Pictures Can Inspire - Thing 10

As we enter February, I realize how much closer we are getting to April. In April I will be starting a land mark project with my students. I am really starting to feel the pressure and losing my drive. I took the recent Flikr assignments to help get the creative juices flowing again.

As I began in Flikr… I was not impressed. It didn’t seem user friendly or something that would really help me. The first hour worth of looking at pictures to find they were all copyrighted. Then once I was in The Commons, it seemed so limiting. Everything was from the library of congress, which is great if you are looking for something old. But maybe it was me….… I was looking for thinks that interest me… purple… skydiving… trees… I found things… just nothing l liked. It wasn’t until I started thinking about what I would use pictures from Flixr for that got me going.

The first picture I selected was “Pool it” by David Falconer with the US National Archives. This photograph will be one of many photos use to get students thinking. This sign was posted just outside of Vancouver, Washington as a reminder the gas shortage wasn’t over in 1974. As prices of gas today remain high, the question I pose to my students … “Have we changed much over the last 30 years?”

(I am not stating what the project is… because my students have started reading my blog. J) 

It’s mine and I am NOT sharing… or am I? Thing 9

The world of the internet has made it easier for everyone to share everything. If it is out there anyone can use it, right? Isn’t that what our students think?

I hate to admit that sometimes I ignore copyright laws to get done what I need to for my classroom. So I completely understand why it’s a struggle for our students. It is so much easier to copy and paste. In language arts classes we teach them how to cite work they use someone else’s work in papers, but what about other mediums? More and more teachers are having students create multimedia and online projects.

When do we teach students to use the internet correctly? Where is that GPS? In today’s classroom students need to know how to use internet content correctly. I believe that Creative Commons is exactly what this generation of students needs to help guide them.  Everyone always sees ©(the copyright symbol) and know that means “all rights reserved,” so we know not to use it, but what if we are creating it together? The Creative Commons licenses on sites, makes it easier to share, create, and build knowledge together.

I have never seen the Creative Commons logo on any sites yet, but I wasn’t looking either. I plan to add it to my teacher website just as soon as I have checked to make sure I am following all the copyright laws. J  CC is hopefully going to make a very positive mark on education!

Earlier this year I was looking in to getting a copyright. It was going to cost a good deal of money, but now I think a CC is a much better route. I wanted to share the content we were creating with other teachers but still wanted to get credit. This has been a great eye opening learning task.

So Many Possibilities with WIKIs! Thing 7

Wikis have changed the way I think about building knowledge, even more so after investigating Post-it Notes on Wikipedia. I have already starting using wikis in my class. When my students and I created the PeriodicNetwork, we worked together to build a site that others could gather information on the periodic table. The students did a fantastic job! After looking at other wikis, there are several things I could use to improve what we have done and use toward new wiki projects.

The first wiki that peeked my interest was CodeBlue. I worked with a similar project when student teaching. Students work in doctor teams to solve an ER case. It looked like the students were still building their site. They didn’t have any data or results posted yet, but I enjoyed the way the students explained who they were and what they were doing. I enjoyed seeing the teacher had taken steps to keep them safe online with fun doctor names.

DiRT is a Fantastic resource! I have to admit I loved clicking around on the site. (I should have set a timer!) What I enjoyed most was the explanation for each link. Sometimes you can have a list of links but not know if it is worth checking out or not. This wiki was extremely well organized and user friendly. Guide lines are clear and easy to follow.

Connecting students to outside the classroom to real people isn’t always easy, however Greetings from World does an amazing job! The stories on the wiki are fantastic! Students from around the world share their storied in many different languages using Glogs. Glogs are interactive online posters. I had to go look up Glogs… they are so cool and easy to use! I haven’t tried creating on yet but plan to soon! I’ll be sure to post one once I get it done!

Wikis have endless possibilities. I am even rethinking my blog project for the spring… a wiki might just serve our needs better. Wikis allow everyone to build together. The only thing I seem to dislike right now about wikis is they normally aren’t very eye appealing.

