the manual". (You knew that.)" stood out. I always hated when people told me to look it up because sometimes you need a verbal instruction. It's all about the way people learn.

I used what I learned from this article in my technology project in many ways. One of the main ways was fully explaining how you can use the Smartboard as well as what you can do for tutorials on how to use it. The other way was the complete verbal and spatial directions that were given throughout the presentation for the people who do not fully understand things through reading.

Copyright and Fair Use

1) In question one, where the scenario is that the student snaps the cd in half, the question was if you could make a back-up disk legally. Before I even looked at the answers I felt the frustration start. The teacher is in fact allowed to make a extra copy, but I would not have been surprised had they not been able to, and that is where my frustration was.

2) In question 5 a geography teacher burns a few copies of a program because he doesn't have enough programs for all the students, and doesn't have anymore money to buy more. This is illegal, however I can completely understand why he would do such a thing, and I think if I were in his position I would have done the same thing too.

3) This is about question6, the one where the science teacher downloads materials for her students to use on their science project. I was shocked when the answer said it was fine as long as she didn't up the projects back up on the web without permission from the original sites. The rules for technology seem so random, no rhyme or reason.

4) Question 7 really made me feel uncomfortable. This question said that it was alright for a teacher to post students pictures on a secure private website. The feeling I have about this is that, yes you may think its a private site, but nothing on the internet net is really private.

5) Question 14 really makes me mad. It is about letting the younger children watch a Disney movie together. The answer tells me that this is illegal because you don't buy the movies for commercial use. I think this is crap- who buys a movie to watch by themselves, or with limited company!!

6) In question 18 the debate was about whether a student could use a song from a cd the teacher had for a project. The answer was yes, however, the answer given goes on to say that they need to check how long it can play and all of these other restrictions. I believe that if it is a cd that the teacher owns they can allow the student to play one FULL song in class for a project.

Chapter 10: Going Beyond the Classroom

Chapter ten was all about the ways teachers can help kids continue to learn outside of the normal, 7:30 to 2:00, school day. Sometimes it’s these extra things that help kids stay interested in school. The part of this last chapter that really got me was the part that talked about arranging for internships for students.

This popped out to me because of where I come from. I am from a small town in southern Maine that is really lacking money, and many of the native kids have never considered going to college. For many of these graduating from high school is an amazing feat in itself. Internships and vocational programs are what kept many of these kids, some of my best friends, in school. They got to do things that were relevant to them since they knew they weren’t going to go to college. They got to go learn their trade, be it lobstering, working on cars, or carpentry. It really didn’t matter, but they liked that it was something that was actually going to be helpful when their time came to make a living, this is so important for those kids.

Chapter 9: When Things Go Wrong

Chapter nine was about when students feel discouraged, alone, or uncared for. This chapter was particularly sad because I know/knew kids who fit these adjectives, but I would have dubbed them as shy or lazy or rebellious. The passage that said “Especially in large and crowded high schools…checking up on attendance becomes an administrative task, not an expression of personal concern” popped out at me.

This popped out at me because it was really true, and I’d never given the “send the attendance to the office” task as anything but that, a task. The problem with this is that there is no personal reaching out to the student absent. Usually when a kid misses a lot of school the teachers are usually thinking about how much w0rk they’re going to miss, and how much of a pain in the butt it’s going to be to get them caught up again. The office, especially in high school, just keeps tabs to see if they will be allowed to move on to the next year because of all the absences. No one actually cares about whether the student is alright or not. This is something that needs to change.

Chapter 8: Teaching Teenagers Who Are Still Learning English

Chapter eight was a chapter that I particularly needed to read. This was because I have spent my whole life in a small town in Maine with extremely little, if any, diversity, never mind people who couldn’t speak English. The part of this chapter that shocked me was when the students suggested that teacher “Share our goal to excel academically, not just get by.”

This shocked me because I had never considered the fact that when someone is still learning English they not only want to pass, they want to excel just like they would have in their last situation. I don’t think that as a teacher I would have thought like that without reading it first. Thinking now I don’t see why I wouldn’t have thought of it because it is true, these kids are not stupid, they just don’t speak the language. If these kids were in a school that spoke their first language they might be in the top of their classes, and just because they were thrown a curve ball, English, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be able to succeed in their new situation too.

