You.com

My Website: CLICK HERE

When starting this assignment of creating a digital portfolio, I visited many of the sites listed in order to see where I wanted my website to be hosted.  I immediately gravitated to Vizualize.me, as I was drawn to the infographic style they used.  I signed up for an account and started editing my page.  After a few minutes, I realized that this site did not offer the customization that I wanted.  I was unable to upload videos and documents, and I could not customize the layout in the ways I wanted.  I decided that vizualize.me was not going to suit my needs, so I went to Flavors.me.  Again, I signed up for an account and began editing, when I ran into many of the same issues.  After thinking for a while, I remember that I had used Weebly.com for a previous Wilkes class in order to make a website.  I remembered that Weebly allowed for much more customization, and had many more capabilities than the other sites I had explored.

In building my Weebly site, I had to make a lot of choices about what I wanted to include.  I really like the social media buttons that Weebly offers (in the top right corner and bottom of my page).  These buttons allow people to e-mail me, and connect to me on social media sites, but do not take up a lot of space on the page.  I do not like cluttered websites, so I appreciate these buttons.  I then began to include coursework and projects.  I linked to the two blogs I have created for Wilkes classes, and then took advantage of Weebly's capabilities and included a document, video, image, and link.  I'm happy with how my website turned out, and I think it is representative of what I have accomplished here in the Wilkes Instructional Media program.

Broadcast Yourself

This week's assignment was to complete a live broadcast.  My friend and I write a blog about nail art and nail polish, so I decided to broadcast a tutorial.  I chose to do a tutorial for galaxy nails, which are a popular design at the moment.  I have posted galaxy nail designs on the blog many times, and I have had a lot of people ask me how to do them.  I posted a photo tutorial for it a while back, but I still get questions from people.  So to answer those questions, I decided to do the broadcast tutorial.

I invited friend and family members who are always asking me how I do various nail designs.  I also advertised on the Twitter account I use for the blog.  Four people showed up for the broadcast (although one left partway through), and they seemed to enjoy it!

For the broadcast, I chose to use Google Hangouts.  I wanted to use this program, because it was a Google tool that I was not familiar with.  I like to try out all the Google tools that I can, so I was glad for the opportunity to use Hangouts.  I started the broadcast by showing everyone what polishes they would need to complete the design:

I then walked through the process of creating the design step by step.  One issue I did run in to was the clarity of video.  I used an external webcam for this, since the one built in to my computer wasn't what I needed for this type of video.  Because I wanted to be able to aim the camera at my nails, I needed the external webcam.  I'm not sure if it was the quality of that camera, or just the quality of video on Google Hangouts, but it did take away from the broadcast a bit.  Since I was trying to show close ups of nail art, I would have like to have better quality.  It was slightly better than what is shown here (the capture feature on Google Hangouts takes very low-quality screen shots), but was not as good as I would have liked.  I had to give better descriptions of what I was doing, rather than just relying on the video to show what to do.

 One thing that I really liked about doing a live tutorial is that people were able to ask questions along the way.  For example, after I finished the design, there were a few questions about nail art in general.  One person wanted to know what kind of tools I used to create my designs, and I was able to answer the question and show the tools.  It was nice to be able to provide immediate responses to questions.

 Since the captures picture quality is so low, here's a better picture of the final design:

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have done live broadcasts with my students.  I think that live broadcasts can be an extremely helpful tool in certain situations.  While I don't think Google Hangouts is the best choice for broadcasting with students, I could certainly see myself using Google Hangouts in the future in order to connect with friends and family.

Attend a Live Webinar

Earlier in the course of this class, I signed up for an Edmodo account.  I had heard that it is a wonderful tool for teachers to use, and I know a lot of teachers in the World Language department use it with great success.  So I signed up for an account, and hadn't really done anything with it since.  I knew I wanted to use it next year, but wasn't even sure when to start.  Then, I got an e-mail from Edmodo inviting me to participate in a "Intro to Edmodo" webinar.  Knowing that I had this assignment this week, it seemed like the perfect opportunity!