Let’s start building!

RSS – FYI Extreme!! Thing 5

While I scroll through my Google Reader, my head just spins! So much information, I am overwhelmed. I want to read it all but I just can’t. I star the ones I want to go back and take a closer look and clear the rest. I love Google Reader, because it brings everything to me in one place. It is a lot less clicking!

Today on my Google Reader I found… The Importance of Stretching. As I read the post, I had to laugh as I was reminded of the “cold tortilla” theory from my youth. The post talked about the importance of stretching before exercising. Kids need that warm up time before diving into the lesson at hand. Just like the teacher from the article, I like to get to school before everyone gets there so I can get everything set up just the way I like it. (Not that I am OCD or anything!) I am pretty sure there are many students that don’t even think about stretching before coming to school. But is it stretching or warming up?

Have you ever tried to roll a cold tortilla? It just breaks or rips…right? The same things happen to our mussels if you try and stretch them without warning them up! The Cold Tortilla Theory! The brain is a mussel, right? So, the same thing would happen to the brain, it can’t stretch if you don’t warm it up. Got to get the blood pumping! So I don’t disagree with what Patricia is saying in the post, just the title. I want my students to warm-up before class because I want to stretch their brains to new lengths they didn’t think possible.

**A special thanks to the Stretch Gang for ingrained the phrase “Life is a Journey; Not a Destination” and the “Cold Tortilla Theory” in me. **

To Grade a Blog Post? Or Not? Thing 4

Blogging can take many forms in an educational setting with students, but how do we “grade” them? I don’t have a complete answer yet.  At the start of this task I simple started by reading other blogs on grading blogs.  Integrating, Evaluating, and Managing Blogging in the Classroom was the very first blog I read on the topic, which lead me to Lessons from a First-Time Course Blogger.  I found that these blogs really got me thinking about how I was going to grade blogs when I start using them. (And if it were not for this assignment, I don’t know that I would have thought about it before assigning a blog project!! Oops!)

In a class, grades are just par for the course. There has to be a tool to measure what students are learning. A blog is a great way to see how students are comprehending content, but can be a struggle to assign a grade. In science, part of the scientific process is communication. I plan to use a blog in science as a way for students to communicate about labs and other activities. I will want to grade some tasks for content while other I will want them to form an opinion and back it up.  ‘How are you going to this?’ helped me understand a few of the ways a teacher could grade content of a post as well as comments. Most importantly the post helped me realize there is more than one right way to grade blogs, but having clear expectations from the beginning, as in any assignment, will make the blogging process easier for everyone.  

While I don’t know for sure how I am going to grade posts, comments, and other content of a student blog, there is one thing I can’t ignore… GUMS! (Grammar, Usage, Mechanics, and Spelling) I want my students to free write at the start of a blogging assignments, however they MUST look over it be for posting. Just like a student would do before turning something in a traditional classroom. I have always struggled with writing for fear of messing up and looking “stupid.” It takes more than just the Language Arts teachers to teach writing. I feel not expecting students to take GUMS into account before a post is doing them a disservice, there for I am adding it to the rubric.  (Even if I always get unacceptable!)

Below is the rubric I have come up with for a general blog assignment in science asking students to formulate an opinion on a given topic from class.     

Blogging…How has it changed me?

Until fall 2010, I had never really looked at a blog… much less written a blog post.  Not really being a writer I didn’t think that blogging was for me. I guess I was WRONG!!! I really am getting into blogging. I found it helpful to have something to focus on as a starting point. Once I started writing reflections on my grad school experiences, I started to find that I wanted to write about stuff that was happening in the classroom… and now I just can’t stop.