Chapter 7: Teaching Difficult Academic Material

Chapter seven covered something that most of us don’t really think about, covering hard material. I feel like when you’re trying to teach students something that is especially hard the kids that struggle with the normal things are going to shut down completely. The thing that popped out at me was the list of ways the students suggested teachers go about teaching harder material.

Two of the five things would not have occurred to me when thinking about teaching hard material. These two things were “Find out what we know already”, and “Make connections among the things we’re already learning.” I think it would be extremely helpful if I as a teacher gave a quick quiz, that didn’t count towards their grades, before I began a new section on say grammar. This quiz would show me where all of my students were in this area, where I need to start and what I’m going to have to spend extra time on. The other part, make connections to what they’re learning, would help solidify whatever it is that I’m teaching because of the fact that it is somehow related to other things besides just my class.

Chapter 6: Motivation and Boredom

Chapter six is all about the issues we as teachers are going to have getting our kids to school everyday, and making them interested enough in the material we’re teaching to keep them there. It discusses the facts that schools offer opportunities for academic and social growth, the importance of passionate teachers, and to have them show pride in there work, but one thing jumped out at me. One of the things that motivates kids to do well is when teachers make learning a social thing.

This jumped out at me because of how simple, yet important it was. I feel like this aspect of schools that is often over looked even though it is a huge reason why middle school girls even bother showing up every day. If teachers can somehow make doing well in classes the cool thing, like it was at my high school, many of the “popular kids” would be more willing to be engaged in their learning. If the “popular kids” showing that they want to be engaged in school the rest, or at least most, of the other kids in the schools are going to attempt to follow. By making this connection for the students it would not only help them, it would also help the teachers- win win situation.

Chapter 5: Teaching to the Individual, Working with the Group

In the very beginning of this chapter Cushman lists the different types of students that we as teachers see in our classrooms. This is important because the chapter is titled "Teaching to the Individual", and knowing your students and how they learn is key to being able to best teach them.

The fact that all types of students can be summed up in seven different types of personalities is crazy to me. There was the eye-roller, the wall flower, the hand-waver, the dreamer, the con artist, the goof-off, and the work horse. When I was reading the descriptions of these I tried to find an exception to these seven, and I was disappointed to not think of any. Its pretty amazing that a teacher is capable of being able to teach all of these different types of children at the same time and for the same information.

Chapter 4: Creating a Culture of Success

In Chapter 4, "Creating a Culture of Success", there was much discussion about how teachers assist in the success of their students. The different cultures in which the student could succeed are extremely diverse, according to the text. I found one particular thought within the text extremely interesting: "Adolescents have a passion for justice, and it matters a lot to them that their grades are fair, whether they turn out high or low."

This popped out at me because of the sheer fact that it made me stop and think. The phrase "a passion for justice" was not how I would have described a teenager. As i thought more about that idea i believed it to be true. I began to think about how many times I had heard a middle school student say something like "You like him better, thats why he got an A," and the amount of times was remarkable. Fairness in grades, and class participation, and just how often a teacher talks to a student all sway the kids balance of justice.

Chapter 3: Classroom Behavior

In this chapter Cushman writes a section called "Starting out on the Right Foot" and one of the pieces of advise that she gives the reader was "[w]arn offending students two or three times at most, then impose the appropriate consequence." This piece was placed in under the "Follow up promptly and consistently on the agreed-upon expectations" along with "Practice the habits that create a good classroom tone," and "Keep student learning as the top priority."

This jumped out at me, not because it was shocking, but because it was so definite. I had always gotten the impression that how to discipline students was something that has been, and will always be, discussed, volleyed, and argued. Because of the opinion I have had prior to reading this I found this odd that Cushman is so certain that this is the way to do it. Of course I do agree with her on this, but that is not the point. There are many other teachers who do not, and will never, think this is the correct way to discipline your students.