The "Intro to Edmodo" webinar lasted about 30 minutes.  During that time, we were given an overview of what Edmodo is, a look at the features, and some tips for implementing Edmodo in our classrooms.  The presenter was knowledgeable about Edmodo, and also had experience as a classroom teacher.  I appreciated this, as I felt like I was getting information from someone that understood the classroom side of Edmodo and not just the technical features.  I would definitely consider attending future Edmodo webinars, because they seem to be a great way to get information on how to best use Edmodo.  I would like to learn about Edmodo in more depth before the school year starts, so I will be looking out for future webinars.

I have used webinars with my students before, and plan to continue to do so in the coming school year.  My 7th and 8th grade French 1 and French 2 students have to take a comprehensive county-wide final exam at the end of the school year.  This exam covers everything they have learned in the class, and if they do not pass the exam, they do not earn high school credit for the class.  This means they have to repeat the class the following year.  Needless to say, this causes a lot of stress for my students.  Two years ago, to help alleviate some of the stress, I set up a webinar for the night before the exam.  For the webinar, I used WizIQ, which I had learned about in a previous Wilkes class.  During the webinar, I answered students' questions, reviewed topics that would be on the exam, used the microphones to help students with pronunciation, etc.  My students absolutely loved the webinar.  At the end of last year, I had over 40 students participate.  They came in to school the next day and thanked me profusely for the webinar, and many said that they would not have passed the exam without it.

Webinars are wonderful tools, however they do require a time commitment.  Since they are held live, you have to be in a certain place at a certain time.  This could be challenging for both students and teachers.  I don't know if I would incorporate regular webinars into my class for this reason.  I think they are great for the situation I described with the final exam, but I don't know if they are really feasible or necessary for regular use.  That being said, I know that many webinar hosting sites offer the ability to record the session for future playback.  This might make regular webinars more possible.  Unfortunately this eliminates the live aspect, where students can interact with each other and the teacher.  However it is a good compromise for the time commitment.  There's definitely a lot to think about when considering webinars for classroom use!

Integrating Social Networking

Subject/Grade:   French 2 - 8th grade

Unit/Lesson:  Unit 3 - Speaking in the past tense

Outcome: Students will be able to describe past events using a various vocabulary and structures

Standards: Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum 
                  1.0   COMMUNICATION

1.1   Interpersonal

b. Students engage in exchanges about familiar and personal topics in the present, past, and future in the target language.

Common Core State Standards

 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.6 Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

CCSS.Math.Practice.MP7 Look for and make use of structure.

Social Networking Site:  Twitter

Rationale:  In French 2, one of the biggest topics is speaking in the past tense.  It is introduced in Unit 3, and reinforced and expanded upon in all the units after.  Students can not pass the comprehensive final exam (and therefore can not receive high school credit for French 2) if they do not have a firm grasp on speaking in the past tense.  As there is a huge push in my school district to use authentic language in authentic scenarios, Twitter provides a wonderful platform for communication.  Students would get away from translation and meaningless scenarios, and would be able to use what they have learned in a way that is meaningful and exciting for them.  Twitter's character limits would force the students to think critically about what they are typing, and will encourage self and peer editing.  While Twitter is not currently approved for use with students in my school district, we have been informed that it may be a possibility for the upcoming school year.  I am hopeful that I will be able to complete this lesson with my students in the fall!

Lesson idea:  Twitter would be incorporated in this unit as a way to reinforce the lessons while students are outside of school.  Every day, I would post a question to Twitter, like below:

This question asks "What did you do yesterday after school?".  Each student would be required to respond to the question I post.  Then, each student would have to ask a classmate a follow up question to their answer.  For example, if a student responded to my question and said "I played soccer with my friends", a classmate could ask "What time did you play soccer?", "Where did you play soccer?", etc.   By doing this, students would practice understanding questions in the past tense, responding in the past tense, and formulating their own questions in the past tense.  I could tailor the initial question to touch on whatever nuance of the past tense that we learned in class that day.  Since my students spend a huge amount of time on Twitter outside of school, this would be an effective way to get them to use French outside of the classroom.

Differentiation: Above-level learners could be challenged to ask more than one follow up question.  Below-level learners would be provided with sentence starters (or tweet starters, if you will) to provide the framework of how to respond to the daily question.

