Project: Liz Pacheco's Website

 

For my project, I chose to create a website to be used in all of my classes as well as my after school responsibilities. I needed something that could be technologically supportive to both me and my students. With the website, I can have all of my resources put together in one location such that lesson plans, worksheets, and resources are all together. I am required to post my lesson plans on our school bulletin board daily and it does not allow for attachments. The website will put everything together for me. With a variety of truancy issues, I also needed a place that would allow students to gather information and material for missed classes so that there will be easier transitions when they return.

 Creating Google Doc Forms will help me with paper work for my classroom. All information students provide at the beginning of the year will now be in a workable electronic spreadsheet. I must say creating Google Doc Forms was something I never had any experience in. I have filled out numerous forms on websites never thinking that they were Google Forms since the design layout appeared as if it was part of the website. Now thinking back to some of the forms, I believe many may have been Google Doc Forms.

I also may have been turned off from Google Doc Forms due to seeing the issues that a secretary at school has with them. She is probably trying her best, but the forms would come in an e-mail with no appeal and then usually some issues arise in order for us to click submit that she ends up sending three e-mails in regards to the form. I can understand our school secretary’s thinking about the need to have it in an e-mail or teachers probably won’t fill out the form. Due to this sole experience, I was turned off from using Google Doc Forms till I actually created one myself and realized how easy it is and how it could look very professional.

            The creation of the website has definitely enhanced my communication with students, parents, and administrators. By having everything on the website, I will be able to assist students and parents to navigate through the site better than in prior years. The website is a work in progress and I do believe that I will have to take some time to work out the kinks. I also believe the website is a stepping up my classroom instruction since I can now reference things and guide students by providing students with direct links to noteworthy projects and other resources. I currently have three student computers in my classroom with two of them working pretty well. With the website I can post online activities which could be done in the rotations of stations in the classroom. In prior efforts, working with the computers have not been successful since I often had to guide students through the websites since our school webpage was unreliable but now I could have all websites and directions all in an assignment on my own website. 

            Prior use of the bulletin boards to provide information to students and parents has brought some hint of resentment for me due to my feeling that students are being freed from responsibilities of writing in their planners or even notebooks since they now can just look online to see what their homework is.  After sometime that resentment turned into acceptance even though I still disapprove morally. Students in my class have been taught that with my constant updating of lesson plans on the bulletin board, they no longer have the excuse that they didn’t know what the homework was. I must admit also that the bulletin board is used regularly by my students based on views, so it is something that works. This issue reminds me of our discussions about Michael Wesch and Sherry Turkle. Wesch’s thought that we have to change our ways in hopes to reach the digital natives is coming to light for me and that is exactly what I am doing, by keeping up with a site where students can find all necessary information.  On the other hand, Turkle’s view in which she states technology connectedness has severely affected humans’ communication skills comes to mind too. Having homework posted on another source besides the classroom does eliminate, on some level, responsibility for the student. Will not writing down homework have long lasting effects on people? Absolutely not; but when will students be taught this responsibility before they go into the work force? They will have to be on top of everything that is said at a meeting or presentation and even what their job assignment for the day is. The person will not be able to just look up what they have to do later on, and to ask for many clarifying questions does not look good for these future employees because they could theoretically  receive the comment “Were you paying attention?” Communication and responsibility are important skills that everyone must learn but in this new world it is very different from how we were taught and therefore we must make changes to better address the needs of our students, exactly what Wesch claims.

 

Favorite Video Clip:

 

            The presentations in class were all very informative since I learned about many new technologies (some scary - Snapchat and some excellent – Prezi, Glogster, Evernote…) As I wind down my graduate work, there are many ideas of how to implement these new technologies into my classroom such as having a digital binder, and changing some of my assigned PowerPoint projects to involve Prezi, Animoto, or Glogster and such. I believe I am fortunate to be one of those teachers who tries to incorporate some technology into her classroom (sadly I am the only math teacher in my department who assigns a technology project (PowerPoint); all others usually assign hands on creations which are great but do not address the specific needs of the digital native student) and now my tool box has increased tremendously. I definitely look forward to implementing these technologies into my classroom.

Thank you everyone for an excellent learning experience!

Have a great summer!

Sherry Turkle

Sherry Turkle’s opinion is that with all the technological advances there is one great thing that was lost, conversation. Turkle’s claim is that technology is so heavily routed in our lives that we are losing the basic connection of conversation. She explains it well in the following statement.

“We used to think, ‘I have a feeling; I want to make a call.’ Now our impulse is, ‘I want to have a feeling; I need to send a text.’” Turkle does not state that technology should be eliminated but that we as humans should take steps to make room for conversation by creating sacred spaces such as the kitchen, the dining room, or cars “device-free zones.

I believe Turkle does not challenge Wesch’s call for digital community and connection since she never states to completely get rid of technology. She simply states that conversation should be held at a high standard and that we should pull ourselves away from our devices and make connections face to face with people. I feel Wesch’s claim was geared toward educational reform where as Turkle does not mention education besides being at the library at a college level where everyone is in their own little world. We should keep our heads up and take advantage of what is around us in nature and take advantage of one another and have conversations.

