CBM: Using app.easycbm.com

Hello again,

I absolutely loved exploring app.easycbm.com for this unit, and I would like to start using the measures materials in my placement as soon as possible. I am teaching a resource room geometry course in Allendale High School, and this week I have learned the importance of assessing my students current levels of performance before teaching new content. After talking with my CT, I decided to start my geometry course by reviewing how to solve single-step equations with variables. On the first day I was eager to get started, but was quickly received with many groans from my students claiming they already knew the material. Shocked, I told them to humor me and complete the lesson. Although they were not as proficient in this skill as they claimed to be, I would not have needed to start with such an early skill. If I could go back in time, I would have used the measures materials from this website to assess where my students are regarding their mathematics performance instead of relying on my CT's word. This would have given me a better understanding as to where to start my lessons. Then, I could use the assessments throughout the semester to determine when students have mastered a concept so we could move on to the next topic. I could even store their scores on the website so I could easily reference their progress. Unfortunately, I was not able to explore all of the tools on the website because I do not have the Teacher Deluxe Edition. However, I would love to use the Instructional Intervention Creation tool offered on the website, so I would encourage my future school administrators to consider getting deluxe accounts for teachers.

Technology Trends: Mobile Devices and Interactive Whiteboards

Hello Everyone,

I chose to research mobile devices and interactive whiteboards for this blog post since both of these items are very prominent at my current placement in Allendale High School. All students have been given Chromebooks by the district and the students are always using them, but not for academic reasons. During instruction and independent work time, I notice students watching movies and YouTube videos instead of attending to their work. The only time I have seen them used academically was for typing an assignment (once), answering a blog post (once), and participating in MobyMax activities (3-4 times a week). The Smart Board is nothing more than a surface to project videos and PowerPoints. I have yet to see a teacher at my placement pick up a Smart Board marker or even tap the board with their fingers. Both of these tools, from what I have observed, are underutilized at my placement. 

Mobile Devices

Based on the articles that I read, mobile devices are becoming prominent in nearly all classrooms across the country. Teachers are using countless apps and digital tools to deliver and support instruction. Since mobile devices are everywhere and are becoming more education friendly, I am interested to learn more about them, but I am really starting to feel overwhelmed and skeptical. 

There are so many online resources to use that  I do not know where to begin when selecting some for my classroom. For example, I was pleased to learn about the Making Connections Among Words Cards strategy for vocabulary instruction this week in EDR 320 because I think it will be an effective strategy in my placement. However,  I wanted to make it more technology friendly since this activity involves writing and drawing, neither of which would appeal to high school students with special needs. Thus I went on the search for a flash card making website that would allow me to do this activity online. In order to use the site, I have to create a classroom on the website, invite students to join, show them how to use it, have them complete the vocabulary cards, figure out how to print it off, and then do the peer-teaching portion of the activity. However, I think the work will be worthwhile. But then I consider how many other online resources I want to use with my students that all require online classrooms, separate log ins, and precious class time to teach the student how to effectively use those site and apps.  

Although mobile devices appear to be great for the classroom according to the research referenced in those articles I read, I feel overwhelmed and unable to use technology effectively in my placement. I cannot imagine adding the management of ten online classrooms utilized on mobile devices to the management of my organic classroom. 

Interactive Whiteboards

Based on the articles I have read, it appears that interactive whiteboards are receiving mixed reviews. Many of the articles discussed how the interactive whiteboards were being underutilized and were more teacher-centered rather than student-centered during instruction. Teachers were merely using them as a presentation tool rather than an interactive component of their classroom. Although some teachers involve students with the interactive whiteboards, many teachers do not. Additionally, nearly every article mentioned that interactive whiteboard companies have been the ones creating hype about these tools, not the educators themselves, to make money. However, there are much cheaper alternatives to interactive whiteboards, such as a tablet and a projector. 

Personally, I have never been a fan of these interactive whiteboards, but that may be because I have never seen them used to their full potentials. From my experience they are more of a distraction in the classroom than anything else, so I am not extremely interesting in learning more about interactive whiteboards. My students had trouble working the markers because they always put both of their hands on the board. Also, many of the free templates available with the Smart Board were low in quality, contained stereotypical and offensive graphics, or did not work properly. 

