During this assignment I learned to set up a Delicious account and organize websites I want to save into categories called "tags". The information saved on my Delicious account is available to other Delicious users for their own research, so this website promotes collaboration with others. To see examples of the websites I saved on Delicious, click one of the words in the "word block" on my blog to the left of this entry.
1. National Archives: The National Archives Eyewitness website contains a collection of eyewitness accounts of major historical events and the lives of important figures in history. The collection includes letters, pictures and even broadcasts from fifty years ago to hundreds of years ago. I scanned the table of contents, which include events such as: "Bloody Sunday", Susan B. Anthony at the Polls and the Hindenburg disaster. I also looked in depth at a section focused on Thomas Jefferson, which included drawings, paintings and letters written by Jefferson. In the classroom, this collection would bring history to life for elementary students. For example, they would be able to read a first-hand account of the beginning of the French Revolution as written by Thomas Jefferson. I found the website fascinating, and plan to use it in the classroom.
2. National Education Association: For this part of the assignment, I first determined that the following student groups experience achievement gaps: racial and ethnic minorities, English language learners, students with disabilities and students from low-income families.
I read the article "Becoming a Culturally Competent Educator" and felt that the suggestions on "Places to Start" related more to school administrators than to teachers. I found a connection with my teaching style in the "Diversity Toolkit" under the "Related Content" section at the bottom of the article. Here are the areas that fit with my teaching style:
a. Seizing opportunities to learn about people of different backgrounds. This strongly fits with my teaching style as I am fascinated with the plight of others and how they live. I have read many books about other cultures, such as Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah. Over the course of my life, I have always been able to fit in with different groups of people. I think this will be beneficial in helping students feel at ease and be able to learn in an accepting environment.
b. Examining my attitudes about diversity. I believe that I am a person who attempts to self-reflect on a regular basis and this is definitely an area I need to reflect upon. I currently live in North County San Diego, in a homogeneous population. I think in order to teach in a school district different from my own, I will need to examine my attitudes about the students I'm teaching and work on strategies to be sensitive to their needs.
c. Foster discussion among my peers regarding diversity. This fits with my teaching style because I believe there is always so much to learn from others' point of view. I have learned this most recently through discussions with students at CSUSM that are much younger than myself. Hearing other teachers' points of view about how they handle different cultures in their classrooms will help me with issues in my own.
3. Stop Cyber Bullying: I took the cyberbully test and I'm happy to report that my score was a "0" and I am not a "Cyberbully". I follow the same rules online as I would anywhere else. To take the cyberbully test go to this link for the Stop Cyber Bullying website: http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/lawenforcement/index.html
In addition to reading the main sections of this website, I read a section for 7-11 year olds ("Youth Empowered Solutions") and learned about how to help children deal with cyberbullying. The article explained that in most situations, having a child ignore the cyberbullying will help to make it stop. If the person doing the bullying does not get a reaction, it is not fun anymore. I also learned that children need to be taught when to ignore online bullying, when to tell a parent and when to possibly get the authorities involved. This will be helpful in the classroom in situations where a student may come to me and complain about being bullied by others online. I do feel that I would need more in-depth training before I could assist a student with this type of situation.
4. Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators:
In the Teacher Helpers area, I found "Podcasting in the Classroom" an interesting topic. Within this section, I focused on "Ipod Touch: Touching Students' Lives in the Classroom". Using iPhoto in the iTunes library, students can use their creativity to make personalized flashcards for virtually any subject. This would be very easy to bring into the classroom, as I could bring my own IPod Touch for the students to use (it could even be a privilege they earn based on good classroom behavior).
5. Multiple Intelligences: My top three intelligences were Interpersonal-81%, Verbal/Linguistic-67% and Intrapersonal-63%.
I watched the video about "Smartville" and learned that using Multiple Intelligences in teaching can help differentiate instruction for all types of learners. The school gives opportunities to learn in different ways, such as using dominoes for math facts and playing physical games. This in turn gives students a chance to discover where they shine.
6. Teaching Tolerance: This language arts lesson is geared for grades 1-2 and focuses on individuality and being comfortable with who you are. In the lesson, two stories called Fish is Fish, by Leo Lionni and Chameleon's Colors, by Chisato Tashiro are told. The first story is about two friends-a minnow and a tadpole. The friends think they are the same until they grow up and one becomes a frog and one becomes a fish. The second story is about how all the other animals think they want to be like the Chameleon, until they realize the special problems he has. The lessons are about being happy with your self the way you are and how each person is special. I would use these stories in class with a question and answer session afterwards to help the children understand the concepts.
7. Multicultural Education and Equity Awareness Quiz: I took this quiz and was surprised with the correct answers on the following questions (paraphrased).
a. How likely are immigrant men ages 18-39 to be in jail or prison compared with U.S. Born counterparts? I was surprised after seeing the answer to this, which was "5 times less likely". I just made an assumption off the top of my head that immigrants would be more likely to commit crimes, which was not the case. That shows me that maybe I have preconceived ideas that I'm not aware of.
b. In a 2007 Unicef study of children's well-being in the world’s wealthiest countries, which two countries were rated the lowest? I answered two middle-eastern countries and was wrong! I was VERY surprised to learn that the U.S. and Great Britain were rated the lowest. I'm interested in studying further about where the breakdowns in our country occur, but my first guesses would be the high rate of single parent families, the high crime rate and of course, drug use.
8. Netiquette Guidelines: My score on the Netiquette quiz was 100%.
I think teaching students about Netiquette guidelines is extremely important, because they will be spending hours on the Internet communicating with other human beings. Netiquette somewhat replaces etiquette in a lot of situations. Where a person in the past may have left a "calling card" or made a phone call to contact someone, now they would email them. If the students don't know the rules about online behavior, they may offend others by saying the wrong thing and broadcasting it to a large group. They need to realize that what they say or do can have serious implications such as loss of friends, loss of respect, or even legal issues. I always reread all my emails before I send them-if I am worked up about an issue, I wait until I've calmed down and then reread the email before sending.:-)
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