A classroom Website- Yikes, a time-consumer?

Hey Mel and Kelly,

Happy Easter and all that, I feel quite quite overwhelmed!
The homepage assignment took hours and hours to complete! I know it didn't need to, but I found some outstanding teacher sites and felt they were such good resources that I checked out all the links! I'm having an issue getting my links to the teachers webpages to work, I think I should be in the remedial class!!
I don't think I'm ready to set up my own homepage without more support in my school, but I would definately like to try it when my graduate work is over. It seems like there is an incredible amount of time needed to make a site creative and useful, and keep it up-to-date. But I would definately love to have a website for my class at some point. I began one while working with a guy from Ed Connection a few years ago, maybe I'll pull out the disk this summer and "spruce it up".

See you Thurs. Kathy

New Literacies - How do I Practice with Students?

Hi Melissa and Kelly,

After the powerpoint presentations on new literacies and the curriculum and the first question on the midterm exam I've concluded that we are not teaching new literacies, but we are teaching new ways to get literate. This is not unusual. In any field, when a new or better way to do something comes along, we learn it, try it out, and see if it "fits" for us.
The frustration for me is that I am being immersed in class in this new way to ask questions, research, evaluate what I found........ but do not have enough support from my school district to practice it and teach it. I feel like I have this valuable tool to use and teach my 4th graders, but I have to find the time myself to squeeze it in. If "use of the internet" was on the CMT you can bet the administration would be making sure I was teaching it!!!

I watch other teachers who barely use their computer lab hour each week, and then look at how I have begun to depend on my time in there for research projects etc... I get frustrated because I have my students "Google it" whenever there is a question from students I don't know the answer to, and I'm teaching them to go to the computer as if it is a volume on the shelf easily accessed, but I fear I only give them a tiny piece of what I could be giving them.
It's like that saying, "The more you know, the more you know you don't know". The more I learn about Internet use, the more I realize there are skills my students should be practicing on the Internet to know how to handle the Internet. It's NOT going away, and the encyclopedias and other resource books in the library are getting put on the higher shelves, and not replaced as they get worn!

Got an answer for me Melissa???? Come on, you always do??

Kathy

Blog Blog Blog

Melissa and Kelly,

Once again I am feeling like the slacker!!! Sorry to be so far behind, but having the clinic twice a week is really putting me over the edge these last 3 weeks! I never should have tried 2 classes! I turned in my 2 papers for clinic this monday after spending the entire spring break recovering from oral surgery on monday!! What I need is my head examined! I rarely even check my regular email these days, so chatting on a blog is really tricky for me.
I did, however, find (accidentally) a blog site for people who have experienced the same oral surgery!!! How's that for bizarre?>!?!? I was just looking for general info for ways to speed recovery and there was the blog. The blog thread went for months as these people exchanged horror stories and suggestions. I'm extremely glad I didn't find the site BEFORE my surgery! The neat thing about this however, is that people aren't afraid to be honest because you don't know the people you're talking to. I guess we can HOPE these people are honest. Again, another caution about internet playing.
As I get involved more deeply with a few projects I do each year I am finding myself watching how my students use the computer and internet, and the more I watch, the more I see how critical instruction is. It seems my student are always getting instruction for the computer "on the fly" on a "need to know" basis. It would be great to have space in the week for small group specific skills instruction. whole class is just way too much for this group I have this year. I think at 4th grade maybe it would be for any group of that age. This frustrates me because there is sooooo much cool stuf I want to do with my class and the internet that pertains to the curriculum. I've started looking at pulling together a cyber lesson, but it seems like a daunting task right now because of all the things I'd like to include. Maybe you'll have some suggestions for me Melissa!?!?!?
See you in class.
Kathy

Feb 22nd

Good Morning Melissa, Kelly, and Dr. K.,

I'm still doing alot of thinking about the survey we went through in class last week. It was interesting to see how we as a class differed in our thoughts on each topic, and it really got me thinking about what I do. I still disagree with some of what the survey said, but maybe I am not as educated on the topic as I should be.
I got a lot out of the in-class assignment- Search Engines for Kids & Teaching Search Strategies. It never occured to me that I could find resources for HOW to teach using these to kids. I could see my 4th graders going to the Kidsclick site and learning with me.
I'm on a second reading in our text on HOW to search with students. I'd love to learn how to save a website to my computer so it's there the next time I plan to use it!!! I printed out pages from 2 sites because they were great for my curriculum, but I was afraid they wouldn't stay around! I lost one really good site and didn't want to loose more!
See you in class.
Kathy

Next Blog

Howdy Ladies,

This week I watched our staff to see how they handled these "new literacies". YIKES!
If teachers are going to be able to help students handle this faced paced and sometimes complicated world of technology they are definately going to need some assistance.
We have teachers who panic and need assistance to check their school email to find our what the principal has sent that they needed to take care of "yesterday" all the way to people who can get to what they need 3 different ways, including what I hear referred to as "the back door".
The vocabulary gets in the way for some teachers. I noticed that when "tech talk" was explained some teachers could handle the task at hand. Many seem to have checking personal email and a few choice sites under their belt, but research, or educational material was another story.

Kathy

Hi ladies, Hope I'm not too late this evening for you to catch my comments. Life is stressing me out right now, too many hours driving back and forth to Central!!!

I'm so glad the text continues to mention thes "new literacies" and redefining them, I'm just not used to including them in my general vocabulary. My 4th graders have a very difficult time sorting through the options of sites to explore when they do a google search. This seems to be the most necessary new literacy for me to go over with them. (other than safety, but we have soooo many blocks at school there is minimal risk right now.) It takes alot of teacher time to show them how to defferential between useful and not needed sites. I have a parent volunteer on computer days so that is definately helpful.
I am rethinking my opinion about how and how much to use computers in the classroom since starting this class. I love the "publishing" opportunities, and the way we can find just about anything we want so immediately. We even had a conversation going with my cousin in New Jersey once when I was trying to to get Google Earth up and running so we could find places around the world. Some of those sites in our text seem to connect so well around the globe, it really is cool!
Kathy

Day Two

Good Evening!

I've discussed this blogging thing with my 3 teenagers and they are in agreement that they would define it as "an online diary, a place to vent, a place just to ramble, a source of news at times".
So, it appears we are to converse on the topics from class and the text and share thoughts and ideas.

I found chapter one FILLED with cool sites for teachers!! I visited all but one of them and was "floored" by the number of resources.
There is alot on the social studies/history site for the older set, but I did find one really neat activity I'm going to show my class this week in the computer lab. It has to do with brand names and where they originated in the U.S. VERY informative.

What I would like now is a day off every other week to go through these resources!
I found myself stuck at the math site trying to figure out all the math challenges! I think these will be great for differentiating instruction for my more advanced students.

What is the proper way to sign off my blog, knowing that it is available for anyone to review???