It wasn’t until my latest assignment that I thought about how blogs have changed communication in the 21st century. I hate to admit, but I don’t follow the news or blogs regularly. I know it’s sad, but I have found myself engulfed in my own life too busy  to bother with the rest of the world. ( I promise I am not as selfish as that sounded!) However, since the start of grad school my view of the world around me has started to change.  I now have an RSS which allows me to pull what I want to keep up with. I have found having an RSS brings the news and updates that I care about right to my attention. I was shocked as I read some of the statistics from Sifry's Alerts (http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html) at first. It does make sense seeing as most people would turn to blogs and other websites that are updated by the people around the world instantly. (plus so many people are no longer using traditional television at home anymore!) Heck, I get most of my major news from Facebook, then I go look up what is really going on. 

Thinking about blogging and news I think about the generations of females in my life. What is news to me? What is news to my mom? What is news to my grandmother? We all have different news needs. For example, my grandmother wants to be able to keep up with mine and my brother’s lives from another state as well as her silver sneakers groups and the obituaries. My mother wants to keep up with the latest hiking activity with her tail dames group and anything to do with scouting. Me on the other hand, I want to keep up with friends and any new teaching trend out there! While we all have different “news” needs, most of that information can come from a blog! I had never really thought about people having individual news needs, but we all do and we don’t necessarily get our information from the five o’clock news.

Reading blogs is still reading. I have already admitted that I am not a writer… guess what?... I am not a reader either… but blogging is changing the way I read. I have found from reading blogs I can stay informed and entertained on a number of topics. Still being new to reading blogs, I am enjoying reading what other people are doing in the classroom and how they interpret different topics. 

I am excited to try out blogging with my students. Blogging is changing the way I am learning and I am hoping to change the way my students are learning with blogging.

Design and Development... is it going to Help?

After some crazy snow in Georgia, I am settling in to the new semester.  Two new classes, both with so many exciting topics! I have always been savvy with a computer, but admittedly have never understood what is under the “hood” or in the background of the internet. I manage a teacher website and get frustrated when I can’t get it to look the way I want it look! I am very excited to learn some html code!

Design and development of lesson is a huge part of what I work on to have a successful classroom environment, but have never thought much about it when it comes to my online material. I know that learning more about design and development for the web and multimedia project with defiantly affect me as a teacher. I am just not sure how yet! I am ready to build on what I know to reach a new level as a teacher.

Admittedly, I have a problem… I tend to go overboard.  Some may call it overachieving; I call it just doing my job to the best of my ability. Once I get an idea in my head, it’s really hard to let it go. That being said, I have two fears moving forward with design and development: time and knowledge, knowing once I get into it I won’t be able to back down.   Will I have enough time in my life to really explore, learn, and use new knowledge?  Once I dive in, will have learned what I need to accomplish what I want? Will I have the knowledge to share with others?

Only one way to find out…. Let’s get started!!!

From Information Regurgitation to Knowledge Building Beyond the Classroom

"Keeping up with the Joneses" comes to mind when I think about trying to keep up with technology. Personally, I try keep up with the latest and greatest because I fascinated by technology! There is so much out there, it seems impossible to keep up with it all! As a teacher, I have two options when it comes to technology ignore it or embrace it.

Embracing technology in the classroom is really the only option that I see, but then again I am a part of the generation that grew up as the internet came to life. I was 4 in 1989 when Berners-Lee was developing the Internet. Never being forced to use the internet, it was a natural part of my youth. For example, in the sixth grade, my class was able to follow a group of bicyclist through the Mayan Ruins. As they moved from location to location they updated us with what they were doing and seeing. We were able to email them questions. An amazing experience as we studied the Mayan culture in social studies.  Change is hard, not everyone educating today's students want to change their teaching practices to include technology. However, if we as educators don't embrace technology, we are doing a disservice to our students. Technology is everywhere in the world our students are engaged in outside of the classroom. How as educators can we teach our students to become well rounded adults without teaching them to interact online? How can we teach them to be responsible online citizens if we don't understand the online community ourselves? 