Assessment: At the end of each week, I would grade students on their tweets using the following rubric

	4	3	2	1	0
Response to initial daily question	Student responded to the initial daily question all 5 days	Student responded to the initial daily question on 4 of the 5 days	Student responded to the initial daily question on 3 of the 5 days	Student responded to the initial daily question on only 1 or 2 of the 5 days	Student did not meet any of the requirements described
Follow up questions	Student asked at least one follow up question of a classmate on all 5 days	Student asked at least one follow up question of a classmate on 4 of the 5 days	Student asked at least one follow up question of a classmate on 3 of the 5 days	Student asked at least one follow up question of a classmate on only 1-2 of the 5 days	Student did not meet any of the requirements described
Responses to follow up questions	Student responded to at least one follow up question asked of them on all 5 days	Student responded to at least one follow up question asked of them on 4 of the 5 days	Student responded to at least one follow up question asked of them on 3 of the 5 days	Student responded to at least one follow up question asked of them on only 1-2 of the 5 days	Student did not meet any of the requirements described
Prompt Requirements	Student’s responses to the daily question show a high level of understanding.  Student regularly attempts more complex sentences.	Student’s responses to the daily question show a good level of understanding.  Student attempts more complex sentences.	Student’s responses to the daily question show a basic level of understanding.  Student rarely attempts more complex sentences.	Student’s responses to the daily question show minimal understanding.  Student does not attempt more complex sentences.	Student did not meet any of the requirements described
Spelling/ Grammar	Spelling and grammar are used effectively with minimal errors that interfere with comprehension	Spelling and grammar are used effectively with some errors that interfere with comprehension	Spelling and grammar have many errors that interfere with comprehension	Spelling and grammar usage make comprehension difficult	Student did not meet any of the requirements described

The Seven Day Social Immersion Challenge

Photo-a-day:
CLICK HERE to see my photo of the day for each day of this week

In 2012, I completed the Project 365 challenge, so this week's photo-a-day assignment was a lot of fun for me!  From January 1st, 2012 to December 31st, 2012, I posted a photo every single day.  I tried to take a photo that summed up the major part of my day.  Throughout the process, I learned a lot about photography, and about myself!  I enjoy photography and have taken a few photography classes, so I undertook the Project 365 challenge as a way to improve my photography skills.  I also thought it would be a neat way to document a year in my life.  I used the Project 365 app on my iPhone, and every day I uploaded my photo to Facebook.  This was a great way for my family that lives in New England to know what was going on in my life.  Many of my family members have told me how much they loved seeing my pictures every day (one aunt said they were the only reason she logged in to Facebook every day), and they were disappointed when the year was over.  Many of them have asked me to start doing Project 365 again.  After this week, I remember how much fun it was, and I'm definitely tempted to start again!  Not only did Project 365 help improve my photography, it helped me to try new things and get out of my apartment more often.  Knowing that people were looking at my pictures each day, I certainly didn't want to have picture after picture of me sitting on the couch watching TV.  So I made myself go out and do things more often than I normally would.  I started walking the dog more, going out in Annapolis, and spending more time with friends.  Those habits have now stuck with me, and I'm definitely enjoying life!
For my pictures this week, all of them were taken with my iPhone 5, except for Friday's.  That photo was taken with my Nikon D70 and an 80-400mm lens.  I decided to approach this week like the year of Project 365, and post a picture that summed up the major part of my day.  I have seen other photo-a-day challenges that revolve around themes, or specific subject matter, and I think those would be an interesting twist on the challenge.  I might just have to try one of those out!

Twitterthon:
Although the assignment said to complete either the photo-a-day challenge or the Twitterthon, I decided that I would try to amp up my Twitter usage this week, just to see how it would go.  I tried to find new people to follow every day, and also tried posting more often.  I found that I got very overwhelmed in trying to keep up with it all!  I am a regular Twitter user, so I'm comfortable using it, but I found that I was devoting way more time to reading my Twitter feed than I wanted to.  I have three different Twitter accounts - one is personal, one is educational, and one is for following the nail art world (which I write a blog for).  For some of the people I followed this week, I have decided to follow them with one of my other accounts.  That way I can read those feeds if I have some extra time.  My personal Twitter account will just be for those that I want to follow on a daily basis.  While I was a bit overwhelmed by my mini-Twitterthon, I did find some interesting new people and businesses to follow!

Photo of the Day - Sunday

It was a lazy day around the apartment.  Finnegan was not happy to be woken from a nap.

Photo of the Day - Saturday

Today I walked 4.5 miles on the B&A Trail (a walking/biking trail that goes from Baltimore to Annapolis).  I've walked about 8 miles of the trail so far, and I hope to do the other 5 miles in the near future!