However, many interactive whiteboards are advertised as being helpful for students with special needs because of the interactive components of the device. Thus, as a future special educator, I may come into more contact with this type of tool than my general education teaching peers. If given the opportunity to do more research to confirm my beliefs, I would choose to spend money on other things in the special education department rather than interactive whiteboards. Students in special education need real life experiences to prepare them for adulthood, and in the real world there will not be big screens they can touch to help them navigate life. The money would most likely be better spent on field trips and accommodating materials that the students could use post-school.  

Educating Students on Catfishing and Sexting

Hello Everyone!


I am sure that we all remember the "Good Touch Bad Touch" and "Date Rape" lessons from our own childhoods, but teaching students about face-to-face sexual dangers is no longer enough in today's society. Many of the dangers children now confront are online, and it is our responsibility as educators to provide our students with safety measures to protect themselves. Please keep in mind that the images, lessons, definitions, and statistics I chose to use in this post are meant to be used for mature high school students. 


Definitions and Statistics
Two of the most common forms of sexual exploitation students may be exposed to online are sexting and catfishing. Sexting is the electronic sharing of sexually explicit media, such as personal photographs, videos, text messages, or emails, primarily between cellphones. Catfishing is when one assumes a false identity or personality on the internet, especially on social-media websites, as to deceive someone into entering a false relationship to gain confidential information or seek revenge on that person. Currently, 30% of teens participate in sexting and 54% of online daters felt that they have viewed the profiles of individuals who have misrepresented themselves. 

For more information about the definitions and statistics of sexting and catfishing, please see the following websites which also served as my sources for information:
https://www.pcthreatremoval.net/10-best-ways-to-avoid-being-catfished
http://nobullying.com/what-is-catfishing-a-cyber-safety-alert/
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sexting?s=t
http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/10/21/online-dating-relationships/


                                                      Problems
Overall, sexting and catfishing are problems because they put children at a higher risk for sexual exploitation. Teens often do not understand that a "private" message does not always remain private. They may often send inappropriate videos or pictures of themselves to their significant other in hopes of making him or her like them more. However, this significant other could post the media online or share it with his or her friends until that "private" message becomes viral. Unfortunately, the original sender cannot take back the message after hitting send. Some participants of sexting could even be charged as sex offenders if they are underage. Additionally, sexting and forming relationships with people online are a feeding ground for sexual predators, child traffickers, and bullies. Students want to feel love and accepted, so they may share too much personal information online. Perpetrators may use this information for identity theft, money scams, bullying,  or convincing children to meet them face-to-face. These meetings are not innocent and may lead to child abuse and sexual assault. 

Tips for Parents
Students spend more time at home than they do at school, so it is important for educators to provide parents with information to keep their children safe online. The following are some tips to share with your students' caregivers.

• Ensure your child uses privacy settings
• Stress the importance of not friending strangers
• Avoid screen names that include the child's age
• Stress the importance of not meeting people face-to-face if they only know the person online
• Ensure children avoid hook up sites
• Remember and share with children that the majority of fake accounts represent females
• Enforce that dates meet parents first 
• Stress the importance of ignoring messages from people you do not know
• Pay attention to children's online activity
• Close inactive social media accounts
• Know the acronyms! 
• Children often use acronyms to hide certain parts of their conversations from attentive parents. It is impossible to know what every acronmym in the texting world means, so if a parent comes across slang they do not know, they can either google the phrase or ask their child what it means. However, the following is a list of of common internet acronyms that should serve as red flags for parents worried about their children's online activity. 

 IWSN - I want sex now

GNOC - Get naked on camera

NIFOC - Naked in front of computer

 PIR - Parent in room

CU46 - See you for sex

53X - Sex

9 - Parent watching

99 - Parent gone

1174' - Party meeting place

THOT - That hoe over there

CID - Acid (the drug)

Broken - Hungover from alcohol

420 - Marijuana

POS - Parent over shoulder

SUGARPIC - Suggestive or erotic photo

KOTL - Kiss on the lips

(L)MIRL - Let's meet in real life

PRON - Porn

TDTM - Talk dirty to me

8 - Oral sex

CD9 - Parents around/Code 9

IPN - I'm posting naked

LH6 - Let's have sex

WTTP - Want to trade pictures?