The days of hand written letters are a thing of the past. (Sorry Grandma!) However, staying connected and maintain relationships has never been more important, it's just gone digital. Using Web 2.0 is one way we can connect to our students outside the 4 walls of the classroom. To effectively use the tools at our disposal, we must first understand what it is and how to use it. Not every tool out there is worth using, but understanding what is available is half the battle. You never know, one of the new web 2.0 tools might make a tried and true lesson easier to carry out? Just as electronic mail made staying connected easier (not to mention cheaper!) over traditional "snail" mail.  As teachers, we attempt to build engaging lesson in the classroom, but learning for today's student extends far beyond the classroom. We need to be the trailblazers, teaching our students how to navigate the new read/write web; teaching them to be responsible online citizen capable of positively adding to an ever growing internet. This year I have had the great experience of using the read/write web with students for the first time. As a class, we created a wiki for the periodic table of elements. Amazing!

I am a young teacher. In my few short years in the classroom, I have seen a shift in my own teaching from information regurgitation to knowledge building beyond the classroom. Thanks to web 2.0 for a shift in my teaching, has made better higher order thinkers of both my students and myself. How had that shift occurred?  For example, my fist year teaching I had each student create at baby book for an element of their choosing and now this year students created an interactive online profile of an element where they were responsible for becoming the expert in order to answer probing questions from others outside our classroom. My first year everything was contained within my classroom and now my students and I share it with the world. 

Taking advantage of the connective tissue of the read/write web has also enabled me move from "my" classroom to "our" class. I have naturally moved away from being the "sage on the stage" to co-learners with my students with endless possibilities from the new read/write web.

As the new semester final starts, I am looking forward to exploring deeper in to web 2.0 tools. I have dipped my toes in podcasts and wikis and now I am ready to try blogs, video casting, voice thread, and student social networking. So many new things to try and explore!

The journey continues!

What does Web 2.0 hold for the classroom?

Web 2.0 is a world of tools that can be used in classrooms everywhere, however at RTMS we are just starting to scratch the surface. At RTMS many teachers have a blog. Most teachers, that have a blog, use it to post assignments, worksheets, video, and other content need for class, but students add very little content to the blog. After reading “A Day in the Life of Web 2.0” I wish I taught in that school system! The world we are teaching in now has a need for constant communication between students, teacher, parents and administrators. I hope that teachers will embrace new tools to stream line communication.

As I started grad school, I considered myself computer savvy, however I did not realize how much was out there to use and try out in the classroom. As my academic year began in a new grade level with new standard I had not taught in a while, I struggled to get in the grove of the new year.  One of my first grad school classes touched on web 2.0 tools, it inspired me to dive in and try some stuff out. The first thing I tried was podcasting. It was great having students write scripts and record their voices. Second, we used a wiki to personify the elements of the periodic table. These two projects engaged learners in my classroom and created lasting knowledge of content and technology. 

While text messaging is not a “web 2.0” tool, it is one way these digital learners use to communicate. All of my students have my cell number and are welcome to text me at any time. I love that they can ask me questions when they are working on homework rather than an email that they have to wait on. If I could use Facebook to communicate with students safely… I would! All most all of my students have Facebook, it is a fantastic communication tool.  Students are dialed in to facebook just like so many adults, can’t we use it to communicate?

Today’s 21st century learners digitally connected all the time, but the really question is do they know how to use what they have in their hands? I want to find a way to use a wiki, a blog, and other web 2.0 tools in my classroom. I find that digital projects, activities, and interactions for my middle school students really help students stay engaged in the classroom, but also create lasting memories with my students.

Don’t just pretend … Go for IT!!!

My journey just keeps getting better….$1000 better.  If you recall from my earlier post about “Life is a Journey; not a Destination,” in grad school I was given the assignment to go and explore about grants for educational technology. I was awarded $1000 from the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics

Association, AFCEA, for my biodiesel project in the spring! 

Words cannot express what it felt like to open that email this morning. I have been teaching for 3 ½ years; I never would have thought I would be getting a grant this early in my career. I am just over the moon about the whole thing. I was like a little kid this morning….I couldn’t wait to tell everyone!

