Everybody's Gotten on the Blog Train!

http://thisweekineducation.blogspot.com/

I thought I'd try out a different kind of blog for this week. This was basically just to see what's out there in the way of blogs and to practice inserting links. I did a search for different kinds of education blogs. I didn't know that "This Week in Education" had one. This is a really interesting site that talks about everything from strategies of certain teachers to government proposals regarding education. It's neat to see practicing teachers' responses to government legislation in the education field. I think I'll hit up this blog site in my first year as a teacher to see how other first year teachers manage their classrooms. I really like the idea of collaborative learning teaching methods from my colleagues that have more experience than I will have as a new teacher. I'm glad I know about this now. I also figured out how to add in a link rather than just typing it in and having people copy and paste the URL to get to the site (I just hope it works). I should do blog searches more often I guess because you learn something new every blog!

The Fuzzy Notion of Plagiarism

As a future teacher, I'm going to have to identify writing styles and catch plagiarism if it manifests itself in a student's work. If a sentence or paragraph in a student's essay does not fit in with the tone and style of the student's usual work, it's time to raise an eyebrow and get to the bottom of it.

I have the most trouble with what to do when I have identified and caught the plagiarism. My first response would be that the student intentionally stole someone else's work. With further thought and an explanation from the student, I could talk myself out of this fairly quickly (maybe the student didn't know how to cite, maybe cultural issues come into play, etc.).

What should I do next? Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the students did not complete the work that was assigned. Should they be forced to do the assignment again? Should they get a zero on the assignment? Should they fail the class? Should they be expelled from the school? These are questions that I'm sure can only be answered on a case by case basis.

Another thing to take into account is the severity of the plagiarism. This implies that there are different degrees of plagiarism. For instance, if a student steals a sentence, should he/she be punished the same as someone that stole an entire paragraph or a whole essay? It's still a matter of making young people accountable for their work. They need to know that the only way for them to learn is to explore the ideas on their own. If the student works hard and makes a valiant effort to succeed in the class, I don't know any teacher that wouldn't reward that kind of behavior with a good grade in the class. Students shouldn't feel like they have to steal from a scholar to i nvestigate issues that arise in the classroom.

These were the questions that came in my head while we were reading through the websites last Thursday for class. If any future teachers in the class have some ideas about this, thoughts that you had during the assignment, or answers to my questions, comment on my wall. I'd love to hear your ideas.

The Government Wants to Oogle My Googles

As soon as I read the title that said "Do you care if the government knows what you Google," a red flag popped up in my head and that red flag was addressed later in the article. This red flag is the issue of privacy and free speech. There is no way to sugarcoat this desire of the government to make peoples' searches their business. It is an intrusion of the first amendment.

I'm torn, though. I recognize that the government has some very practical reasons for monitoring the sites that people search on a daily basis. They want to protect our nation from foreign threat and, as such, the Bush administration has been conducting domestic eavesdropping post 9/11. I have to admit, if the government eavesdrops and finds out that a terrorist is planning an attack of some kind and this is a way of catching said terrorist then I'm all for it. I would rather have the government know what research I'm doing then have a loved one be affected by a foreign attack of some kind. I also think that the government should intervene when it comes to sexually explicit websites involving children. These sick people need to be discovered and serious consequences must be enforced.

I think it's sad that our privacy has to be infringed upon, but the fact remains that there are legitimate reasons for the government to monitor what people are looking at on the internet. If you're not doing anything wrong (looking at illegal websites, creating illegal websites, etc), then you should have nothing to be ashamed of. For the good of the masses, I guess we'll just have to let the government oogle our googles. :)

Don't Forget Girls in the Effort to Close the Digital Divide

http://womensmedia.com/girls-tech-Gordon.htm

I thought this article was really interesting. Particularly intriguing to me was the implication that the English and art classrooms can be ways to get girls interested in technology. This article touches on the psychology of boys and girls and tries to formulate some practical solutions to eradicate this problem of girls getting left behind in education technology. The fact that boys and girls have different interests in how technology is presented to them is important whether I decide to teach in an all boys, all girls, or co-ed setting. As we look at the general portrait of adolescents today and their push towards a preference to learn digitally, it is important not to generalize. I need to realize that all my students are different and the gender gap proves that sticking to one certain way of teaching with multi-media is not the way to go. I never thought of it this way before. This article made me think about what other groups of people are being left behind, whether that be certain ethnic groups or students with exceptionalities. Overall, a very compelling article and a topic worth our consideration as educators that use technology on a regular basis.

Technology Application Ideas for the English Classroom in my Practicum Experience at SLU High

For my methods class, I am required to observe at a school in the St. Louis area. This Tuesday was my first observation day at SLU High. This single sex school reminded me a lot of my high school experience (except mine was all girls of course). The students were engaged, particpatory, and prepared for class. They had teachers that were excited to learn with them and teach them the knowledge that they have acquired as certified professionals. Seeing these similarities, I thought that the way the students learned outside of class would be reminiscent of my high school's approach to learning the content for class.

I did not find this to be the case, however. In just one class period, I saw the use of technology as an important learning tool in the classroom. Not only did the instructor teach using a smart board, but the students also were working on PowerPoint presentations for use in future classes. The students were reading Othello and the teacher strongly suggested the students to pick up compact discs of a reading of the play to help them with their studies. He said that it would be useful to put this on the students' iPods as well. This, of course, is a more affluent school with many students that are wealthy enough to own portable cd players and iPods so that teachers can make suggestions pertaining to owning these kinds of technologies.

I just found this senior classes' learning style really interesting. It really hit home that I am going to have to keep up with the students' preferred learning styles as we discussed in the last class. Seeing the transformation that the high school English classroom has gone through in just three years makes me realize just how quickly new technology comes out on the market. Even in my senior year, I had no idea what an iPod was. Now I am listening to my own iPod on the way to class and am seeing practical applications for them in the classroom through my observations. It makes me a bit nervous that technology is ever-changing, but it also reassures me that, throughout my long career is a high school English teacher (hopefully!) , my lessons will never get monotonous if I keep them up-to-date and use a little creativity for the sake of my students.

Response to 'The Net Generation Goes to College'

I know that including technology in the classroom is important for students who were born in the Digital Age. Students work best when they are engaged and the teaching methods are conducive to how they learn. Students these days multi-task and are constantly using portable devices. It is important to recognize these preferences as a way to identify with students, however I am uncomfortable with the idea of completely shifting the way teachers operate (i.e. groups learning from video instead of from a professor and meeting in peer groups all the time outside of class instead of an authority figure guiding students through the learning process). I do not think that we should completely cater to students' every desire as far as the classroom goes.
Learning is not always going to be 100% entertainment. Students should realize that just because they have different interests from the previous generation doesn't mean that teachers are required to throw their old methods out the window because the students are too spoiled to buckle down and learn from traditional methods. I agree with the article that there needs to be some sort of balance between teachers incorporating new technological methods along with the old ones to engage the students, but the students also have to realize that the best way to learn may not be the most enjoyable.

Hey I'm Bloggin'!

Just a test!