DOC - Drug of choice

TWD - Texting while driving

GYPO - Get your pants off

KPC- Keeping parents clueless

Teaching Resources
In the following lesson plan by Common Sense Education, students explore the responsibilities of having a relationship in regards to the digital world. Students watch a video about a girl who sent a sext to her boyfriend that then went viral. At the end of the movie, students create an ending to a story about a person who is asked to sext. 

Lesson Plan:
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/lesson/overexposed-sexting-and-relationships






Additionally, I think it is important to teach students some tips to identify catfish online. Perhaps an online scavenger hunt with the following website would prove to be beneficial for students. 








Website: 
https://www.pcthreatremoval.net/10-best-ways-to-avoid-being-catfished

Feedly Screenshot and Classroom Use Questions

Hello again!

I hope everyone had a nice week. I just wanted to take a few moments to share a picture of my Feedly page. One awesome thing that I would like to mention about this tool is the organization system that comes with it. I was able to sort all of the blogs and websites I am following into categories to make my Feedly easier to search. Right now my only categories are "education" and "news," but I am considering breaking "education" up into smaller pieces such as "Phonics," "Literature Circle Ideas," "Basic Math," etc.

I have also been wondering how, or if, Feedly could be used in the classroom. Feedly may just be a personal resource, but I think it would be nice if a class had a Feedly page where students could follow safe, age appropriate, teacher approved blogs, but I am not sure if Feedly has a classroom option. The blogs could also be split into categories similar to what I described above if students wanted more information about a certain topic discussed in class. However, I would be concerned about students adding inappropriate blogs and links to the page. What do you guys think or does anyone have any recommendations for similar, classroom-friendly sites?

Time Management at My Placement

Happy Sunday, everyone!

I am currently student teaching in one of Allendale High School's resource rooms, and I noticed that students and teachers alike waste a lot of time during the day. The most time is wasted at the beginning of class. My CT stands in the hallway during transition times to talk with students and other staff. However, he consistently stays in the hallway 3-5 minutes after the bell rings to continue chatting with someone. The students during that time do not prepare their materials for class but simply chat and play on their phones. By the time my CT enters the room and the students get their work out, ten minutes of the period have been wasted. 

When I asked my CT what he felt the biggest time waster is for teachers, he said making lesson plans. He said that he creates a general roadmap of where he wants to go with his students, but he feels that a day-to-day plan is unnecessary, especially when he is unsure how students will grasp the topic introduced in the lesson. A few years ago the teachers at Allendale High School were required to send the principal copies of all their lesson plans for the week and my CT hated it. He felt that was the biggest building level operation that wasted his time. My CT wanted to feel that he could be flexible with his students which is hard to do when there were daily, step-by-step lesson plans to follow that were being monitored by administrators. Instead of wasting time in both of these tasks, my CT said he would rather plan discussion topics that focus around becoming an adult for his students. 

Using Blogs as Literature Circles in the Classroom

Hello again!

This entry marks my fifth blog post thus far in my EDT 370 project, and I am proud to say that I feel like I am improving as a blogger, especially after looking at other educators' social media pages. After exploring all the different writing styles and topics of the blogs floating around the internet, I feel like I am better able to understand how blogs can be helpful in the classroom. Particularly, I enjoyed the conversational tone 95% of the blogs and social media pages I viewed possessed. I liked the relaxed way of receiving and sharing information, which is how I would want to use blogs in my classroom as well.