Photo of the Day - Friday

Today I explored a new park near the U.S. Naval Academy.  This heron was kind enough to pose for a picture or two.

Photo of the Day - Thursday

My dog and I tried out a new walking route today.  This was a view along the way.  I love living in Annapolis - there are beautiful water views around every turn!

Photo of the Day - Wednesday

Spending the afternoon at a vineyard in Connecticut

Photo of the Day - Tuesday

Checking out the mansions along the Cliff Walk in Newport, RI

Digital Story Created with a Cell Phone

For this week's assignment, I used my cell phone to create a digital story.  The theme of the story was "I knew I was going to be an educator when...".  To tell my part of the story, I decided to use pictures and captions.  I added the captions to the pictures by using the "A Beautiful Mess" app on my phone.  I used my phone to find and download the music used in this video.  I then included videos of some of my family members sharing their stories about becoming teachers.  This was filmed while on a family vacation.  At one point in the vacation, we had 14 educators under one roof!  After filming, I edited the video together using Windows Movie Maker.  I enjoyed creating this video, and could definitely have my students create digital stories using cell phones!

Photo of the Day - Monday

The family on the beach in Rhode Island

Mobiles in the Classroom Interview

For this interview, I reached out to my friend Chris.  Chris used to work at the school where I teach, but two years ago he took a position at the high school that my school shares a building with.  This has made it easy to stay in touch, and I knew that Chris would be a great person to interview about using cell phones in the classroom.

Chris teaches a variety of high school art classes.  He teaches everything from basic foundations of art, through advanced placement classes. When I asked Chris how he incorporates cell phones in his classes, he had a lot of ideas to share.  Chris lets his students use their cell phones in a variety of ways that help enhance instruction.  Chris often has students take pictures of their artwork while it is in progress.  He says he then uses the photos to have the class do some peer-review of art.  Being able to project a picture for the class is much easier than having a whole class crowd around a piece of art.  He says this process also helps students see their art in a new way.  When they have to decide how to best photograph the art, and when they see it in front of the class, they see it with new eyes.  Chris also allows his students to do research on their phones.  There are a variety of art apps available where students can look up famous works of art.  It is much easier to have students do this right in the art studio, rather than trying to reserve a computer lab.

Chris also uses cell phones in his photography class.  He says that the class has evolved over the years, and now cell phone photography is a major component.  Since many cell phones now have sophisticated cameras, he is able to help his students learn how to take impressive cell phone pictures.  He also uses apps such as Photoshop Express to edit the photos.  Chris says that, since most people use their cell phones as their main camera now, he enjoys teaching students how to use their phones to take better pictures.

The high school's policies on cell phones made it easy for Chris to incorporate cell phones into his classroom.  A few years ago the high school principal decided that cell phones would be allowed in the hallways and in classes (at the discretion of the teacher).  Chris says that, because students are allowed to use their phones when appropriate and are often using them for class-related activities, he has not had to deal with any cell phone issues in his classes.  He has not had to take a phone away, come across a student using their phone inappropriately, or any such issues.  Chris appreciates that the principal trusts teachers to use their judgement when it comes to cell phones in their classes.

When I asked Chris if he plans on using cell phones with his student next year, he responded "absolutely!".  Chris has been able to incorporate cell phones into his class in a meaningful way, and he has seen wonderful results.

Discovering Something New

This week, to discover some new online tools, I went to Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything.  Having taken a previous Wilkes class with Ms. Schrock, I knew that I would be able to find some very interesting sites through her page.  I chose three different sites to evaluate, and I enjoyed using these sites and learning more about them.

Pixlr:
The first site I looked at was Pixlr, a photo editing website.  I have an interest in photography, so this site appealed to me.  I have Adobe Photoshop Elements installed on my computer, and use it regularly.  Pixlr is quite comparable to Elements, at least when it comes to the basic tools (which are all I have learned up to this point).  As Pixlr is a free site, I was very impressed with the capabilities.  In order to explore and learn about the site, I decided to edit a picture.  I started with a picture I had taken at a 4th of July party.  I used Pixlr's text option to add the date to the picture.  Then I started editing.  I used the spot healing tool to get rid of a distracting mark on the pier, and then I adjusted the brightness and contrast.  Then, I applied a slight blur filter to just the outside edges.  I tried other filters and adjustments, but found that I didn't need to add them.  The end result of the editing I did on Pixlr is this picture:

For my classroom purposes, I don't think that Pixlr would be very useful.  However I can certainly see how appealing it may be to other subject areas.  My friend/colleague teaching a class called Project Runway, and part of her curriculum includes using Photoshop.  She was lucky enough to receive enough copies of Photoshop for the computer lab, but I know other teachers in the county are not as lucky.  Pixlr would be a great, cost-saving alternative.