I am the type of person that once I get an idea in my head…there is nothing stopping me. I am not just going to do it for the grad school grade so I can say I have done it… I am going all the way. I am so glad that I didn’t just stop at exploring but went all the way through the process of applying.

One of the best parts of today was sharing it with a few of my students. I have not told all of them yet because I don’t want to let them down if it doesn’t work, however a few of them did a biodiesel science fair project so they knew what I was working on. (we’ve compared notes!) They were so excited! They couldn’t wait until they got to help lead part of the project. 

Loving Learing and Teaching Technology

This texting conversation happened after my last grad school class:

Student via text message: “you’re the smartest person I know! especially about technology”

Me via text message: “well you are lucky then… I can share all my tech knowledge with you!”

Student via text message: “Awesome! Will you help me come up with something for the tech fair?”

This might be one of the greatest complements I have ever received! This particular student is one that is smart and does try hard, however still struggles at times with academic content.  This is one of those moments that remind me why I love my job so much!

Amazing.…Fantastic….Thrilling….Changing….Stressful….These are the words I would use to describe the past semester…both as a students and teacher.  I cannot separate the two. Change has been a theme for me this semester. As a teacher, this year I changed grade levels and as a student, this was my first semester back to school.  This is a lot of change at the start of a school year. I feel like these changes have re-inspired me as a teacher.

In the beginning, I was so overwhelmed… but now I can say I have a Vision and a small plan to start making changes at my school.  I also better understand why we are in the state we are in with regards to technology! I have learned so much and not only from Dr. Jo but from my peers too! If it weren’t for one of my peers I might never have been able to complete a student project! I value our face to face time! 

What are we going to learn next?!?!?!?! 

My 1st WIKI

I feel the need to blog today, today my students finish working on the Periodic Network. This project has been an amazing experience. I feel that I have started teaching with technology, not just presenting. Students really had to stretch themselves to complete this project.  This is my reflection on what we have accomplished:

My on-level students created facebook-type social network for the Periodic Table of Elements. Six weeks ago I sat down with a team of students and explained my goal for the project. I then left it up to them to create the template for the project. I believe they truly had the expertise to create the “facebook” outline, they are on it like 24/7. Without realizing how amazing this project was going to be…we dove in! It took off like I never could have imagined.  

Safety was a first and for most my concern. After an amazing class discussion on safety not just for the project but at home too, we began. Because I felt that their identities needed to remain completely anonymous, the students had to truly personify their element. I am a science teacher, Language Arts is not my strongest area to say the least, but without realizing it I was incorporating Language Arts standards. I feel this is when real learning and teaching come together. When students have to carry over knowledge from other classes or even years past and use what they have learned; they will have that knowledge forever.

This generation of kids are the technology babies…right?!? I have to say I am not sure. During the chemistry unit one of the easy concepts is electron diagramming. Normally students just draw them, well we(student team and I) wanted to have pictures on the profile pages. I tried to teach them to draw images in word and them save them as a jpg. WOW! Something that I thought would take less than a class period took three days! (and to be honest… I don’t think they all got it! But it’s about process … right?)

Once we got our pictures loaded it was time to really fill in the information. While most of the basic information could come directly from the periodic table, some had to be looked up. This really started to help the students in the way they researched. Together we had to come up with better ways search for results needed. If pictures of Iron were needed, typing in Iron brought up tons of Ironman pictures; however we started using Fe, chemical symbol for iron, and started getting the types of results we were looking to use. Learning moments like this, really using technology, helped both the students and I become better technology users.

So still not sure if having a relationship status was a good idea or not….however, I have never had students dying to know when we were going to start chemical bonding and chemical reactions. The elements couldn’t “be in a relationship” until we covered it. The project content was built as we covered new topics in class. I usually taught the basics and then sent them free to find out more about their element within the topic, and then they had to post something about it. Just like in life, one needs to know what they need in a relationship, students had to research what their element needs in a chemical bond (“relationship”). I used this opportunity to remind students that communication is key in all relationships. Before they could bond they had to communicate about what type of bond they would make together.   This allowed me to see that they understood and could discuss different types of chemical bonds. Chemical bonding is a very difficult topic for students to understand. And my students did wonderful, I was amazed at the test results from the chemical bonding and reaction test!

Finally, once the majority of the content was on every profile administrators, other teachers, and other school staff signed on and started asking the elements questions. These weren’t questions that could be answered with one word. My students had to really research the answer questions with 2-3 sentences. It was fantastic to include other adults in the project. The students in turn enjoyed seeing who was asking questions, I don’t think they would ever admit to enjoy answering the questions.

I feel that these project helped students develop a working knowledge of atoms, periodic table, chemical bonds and chemical reactions, but beyond core science content students really worked with technology.

Below are comments I collected from students as we finished the project.  I get a warm fuzzy feeling inside when students start saying things like:

“I liked it creating my own profile, felt like I really learned something!” – Sulfur

“We got to work on computers.” -  Einsteinium

“It wasn’t like normal school work, and it’s always going to be there … I can go back and look at it when I graduate high school!” – Lithium

“I like the whole profile and communication with other elements; I am kinda sad it’s over!” – Hydrogen

“I liked the freedom to be creative” – Tin

“My element is radioactive…how cool is that?” – Mendelevium

“I liked posting stuff to the internet” – Copper

“It scared me a little to answer question from the principal…but cool that she took the time to look at my work!” –Radium

“It was totally awesome…I am so glad I am in this science class!!” – Oxygen

Students take out your Cell Phones….. … and TEXTED in your answers.

Let me take a moment to paint the picture of what happened in my 7th period 8th grade science class. Mr. H, the 8th grade assistant principal, was in my room and as the students came in I asked them to take out their cell phones, those that didn’t have them went back to their locker to get them.  The looks on their faces … priceless!! The students looked at me and then look at Mr. H … one finally said “are you for real?” … “COMLETLY!!”  After assuring them that it wouldn’t cost them any texts, I had them texted in the answer to the question on the board.

It was like texting in votes for American Idol. As the answers came, they could see the answers up on the board! AMAZING MOMENT IN THE CLASSROOM!!

This activity was inspired by an article Mr. H handed out today during our grade level meeting. The article, Speaking Digitally – Cell Phones as a Teaching Tool, mentioned polleverywhere.com. While I had heard and used polleverywhere.com before, I don’t think I know that you could texted in answers.  For a quick warm-up, I thought what the heck…give it a try! I wanted Mr. H to be there…after all it was his idea. He helped me re-insure the students that it was okay to have their phones out.

As I taught class, all I wanted to do was play with new amazing tool.  By the end of class I was ready to test out the open ended response polls. Very simply I asked the question… do you have any questions about the lesson today? I figured the questions would be silly and simple…well I was WRONG! The student asked real questions that inspired discussion…students even wanted to texted back answer to their peers.  I believe because no one knew, not even me, who was asking the questions students were more willing to ask real questions! My students are amazing…I love my JOB!

So now where do I go from here? How do I make sure every student get to participate?

“Life is a Journey, Not a Destination.”

“Life is a Journey, not a destination.”  I have been hearing these words since I was in middle school.  I don’t think I ever realized how amazing my journey was going to be. In my 8th grade year of middle school, when it came time to plan for high school, the teachers sat my parents and me down and told us that the technical track in high school would be best for me. They didn’t think that I would make it to college. Thank goodness my parents knew I was strong enough for the journey through high school. After successfully completing high school with a 3.1 GPA, I moved on to be triumphant at Brenau University and graduated with honors. It wasn’t an easy part of journey but I am a Rioux and we don’t look down to a challenge. Then I realized teaching was going to be the toughest part of my journey. Every day I am challenged by my students, like trying to find nanocrystaline titanium oxide anatase for a science fair project, but every minute with these students I realize just how amazing they are and how much I can impact their futures. While they might not remember me in 5 years, hopefully they will remember some of the projects we work on in class.  I have to keep challenging myself and my students on this journey….

I have applied for my very first grant for my classroom. YAY!!! I feel like I am finally going after all that “free” money I hear about for classrooms. I never thought I would have a project worth going after a grant. My EL project has really pulled me out of my shell as far as the way I think about teaching in my classroom. I want more than just myself in the classroom working with these students. I want to facilitate working with adult in the school and the business world that can help me bring the curriculum to life.  I am really hoping my business partner, General Electric, turns out to be a winning combination.  The people I have talked with there are so excited to get started. They have already invited us on a tour of the power plant! How cool it that!?!?!  I can’t believe what started as a “school project” might actually become a reality. Everything I have learned in grad school so far I am trying to start using in some way in my classroom. 

My students’ journeys through life will always contain technology. I know that I am loving being in the classroom more than ever is because I am learning right along with my students. This year we have worked on projects and had to figure things out together. Technology doesn’t always work exactly the way we want it to but every moment is learning and figuring something out. Problem solving right along with my students just brings smiles to everyone’s faces. I want to help create a plan to improve the technology education at my school, so that someday maybe every classroom can have moments like I have had this year.  So even though my plate is very full right now, I am going to represent science and technology on VASIP. Helping to create the school improvement plan is the best way I can ensure that the journey students have through RTMS will include technology. Without a plan and a shared vision of what is going on at the school, how can we as teachers be expected to use technology? After completing a survey from all the academic teachers at my school, I realized the teachers at my school are willing to learn about all the technology I am so excited about. They needed someone to be excited about sharing new technologies, someone they can relate and understands where they were coming from.  I am excited to be that person. I love that I get to share what I am learning through my grad school journey with the teachers that I work with.

If only my middle school teachers could see where I am now…

Staying Safe

Last week I took a quick poll in my classroom. I asked several questions about internet safety and they answered by a show of hands. I asked if they used their full name on the internet, none raised their hands. So I followed that up with do you put your address on the internet, none raised their hands. My last question was if they put photos on the internet, again…no one raised a hand. Surprised by the answers, I asked them “why you are lying to me?” They looked at me like I was crazy. A few started to make comments like, “Miss Rioux, why would we share that on the internet? That’s how bad stuff happened to kids.” It was clear to me they knew they weren’t supposed to share private information on the internet, which lead me to my last question….Do you not consider facebook the internet? The looks my students had on their faces were priceless.  Students began to realize how much information is truly on facebook and how easily piece of their life could be put together.  Most of them use their full names in profiles…it was interesting to find that some students did use their middle names instead of a last name. While none of them post a physical mailing a dress, most of them use the “check in” section for place they were at in real time. And all of them had many photos on their page. As we discussed how quickly all of those pieces could come together, I believe my student became much more aware of what they should and shouldn’t (and how often) post on the internet. I also explained to them how to set security setting in facebook because so many of them didn’t know how! However I did remind them that no matter the setting someone could always hack their page! Facebook is a great tool for communication that these students are going to use no matter what, it’s our job to teach them how to be safe about it!

I truly enjoyed the safety discussion we had in my classroom because it became an open forum to discuss ways to be safe, going beyond just telling them what not to do.  As we were starting our own social network, I wanted to make sure how important their safety was to me and their parents.

With our PeriodicNetwork, students are personifying an element. Every student has a different element. I am asking student to compile information for their “profile.” Trying to get students understand that you can’t just take something from the internet and paste it in to your profile wasn’t easy. Luckily pbworks has a button on every page check for plagiarism really helped them understand that cutting and pasting wouldn’t work. What this generation seems to be struggling with is motivation to do their own work, after all there is plenty out there now for them to just copy.