When I think back to my K-12 school experience, most of my academic conversations that required me to share information with others revolved around books my peers and I read together as a class or in reading groups, which is how I would use blogs in my classroom; I would like to implement reading circle blogs with my students. Blogs, I believe, would add tremendously to the book discussions by solving several major problems I experienced when participating in literature circles. The biggest issue I think plagues face-to-face literature circles has to do with student accountability. If students are simply expected to chat in small groups about what they read, some students will not speak. However, by requiring students to participate in reading circle blogs, teachers will be able to check that all students are responding to the reading. Additionally, I feel like online responses may relieve some anxiety students, myself included, feel when they are asked to discuss literature. Many students, particularly children in special education, worry that they may sound unintelligent or too intelligent when talking face-to-face with peers. Blog responses help alleviate some of this stress. Students, since they are able to type their responses and post at their leisure, have more think/wait time to collect their ideas, are able to practice what they want to say, and can edit their posts if they start to ruminate over what they said. Students who have short term memory problems may also use the blog's archive to review what they and other students said previously to help them comprehend the novel with greater ease. Overall, this will encourage students to be more engaged with their literature circle. Finally, I think literature circle blogs will help minimize the gap between high-achieving and low-achieving or culturally diverse students' background knowledge. For example, if a student connects the story that the literature circle is reading to something in his or her life that the other group members know little about, the first student can post pictures, links, and videos to help educate his or her peers. This enables the students to teach each other new things and encourages students to ask for more information. Literature circle blogs, I believe, are a more efficient way to discuss books among older students because they more easily hold students accountable for their learning, alleviate anxiety, and help close the background knowledge gap among students than traditional, face-to-face blogs. 

Paying Homage to my Fellow Bloggers

Greetings EDT 370 Peers,

I have finally arrived at the blog post I have been most excited to write for our unit 1 assignments: researching other educators' blogs! My guilty pleasure is reading educational blog posts about classroom libraries, classroom organization, and brain breaks that I find on Pinterest, and now I get to explore blogs without the nagging thought in the back of my mind that I am procrastinating on my homework and will consequentially fail all of my courses. Thus, without further ado, I would like to present the following educational blogs.

Unleashing Readers: Kellee Moye and Ricki Ginsberg are, respectively, middle and high school English teachers who work together to maintain this blog. These two ladies strive to provide teachers with opportunities to use the best pieces of literature in their classrooms by writing book reviews that include story summaries, lists of important quotes, discussion questions, and similar book recommendations.

Two Writing Teachers: What started has two writing teachers quickly escalated into eight writing teachers who collaborate extensively to keep their blog up to date. These bloggers constantly share many best practices in how to teach writing to children including the research behind the strategies highlighted and how they themselves use the strategies in their own teaching.

Backyard Learning: Sarah is a middle school science teacher who focuses on providing teachers and parents alike with educational activities that pull kids away from their screen-time and into nature. Her posts include lesson plans, connecting with nature tips and activities, nature book recommendations, and nature photos.

Mrs. D's Corner: Stephanie is a special education teacher from Texas who believes in teaching from the heart, not the books. Mrs. D posts lesson plan ideas and ways to adapt the lessons to accommodate students with special needs.

Bligon's Best: Bethany Ligon is a technology integration specialist who hopes to inspire other educators to partake in the best practices of the 21st century classroom through her blog posts. She frequently posts about her findings from professional developments she attends, blogs she follows, and books she reads.

Mr. Histoire: Toby French is a history teacher who frequently blogs about everything and anything to do with education. His stories frequently contain conversations he has had with his students, coworkers, and family members, making his posts humorous, relatable, and informative.

Mrs. Russell's Room: Tamara Russell is a first grade teacher in Florida that not only blogs about her teaching tips, but also constructively shares her thoughts about current issues in education. Her posts contain many pictures of her students completing the activities she blogs about, making it easy for teacher to visualize how they can use the lessons in their own classrooms as well.

The Shut Down Learner: Dr. Richard Selznick frequently blogs about dyslexia, learning disabilities, special education, and many other issues related to education. His blog is easy to navigate, allowing readers to search his posts by educational topic or most recently posted articles. Readers may also sign up to receive his blog posts via email.

Differentiation Station: Laura Schachter's main goal, when she is teaching, is to have her students forget that they are learning and are simply having fun. She creates and posts about many activities that can be used in classroom centers that supplement important lessons for struggling students.

The Thinker Builder: Michael is an elementary school teacher who hopes, through his blog, to help his fellow teachers "build readers and writers who think boldly and deeply." He posts lesson plan ideas, classroom library resources, and community building activities that can easily be adapted for many different grade levels.