Gliffy:

The next site I explored was Gliffy.  I had come across this site before, but never had a chance to explore it.  In my school district, there is a huge push to use thinking maps.  We are expected to use thinking maps at least once a week, and administrators look to see if our students are creating thinking maps regularly.  Our students are very familiar with the different types of thinking maps, however I find that they get bored with them quickly.  They use thinking maps so often that the students are not engaged by them anymore.  Before exploring Gliffy, I was hopeful that it would be a tool I could use with students to re-motivate them to use thinking maps.  I set to creating a flow map for a story that my French II students read each year.  Here is a screen shot:

Gliffy is extremely user friendly and intuitive.  The tools work in a way that makes sense, so I didn't have to spend any time trying to figure out how to work them.  

The downfall of Gliffy is that it is not entirely free to use.  With a free account, you can only create five diagrams per month.  Unless I had each student create an account (which I am not allowed to do), I would not be able to have students work on this program.  We could use it to make thinking maps as a class, but that eliminates a lot of the purpose behind thinking maps.  Gliffy does offer discounted prices for academic institutions, however with today's financial concerns, it still may not be feasible to use.

Flisti:

The last site I chose to explore was Flisti, which is a poll creator.  I was recently introduced to the wonderful world of Google Forms, so I was curious to see how other poll creating sites stacked up.  While Flisti does not come close to the features of Google Forms, it was easy to make a poll with it.  With Flisti, you can only make a one question poll with multiple choice answers (as opposed to Google Forms with its unlimited questions and various types of questions).  I do like Flisti's option to embed your form into a website, which I have done here:

Could you see yourself using Flisti with your students?

Yes

No

Maybe

or View Results

Create your own poll at Flisti.com

I think that Flisti would be much more useful if you could include more than one question.  If you have a blog you use with your students, Flisti would be an easy way to include questions in a blog post.  However, I would not want to allow students to go to the Flisti site and create their own questions.  Once you create a poll, the site shows ads.  One of the ads that I saw showed a glass of beer, and another showed a scantily dressed woman.  I would not want to expose my students to questionable ads this way. Luckily, when you click "View Results", no ads are shown.  This is why I think that for educational purposes, Flisti would be limited to the teacher creating polls and embedding them.  Flisti does not have a way to contact them listed on the site, but I was able to reach out to them via Twitter.  I have messaged Flisti with the suggestions of being able to add more questions, and to remove questionable ads, and I will be sure to update this post if/when they respond!

Fill up your Toolbox

This week, I got to try three tools - URL shortening, QR codes, and Bookmarklets.  Although I have some experience with each of these, I learned a bit more about these tools, and came up with some ideas for using them in the classroom.

URL shortening:
I used Google's URL shortener to shorten the link to my blog.  The shortened link is http://goo.gl/IzLNH.  This was an extremely easy process!  I have used URL shorteners before with Twitter.  I often tweet links to another blog that I write, and with the 140 character limit, sometimes it is necessary to shorten the URL to fit it in the tweet.  I think that using URL shorteners would be helpful in my classroom.  I often call parents about their students progress, and need to direct them to the online textbook website, or the class homework website.  It would be much easier to give them a shortened link over the phone.  URL shortening probably would not be all that useful in school with my students, because they can not type in URLs until they get to high school.  However, I could definitely see myself using URL shortening to share links with faculty members.

QR codes:
I have used QR codes with my students before, but they have been text QR codes.  It's difficult to get cell phone service in my school building, so it's hard to have students scan QR codes in school that require them to connect to the internet.  I have used text QR codes to send kids around the school on scavenger hunts.  My students LOVED these scavenger hunts, and I definitely want to do more of them next year.  For this assignment, I used a QR code while I was working on curriculum writing this week.  While writing curriculum, we needed to constantly be adding differentiated instruction to the curriculum, and had to reference out county's Blackboard site for differentiated instruction.  Since each group was working with one computer, it was difficult to keep having to go back and forth from the curriculum template to the DI website.  We decided it would be easier to just pull up the blackboard site on our cell phones.  Rather than having to type in the address each day when we got to the curriculum academy, I made a QR code that we could scan each morning.  Here's my curriculum writing partner, Nicole, scanning the code:

I plan on using QR codes a lot more next school year.  One idea I have is to create one for Back to School Night that parents could scan in order to get information about my class.  There are a lot of practical uses for QR codes!

Bookmarklets:

Bookmarklets are very helpful tools, and I got to try a new one this week.  I already use the Pinterest bookmarklet, and I think it is a great way to make Pinterest easy to use.  Rather than having to go to the Pinterest site to pin an item, I can just use the bookmarklet and pin right from the specific website.

I also decided to install the Printliminator bookmarklet.  I am often printing things from websites for my classes, since I try and use authentic materials.  A lot of times I will just want to print an ad, or a section of a website that has French vocabulary that my students can understand.  Printliminator makes this much easier for me to do.  I can easily print sections of a website in a way that makes them more visually appealing.  I could see myself using this often next year, especially with the new push for using online, authentic materials.

I use Google Chrome, and I like how these bookmarklets are stored in the favorites bar.  I like that I don't have to see them all the time, and I can just pull up the favorites bar when I want to use the bookmarklet (using cntl+shift+B).  I do not like my browser to be cluttered with a bunch of different buttons and toolbars, so this is a feature I appreciate.

Digging Deeper into the Mainstays

For this week's assignment, I got the chance to look at some new (to me) websites to determine how they might be used to enhance instruction.  Looking at these sites has given me inspiration for next school year, as I hope to implement many of these sites in my classes.

Social

For the category of social websites, I chose to look at Edmodo.  I have been on Facebook since it first came out, and I check Twitter several times a day, so I wanted to look at a site I was less familiar with.  I signed up for an Edmodo account last year when I took a blog/wiki certification course, but I never actually set up a page for my classes.  Throughout this year, I have heard many teachers raving about Edmodo, and they piqued my interest in the site.  In looking into Edmodo more this week, I was extremely pleased to see that they have an app available now!  This makes using Edmodo with my classes seem like a much easier task.  I am constantly on my phone, and much more likely to keep up with websites when I can do so from my phone.  

Next year, I would like to set up an Edmodo group for each course that I teach (French 1A,1B, 1 and 2).  I would like to post all homework and class announcements on this site (and, like I said, I'll be much more likely to do this since there is an app).  My school uses Blackboard currently for things like this, but the process to update Blackboard is time consuming, and I also run into an issue where students have a hard time finding my class information in such a large site.  I also like that I can post assignments on Edmodo.  Posting a copy of assignments to this site would help eliminate excuses with my students, and I think would help curb the issue of missing assignments.  I am really looking forward to using Edmodo with my classes next year!

Creative

For the creative websites, I was already very familiar with Glogster, Prezi, and Voicethread.  I have used all of these myself, and have done assignments with Glogster and Voicethread with my students.  Therefore, I chose to look into another creative website, makebeliefscomix.com.  I came across this site in another Wilkes class, but never had a chance to explore it.  About two weeks ago, a special education teacher I am working with mentioned this site to me as a resource for French students.  She suggested that it would be very helpful for students that are reluctant to perform skits and dialogues in class.  It would allow me to see that they understand conversational flow and questioning techniques, but without making them fearful or anxious.

In exploring Makebeliefscomix more, I am very impressed with this site! The first thing I noticed is that it gives you the capability to type in French.  This is not a common thing to see on a website, so I was impressed with the option.  To explore the site more, I tried creating my own comic.  I'm not one to read directions, so I just jumped into the process, and learned as I went.  It took a little trial and error, but after only about five minutes, I was completely comfortable with the process.  I created a comic in about ten minutes, so I know that my students could do some very creative work if they had a whole class period to work.  Here's a screen shot of the comic I created using this website:

Makebeliefscomix could certainly extend to other subject areas than World Languages!  I did a Google Images search, and found a variety of comics created with this program.  I found comics for math, science, and many other subjects.  I think that Makebeliefscomix is a very engaging site that students would thoroughly enjoy!

