My contributions to the WebQuest wikis

The first contribution that I made to the WebQuest wiki is I found a link that was inactive, and deleted it. This was from the Judgment page, the link to the webquest no longer worked. http://webquestroles.wikispaces.com/Judgment
The second contribution that I made to the webquest wiki is that I found another link that was inactive and deleted it. This was from the retelling page, the link to the Beatles webquest, and it no longer worked. http://webquestroles.wikispaces.com/Retelling
The third contribution that I made to the Webquest wiki is that I found a third link that was inactive. This was from the Consensus Building, the link no longer worked, so I deleted. http://webquestroles.wikispaces.com/Consensus+Building

Maine Memory Network

The Maine Memory Network is a great place for pictures and artifacts from places in Maine to be uploaded. With these you are able to look around the site and find things from your hometown, and surrounding towns that you know of. However, this is dependent on whether or not your town has uploaded anything to this website. In the classroom, since I am going to be a social studies teacher, this website could come in handy big time. One way that I could use it is to compare landmark photos from past and then in the present time, and use them to compare and contrast the difference and similarities between the two. Being able to see the difference between places from then and now is really cool to look, for anyone of any age really. I could have the class find the things that haven't seemed to change in the picture and then the big things that have changed. Things like vegetation, landmarks, oceans or lakes, and roads are things to look for. This would be very interesting and engaging for the kids to do in the classroom.

Copyright and Fair Use

- The first reaction that I have is from quiz item number 19, which addresses using popular songs as background music to a DVD yearbook. While I understand the reasoning of the copyright violation, it makes me realize just how many people violate this. My senior year we made a photo story that had whole songs in it. While these weren't top songs of the year, they were whole songs. From now on I'll have to remember to never play whole songs on photo stories.
- The second reaction that I have is from quiz item number 17, which addresses taking pictures of streets and businesses, and putting them on the web. I have never thought that taking pictures of establishments and streets could be a copyright violation. I guess I'm kind of glad it's not. When I travel, I like to take many pictures, so it's nice to read that I'm not about to get into trouble for sed pictures on my facebook.
- The third reaction that I have is from quiz item number 15, which addresses a teacher making a compilation of movie clips and putting them together for lesson starters. Personally, I don't really see the problem with compiling various clips for a lesson starter. Especially since they are allowing machines that defeat the copy protection on DVD's and CD's. This seems a little hypocritical. However, it is good to see that there is a website out there that does have film clips.
- The fourth reaction that I have is from quiz item number 14, which addresses the usage of Disney films at an open house. I think it's a little funny that video is not covered under fair use for entertainment or reward. Because, if you think about it classrooms across America are violating this on a daily basis. However, I did not know that you could get a one time license from Disney for 25 bucks. That was very cool to read.
- The fifth reaction that I have is from quiz item number seven, which addresses the fact that if you have a protected site you can put copyrighted material on it without permission. I had never thought of this, and I think it's really useful from a teachers point of view to have. Because, if you have to always get permission to put things onto a protected website of your own, that could grow to be a pain.
- The sixth reaction that I have (and also the long reaction) is from quiz item number 16, which addresses the usage of a machine to defeat copy protection. I was really surprised to read that you can A) buy a machine that defeats the copy protection on DVD's, CD's, and just about everything else, and B) let students then take the illegally copied material, and use it in projects. While I suppose people have been doing this for a while, I'm surprised to see it be okay in a classroom. As a future teacher, I can see how this could be very useful in the classroom, to get protected material into the students hands for their further education. However, on the other hand, I can see how people could abuse this power for personal use to make copies of things at home, and then in turn sell it for profit. Which is just what the DVD company does not want happening.

How to help someone use a computer

The one thing that I have to tell myself is: "You've forgotten what it's like to be a beginner." This really called to me, because I am one of those people who can tinker around on computers on my own and usually get things. Since I can do it on my own, I think that everyone else can just figure it out on their own as well. The reason why I can figure things out so well on my own, is because I have been using computers for so long. So, when it comes to computers, I'm not really a beginner anymore. However those that I will be teaching, might not be able to work with computers as easily as me. One important rule that I can relate to is: "Don't take the keyboard. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction." This is a good rule for me to follow because, I like to just take charge when I do things. I also have very little patience, so I usually grow impatient and take over whatever it is that is going on. So if I keep this rule in mind, hopefully I will be able to control myself, and let the student carry on with what they're trying to show me.