Link to Weebly

http://mspachecoephs.weebly.com/

Math and Media (Pg. 147) & Taking Action Against Disney (Pg. 253)

The article Math and Media is a short passage that offers suggestions on how math could be used analyze and address social problems. The article suggested teaching ideas that would integrate math into language arts and social studies. One of the idea that was suggested was photo fairness (to find bias in mass media) in which math skills such as simple computation, averages, percent, and graphing could be utilized. Another suggestion would be to highlight every time certain people are quoted or stories that were about crimes and violence or stories about people working for peace and justice. The article also provides links to Resources. The group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) studied articles in newspapers and found the following: In the Washington Post and New York Times 78% of the stories were based on words of government officials, 13% of those quoted in the front page in the Post were women, and women were responsible for only 6% of the quotes in the front page of the Times.

 

The article Taking Action Against Disney discusses a middle school teacher’s dilemma as to protest or not to protest with his students after watching a 28 minute documentary Mickey Mouse goes to Haiti about exploitation of workers in factories contracted by Disney. The teacher was worried he would get in trouble for influencing students on something that is considered a political issue. When a student suggested doing a demonstration outside of a Disney store in San Francisco, the teacher was in a hard place as to how to continue. Prior he had taken steps in which he began listing in the school newsletter guilty companies. School administration got involved in which he was told to stop writing the lists and his submissions needed to get prior approval. He was told he was muddying his neutral educator perception, and some would say he was putting his job on the line. The teacher continued with subject matter when the National Labor Committee (NLC) announced an international week of action against Disney. The teacher sent letters home to families giving info about the rally and background information. He received a lot of positive responses but not everyone was pleased. He had three students attend the protest but they were able to join other groups battling the same issue. By noon, there were 75 people protesting. The teacher did not lose his job and was only reprimanded was that he used the school’s mailing directory incorrectly to send out the letters. The teacher believes he did the right thing because teaching about social justice is important in every class.

 

Mickey Mouse Goes toHaiti Preview (1:39)

 

Mickey Mouse Goes to Haiti Part I (9:48)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_OXhtgHBxk

 

Mickey Mouse Goes to Haiti Part II (9:46)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8zcwniS3Es

 

 

Disney Aficionado especially for The Little Mermaid!

I believe The Little Mermaid was one of my first Disney film memories, which makes sense since it came out in 1989… when I was only 5 years old. To this day, The Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney movie. Everything I owned had the Little Mermaid theme. In 1990, my family took our only trip to Disney World. I bought my very own Little Mermaid beach towel there! From that point forward I would classify myself as a Disney Aficionado. I still place my Disney ornaments every year on my Christmas tree.

 

 

 

 

Though I consider myself to be an Aficionado, I had limited access to the Disney films. The only Disney film I ever owned through my elementary school years was the Lion King which always saddened me since I was a huge Little Mermaid fan but never owned the video. My cousins had Disney films galore. To this day, I remember how I got to be the owner of the Lion King for the simple fact that I had a tantrum at an Ann & Hope store. The Little Mermaid served as my intro into Disney films, then came Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, and much more. I never really saw the classics such as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Fox and the Hound, and such but remember having a Disney Read-a-long kit for about 20 Disney books.

 

My like for Disney films continue today. I buy the Disney films at the dollar shelves at the local library. My nieces and I have a tradition of watching a Disney movie that I own every time that they sleep over. Is it bad that my niece announced to Storyland’s Cinderella that the Little Mermaid was Titia’s (Aunt in Portuguese) favorite princess?

I am aware that all of Disney’s movies portray stereotypes in which we are exposed to at a very young age. I agree with Christensen that stereotypes are strong in children films. For example, in the Little Mermaid the only big people in the film is the Ursula, Flounder, the chef, and the house keeper. Of all the big people, all but Flounder were unattractive. These stereo-types are ignored in the end for me due to the fact that the fairy tale ending is so much more satisfying. How can one resist finding their prince charming?

Wesch's "The Old Revolution" & "The Machine is Us/ing Us"

At the end of his article "The Old Revolution", Michael Wesch asks a question of how might our students best learn “the basics” and “basic literacy skills”.  He mentions earlier in the article that it is not hard to see a disconnect between the traditional modes of teaching and the world we all now live in. With this there is a call for new media literacy and the 21^st century skills, which are the current fads but are needed since they are the best ways to reach our students. Though he agrees it is the latest fad, he also does provide some backing as to why the revolution may not fail since it is not grounded politically, most of the tools to help facilitate are free, and because it is driven by the “rethinking the basics” movement. Our students are digital natives in which traditional settings may not be the most appropriate way to have them learn, and as educators we are constantly shifting our instruction to best suit them. The video clip “The Machine is Us/ing Us” helps support that frame of reference of what it is like to have the mastery of media like how the digital natives do. The way they think is far from the traditional settings and therefore we should make changes to our system in order to best service them.

Digital Native or Digital Immigrant?

I consider myself to be a digital native but some may consider me to be a digital immigrant. I was somewhat raised with technology, I got my first computer in 1995 when I was eleven years old and remember going through the first dial-up internet connection. I do hold a lot of the characteristics of a digital native. For example, I can parallel process in which I often am on Facebook (where I have close to 500 friends), playing Candy Crush, chatting with friends, and looking up something on Pintrest. I do have the skills of trying random ways to access something if one way does not work. I also consider myself a digital native for the simple fact that I am usually the point person for computer questions for my co-workers at East Providence High School, family, and friends.

To some, I may be considered a digital immigrant due to the fact that I usually text full words in text messages and do not have a smart phone. I believe in writing complete sentences in text messages out of simple stubbornness of not wanting to participate in the lingo and providing me practice in writing. I would love to have a smart phone, but the monthly cost is too much to bear with being in school and owning a home. If someone was to hand me their smart phone, I would have no issue in navigating my way through it.


Here is a video that I laugh at and enjoy watching everytime I see it: