Week 8

I grew up in a large city but went to small public schools.  I remember that my grandfather was horribly prejudice.  I remember him complaining about the indians, hispanics, and the african americans that lived near and around his small northern town.  I remember having discussions with my parents about things that he would say.  I never could understand why he hated these people.  My parents grew up in that area and I wondered how I was able to have a better understanding of people of other cultures, skin color, and ethnicity.  I remember being fearful of what my grandfather would say at my high school graduation party.  I had & still have friends from high school that were Native American, African American and Hispanic.  But to me they were just Lara, Deanna, Mike, Jeff, Ron, Ed, and Vonnie.  I remember being scared that my grandfather would affect my friendship with these people, by saying something hurtful to one of them.    I knew that the things he said did not relate to my friends.  I never understood why he said the hurtful things about these people.  Did he think that he was entitled to do this because he was white?  I just never understood it.  My mom always said that there were good people in all cultures, and there were bad people in all cultures.  She always told me that I was not to judge a person on the color of their skin or on their religion or anything that may be different than myself.  She said that I should judge people on their character.

I have tried to live by what she has told me.  I have also tried to raise my sons the same way.  After 9/11 I have to admit I harbored strong feelings toward people from Arab countries and Islamic people.  Then I had the chance to meet up with an old college friend, who reminded me of my mom's wisdom.  Tarique Al-Iesa came to the US when his parents divorced.  His mom chose to live here while his father remained in Kuwait.  Tarique and I became friends.  He was a basketball player.  We talked and learned a lot from each other about our differences and similarities.  We were at a basketball game the night the US bombed Kuwait on January 17, 1991.  He shared with me his fears, and his hopes that night as we both ended up glued to the tv.  Tarique was scared for his father who owned a large construction company in Kuwait.  Tarique's extended family were prominent citizens of the country.  He fear for their safety. We spent a lot of time talking over the course of the next few years.  After he graduated from college, he got a job working in Saudi Arabia as physical education teacher at an international school.  He also coaches basketball.  I have lost touch with him.  But he and his family reminded me that there are good and bad people and that I could not hate one group for the someone's actions.  I try hard to remember my mom's wisdom.  I believe it is that wisdom and the experiences of the people I have met that will guide me as I teach children in our multicultural schools.

Week 7

I remembered looking at wikis and different web2.0 pages during our technology class, I honestly looked at the wikis and then threw it in the back of my mind.  After creating one in class, I find myself using it to add resources for the future.  I also like the to try the Sqworl site to organize my bookmarks and have the access to them anywhere.  I haven't been able to look throughly at it but it really interest me.
The more I  use the wiki I can see where I could use it personally and professionally.  I can see how it can be a resource for me to communicate with parents and to provide them with information and resources for their children.  I don't think that it is the most attractive technology, but then sometimes I find myself caught up on the aesthetics of something than the usefulness of it.

There was a plethora of web 2.0 pages to look at.  I could have perused all of them.  There seems to be so many options for the same process with different options.  I felt overwhelmed and intrigued all at the same time.  How does one choose on which one to use, for example Wordle or Tagxedo?  Where to find the time to explore them all?  I can see how it all be used in teaching Social Studies and also applying it to other parts of the curriculum.  Technology is amazing.  I wish I would have had access to all this as student in middle school or high school, but the Apple IIe computers were the new technology when I started middle school.  I am excited to use all of this information in my future!

Week 6

I am so excited!!!  Something I learned in this class I actually was able to use as I taught.  I have been doing my field experience (TCH602) in a 4th grade class.  The cooperative teacher asked me to teach a unit on weather.  I have been planning my observed lesson.  I want to incorporate technology into my unit.  On Saturday, I was struggling with making a Smart Board lesson.  As I sat trying to make it interesting, I thought there has to be a better way.  Then I had an A-HA moment...I thought I could make a Prezi!  I found a template and even an example of one that was close to what I had in mind.  I created the Prezi in no time.  I wanted add more animation and twists and turns, but decided that I couldn't take too much time fooling around with it.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was.

On Monday, I taught the lesson.  The students and the cooperative teacher thought it was great!  The Smart Board & Prezi portion of my lesson went great.  However after the lesson I thought it may have been possible that I overwhelmed the students with too much information.  I went into the classroom today, I started off today having the students orally review what we learned on Monday.  I was so excited to hear them recall a majority of the information that we went over on Monday.  I guess it was more overwhelming for me.

My cooperating teacher asked me how easy it was to make the Prezi.  She was interested in using in for other lessons.  She even asked if she could use the Prezi I made for the class.  WOW!!!    Thanks for introducing me to the great technology.

Here is my Prezi:   Introduction to Clouds

Week 5

I am excited about all the technology that we are learning and how we can implement into the classrooms.  Amber and I created a lesson around animoto.  I was surprised how easy it was to use.  I got excited by how to use it in the classroom and how I could even use it in my personal life!

As I read chapter 4, I kept thinking about the difficult task of establishing National Curriculum for Social Studies.  Social Studies is a such a broad subject field.  Plus, I think it difficult to narrow down what we want children to learn in this subject.  Although I as a teacher find it hard to write lessons without standards.  I know each school district and state has their own, but as I started writing the lesson with Amber.  I  again was focused on writing for a 4th grade, because that was the standards we had.  I also found it hard to zero in on what we wanted to teach students.  We finally did narrow it down.  We had so many ideas.

I had another thought about standards and Social Studies.  At my son's school the teachers have done a lot of units where they incorporate the standards for ELA along with teaching Social Studies.  Students seem to love the units when these subjects are integrated.  It seems easy to teach Social Studies along with a book that is set in history.  The teachers have immersed the students in the history, geography, and social aspects of the books. It just seems like a great way to learn and a great way to combine subjects.