In our teams technology presentation we could use the "Beginners face a language problem: they can't ask questions because they don't know what the words mean, they can't know what the words mean until they can successfully use the system, and they can't successfully use the system because they can't ask questions." tip. This is because smartboards are fairly new to us learners.

Agre, P. (1996) How to help someone use a computer. http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/how-to-help.html

Web 2.0 Educator

For the Web 2.0 Educator, I did not use the suggested blogs, I decided to instead find a blog geared more towards my concentration. I stumbled upon this one blog that is written by various high school teachers who teach social studies content. I really liked this blog. It gave many external links to help with just different interactive ways in teaching. There is one link in particular that I really enjoyed looking at, because it gives teachers examples and even templates with "bringing history to life" in the classroom. The main teacher who writes on this blog is Ken Haila. He posts a lot of interesting facts, and it is clear that he is very involved with integrating technology into his students learning. It is clear by what he posts that he feel very passionate about technology in the classroom. One current link that he recently posted on the blog was about making internet flashcards. He posted multiple websites that showed how to create them for the students for studying styles, and it even had the option for the students to be able to print them if they wanted a hard copy. I really like this blog, and I think I may refer to it when I start to go into the classroom, and get some pointers from it.

Type I and Type II Technology

Type I technology is: the application of technology in the classroom, however it is applied through the same way it always was, in traditional means.
3 examples of Type I technology could be: 1. The old school "Type to Learn" program. I used this program when I was in middle school. It was quite possibly one of the worst programs that we were forced to do everyday in computer class. It would let you work on your typing skills, while giving you vocabulary words. 2. A teacher sitting at the front of a classroom telling the kids their vocabulary and having them just type it five times over on a word document. 3. The computer game "Oregon Trail", this was a cool interactive game that kids played to learn about the Oregon Trail, however it was very Type I, by being a very traditional computer game.

Type II technology is: the application of technology in the classroom, but, unlike Type I, it shows new and better ways to integrate technology in the classroom.
3 examples of Type II technology could be: 1. Using an interactive powerpoint in the classroom to show a lesson. 2. Having the students themselves create either a powerpoint, a movie, or song on the computer to present a project. 3. Having the students use the word document application to make a newspaper article about something that concerns them.

My MEL Experiences

• · Student/Teacher Relationship: I have always struggled in math. While in elementary and middle school, I was able to know enough to squeak by with B’s. However, when it came to high school I was faced with Algebra and that was not something I could fake. My teacher my freshman year was Mrs. Lynam, and she could tell after the first couple quizzes and tests that math was not my forte. She (against my will) had me come to her room on her free periods, and during lunchtime to help me with what I just wasn’t grasping. This was the first time that I had ever had someone take the extra time and teach me the material in a way that I got. It was a really great thing, because not only was she helping me with my math, she was also teaching my stubborn self that it’s okay to struggle.
• · Helping Students Succeed: English, writing, and history, have always been my strength in school. I always thought I was such a hotshot in middle school and high school when it came to writing, because I always received A’s on papers, when in reality I put very little effort into them. My junior year of high school I had, quite possibly, the toughest English teacher in the school. She knew from past teachers that I was a good writer, and that I always received perfect scores on writing assignments. However, after I got back my first paper I turned into her, I received a B-. This was something that had never happened to me before in English, and I didn’t know exactly how to take it. For the rest of the school year I worked my butt off to get an A out of that teacher. I talked about it to her recently, and she told me that just because I had been a good writer in the past didn’t mean I didn’t have room to grow to become an even better writer. Not only did she teach me how to craft eloquent sentences, she also forced me to use vocabulary like eloquent in papers.
• · Hands - On: When I was in middle school we had tech Ed. In my family I’m not the one who can take apart an engine and put it back together, or can build a spice rack for my aunt for Christmas. That is something my brother and sister do, I on the other hand, am the bookworm. However, in 8^th grade I really enjoyed going to tech. Ed., and doing the projects. I remember one of the projects’; we had to make a “paper” airplane. (Which was really just lightwood). But throughout the process of making the plane, we learned about aerodynamics and all of those things, that I could have easily read about in a book to learn, but it was way more fun to learn it by making an actual plane.
• · Interest: My interests in school were sports, and history. So essentially the two classes I didn’t dread the most going to every day were, gym and, history. I enjoyed every part of history, and was never bored with the material, unlike many of my friends. When it came project time, I would take my two loves of sports and history and combine the two as much as possible.
• · Connections: My senior year of high school I was in Advanced Math, and Physics. These two class periods were usually back –to- back. For all four years of my high school career I had been asking Mrs. Lynam what was the sense in learning all this algebra when it was never going to be used in real life. Then, came my senior year in physics with Mr. Marshall, I realized that all the algebra and geometry I was doing in advanced math could actually be applied in physics. I thought that it was really cool to finally see it applied to something. However, it didn’t make me want to go out and take a liking to math.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

In this chapter regarding respect and trust amongst the students and the teachers, one line that I found to really jump out at me was: “’Because I said so’, or ‘Because I am the teacher’, are also not good explanations for punishments. Teachers must be clear and fair, or students will be hurt or angry” (p. 27). So, in other words, students like to know exactly why they are being punished, or why they are getting the assignment, and it is our responsibility as good teachers to provide them with an intelligent and clear answer.

I think this is really important in being a teacher. I was one of those students who would always ask why we were doing the assignment, or why we were getting split up into groups. In fact, once while in middle school, I received a detention for asking why we had to do the homework. To this day, I still haven’t got an answer. I feel that it is the teacher’s responsibility to be able to have a legitimate answer about why we are doing the homework, no one just wants to be doing busy work. It should be meaningful, and have a purpose. This also comes with punishments, “because I said so” may be the easy answer, but the teacher should take the time to really tell the student why it is that they are giving them the punishment. This is a quality that I will be sure to take with me into the classroom, however, I have already begun to practice this through working with kids at camp. While it is sometimes easier to just say “because I said so”, I always make sure they know why

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

When reading this first chapter about students input on how a teacher should know their student well, one thing that really stood out to me was one a list of things that co-author students wrote about signals to watch for from them. Out of the six items on the list, the last one is the one that stood out to me the most. It was about how the teacher should know the student well enough to be able to read what their faces me.

This part of the book really jumped out at me because I know, personally, that when a teacher knows you well enough to be able to look at you while doing a lesson and can tell how you feel about the subject matter it’s really comforting. Because once the teacher takes note of the look on your face, and the emotions coming with it, it gives them the opportunity to talk to you about it after class, or even, if the teacher knows the student won’t care, use it as a segway into a class discussion. Some of the best teachers I have ever had were the ones who could know how you felt about what was going on in class. Sometimes the teacher could even just tell by your face when you walked into class that day just what kind of day you were having. I think this list of signals is really helpful, and I know that when it comes time for me to go into the classroom, I will be using this list as a reference, and I will most definitely know what my students are feeling based on their facial expressions.

Learning Style Inventory Results

learning-styles-online.com

Your Overall Scores:

Visual Style 6/20

Aural Style 16/20

Verbal Style 16/20

Physical Style 10/20

Logical Style 6/20

Social Style 18/20

Solitary Style 10/20

The results that I received from the learning style survey I thought, were pretty accurate to who I am as a learner. My highest was social style, which is true to who I am. I enjoy being around people, even if I'm not working with people on work, having them around me while I am working on my work makes me feel at ease. The tie for my second highest score is Aural and Visual. Out of the two here I was surprised about the visual part, and the aural as much. When I am working, I do like to have music or just background noise around me. I feel that I work better and more efficiently with the music or background noise. The visual is something new to me to think about with my style of learning, so it will be interesting to think about and see if it matches up in the future of this class!