Curation

In the category of curation website, Pinterest was the only one I was familiar with.  I use Pinterest regularly, and am very comfortable with how Pinterest works.  For this assignment, I decided to give Symbaloo a try.  Symbaloo seems like a very easy way to organize bookmarks.  As someone that can get easily overwhelmed by busy sites, I appreciate the tile format that Symbaloo uses.  It makes bookmarks easy to find and access. I also like the ability to add Widgets.

A quick Google search led me to Symbaloo pages created by other French teachers.  I found one where a teacher organized all her classroom links into one place - the class wiki, Edmodo page, etc.  Another teacher organized French resources, such as a conjugation website, and online dictionary.  I also appreciate that you can change the language on Symbaloo to French, so that all the buttons and instructions are in French.  Little things like that can really help reinforce vocabulary with my students!

I can certainly see myself using Symbaloo with my students.  In my school district, middle school students are not allowed to type in web addresses.  All websites must be provided in link form by the teacher.  This can be challenging when I want my students to do research.  I think that Symbaloo would help in this situation.  I could easily create one site that students could access in order to get the links to sites for their research.  

This week's assignment led me to some websites that I'm very glad to have explored!  I now have some new ideas for next school year, and I think that these websites will help make my classes more engaging and organized.  I look forward to trying these websites with my students!

Using New Technologies

For this week's assignment, I interviewed my co-worker and friend, Cara.  Cara teaches Art and Project Runway to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students.  Project Runway is a newer course that Cara has built at our school.  In this class, students complete a variety of assignments that involve sewing and design skills.  In 6th grade they work on hand sewing smaller projects, and by 8th grade they are designing and making their own clothes, designing textiles, and completing many other interesting assignments.  Cara is also in the Wilkes EDIM program, so she has incorporated much of what she has learned in these courses into the classes she teaches.  Cara is always willing to try out new technologies, and has had a lot of success.

One Web 2.0 tool that Cara uses often is Glogster.  In 6th grade Project Runway, Cara teaches about the history of fashion.  To do this, she created a Glog for each decade.  The Glogs have pictures, information, and links for students to explore.  Once the students explore each Glog, they then click a link that takes them to a quiz on Discovery Education that Cara has created.  After students explore all the Glogs, and take all the quizzes, they then create their own Glog that summarizes the information they have learned.  I have gone in to the computer lab while students were working on this assignment, and I was very impressed by how motivated the students were to learn the information this way.

Another assignment that Cara's 6th grade students do is the "Holiday Sweatshirt" project.  For this project, teachers fill out a survey about their holiday/winter preferences.  The teachers are the "clients", and the students work to design a holiday sweatshirt that meets the client's needs.  Then on the last day before winter break, all the teachers wear their sweatshirts for the day.  The results are always entertaining!  For this project, students work in groups.  Design and planning are a big part of the process, so Cara finds it very important that groups have a solid plan before their start working on the actual sweatshirt.  Last year, she tried something new and made a Wikispace for each group.  On the Wiki, the groups were able to work at home to plan the design, who would bring in what supplies, etc.  This helped to greatly improve the quality of the sweatshirts.  Before using Wikis, Cara had to complete a Wiki certification course that is offered through our county.  This course covers basic wiki use, as well as internet safety.

Cara's advice to anyone that wants to try new technologies is to jump right in!  She has learned mostly by doing.  She has tried new technologies, figured out what works and what doesn't, and then modified things to make her technology use more effective.  She says that trial and error are a big part of using technology, but it's worth the effort!

Appropriate Use/Internet Safety Policy

Appropriate Use/Internet Safety Policy

             Through this week’s assignments, I was introduced to the Children’s Internet Safety Act, or CIPA.  This act has been established to help protect children from accessing inappropriate or obscene content on the internet.  In Maryland, CIPA only applies to libraries, however my school district has taken steps to establish their own similar policies.

            My school district, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, has an Acceptable Use Policy (available here), which is a rather generic policy.  It explains the importance of using technology for curriculum-related assignments, and also outlines students’ roles and responsibilities when accessing the internet at school.  This list of roles and responsibilities is a bit more inclusive than CIPA, as it is more specifically geared towards the school setting.  It is not only geared towards the type of material that students access online, but also towards general computer use.  For example, it is stated that students may not remove or damage computer parts.  So while CIPA is an internet safety policy, AACPS has general technology guidelines.

            While the AACPS Acceptable Use Policy generally addresses computer usage, I found it to be lacking in information.  As we are a school district of approximately 78,000 students, I would expect that we would have a very specific policy in place to help make students and parents more aware of appropriate computer use.  Earlier this week, I reached out to the AACPS Office of Instructional Technology.  I asked them if we had any other policies in place, and was told that we do not.  Many policies have been proposed to the Board of Education, however they have not been able to agree on a final product as of yet.  I was told, however, to expect one by the start of next school year.  AACPS is planning on changing the filters, and websites such as YouTube and Twitter will now be available for use.  According to the Office of Instructional Technology, they do not want to make these changes without having a more concrete Acceptable Use Policy in place.  They want to include things such as social media, and cyber bullying in more specific terms.

            Although not stated in the Acceptable Use Policy, there is a system allowing for teachers to override filters.  If a teacher wants to use a website that is blocked by the filter, they must fill out an MOI (Materials of Instruction) form, which requires three additional teachers’ signatures verifying that the website is appropriate for instructional use.  Once that form is filled out, teachers then bring it to the principal, who can provide the teacher with an override code, as long as they find the website valid for instruction.  That code, however, only lasts a day.  Since the process to override the filters is so involved, many teachers do not bother, and therefore are not able to use websites that may assist with instruction.  I am hopeful that, with the upcoming filter changes and policy changes, teachers will have access to a wider variety of instructional materials. There is a wealth of information online, and current policies prohibit teachers from accessing many valuable materials.  AACPS is a school district that strongly values the use of technology in the classroom, and I would like to see new policies that allow teachers to use technologies to their full potentials. 

        

References

FCC. (2013). Children's internet protection act. Retrieved from http://www.fcc.gov/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act

NCSL. (2013, March 15). Children and the internet. Laws relating to filtering, blocking and usage policies in schools and libraries. Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/telecom/state-internet-filtering-laws.aspx

Anne Arundel County Public Schools. (2013). Internet acceptable use policy. Retrieved from http://www.aacps.org/html/Parents/internet_accept.asp

Creative Commons

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Prior to this week's assignment, I was only vaguely familiar with Creative Commons.  I had an assignment for a previous Wilkes class where we had to find images with Creative Commons licenses to use.  I did not know the importance of such a license, and how easy it was to license my own work.

I know firsthand how frustrating it can be when someone uses your work and does not give you credit.  I write a blog called Miscellaneous Manicures, which is all about nail art.  Around the time of the Super Bowl, a salon in Baltimore took an image of one of my Baltimore Ravens nail designs, and used it to advertise their salon.  They cropped the image to remove my watermark, and advertised that my design was one they offered clients.  Unfortunately, at that time I did not have a Creative Commons license, or any sort of disclaimer.  Now that I know how easy, and important, it is to license my work, I have remedied that!

For this blog, I chose the most restrictive license.  I would obviously want people to attribute my work, and I would not want anyone using my work for commercial reasons without getting my permission.  I also chose to have no derivatives.  Looking ahead to the assignments that I will be completing on this blog, I think it is important that my work and my ideas stay in their original form.

Now that I am more familiar with Creative Commons, the types of licenses, and how to generate a license, I will be using the Creative Commons website frequently!  I think that sharing this process with my students will help them get a better understanding and appreciation for the process of using things found online.

Introduction

Hi everyone!

My name is Kate Benoit, and I live in Annapolis, Maryland.  I just finished up my 7th year of teaching for Anne Arundel County Public Schools.  I have been teaching French for AACPS since graduating college, and I really love it.  My first year, I was an itinerant teacher, and I taught at five different middle schools.  After one year of that, I was lucky enough to land a full time job at Old Mill Middle North, where I have been ever since.  OMMN is an IB-MYP school, so all our students take high school level language classes starting in 6th grade.  It's challenging, but a lot of fun!

This summer is a busy one for me.  Today I started the process of rewriting the French 2 curriculum for the county, which I'll be working on until July.  I also have a few trips planned, though, so it won't all be work :)

My favorite ice cream is cookies n' cream.  The movie that I've seen probably about a hundred times is "White Christmas".

I'm looking forward to working with everyone!