OTEN CONFERENCE

I attended the OTEN conference this past Saturday at Pacific University. I attended the Podcasting session, and the Concept Map session. I learned some valuable things about integrating technology into the classroom. If I am able to get the resources I need to do this, I am excited to use them. ( I will need Ipods, and an Itouch, voice recorders, and probably a Mac Computer.) I have attached my newest Yodio, voicing my thoughts. Enjoy!
http://www.yodio.com/yo.aspx?cardid=ZXZXSqc9rp6ItxjOLRiRB3

My favorite Web 2.0 Tools

As a future educator, I see many advantages using Web 2.0. Web2.0 is "a web-based platform for applications and services." Web 2.0 is web-based and it allows us to access many things without having to rely on a particular machine. We can log in using any computer and all of our files are accessible through the web. This is especially appealing to me using Google Docs. Imagine. No more thumb drives, disks, misplacing our files, losing them, or worrying about dropping our laptops that hold documents that we work so hard on. There are many tools useful for teachers, and they are constantly updated automatically. What a breakthrough! I would like to take this time to share some of my favorite tools of Web 2.0.

I am very pleased with Google docs. I can use doc sheets to create, present and co-edit with other teachers. It is easy accessible, and nearly impossible to lose. I can revise, track and build on my work. As a teacher, this is definitely beneficial; because as we know, our journey as teachers is always changing. We are constantly adapting our lessons based on the diversity of our students and Google docs gives us easy access to our work. Using this tool, I can create my work as a teacher, let others revise it, build off it, and it is available to me from any computer. I will never have to worry about losing anything again!

Google Photo is another tool I am excited to use. We learned in Teacher Research that photos are a vital tool in research and can be very useful during our teaching methods. They are great documentation of our journey as teachers, and can enrich most any presentation, research, or projects that we are working on. Another exciting tool that we can use when dealing with pictures is Yodio. We can take our pictures, call in audio using a telephone, and combine the two for video. Simple as that. Like most Web 2.0 tools, these photos and videos can also be accessible for our parents, guardians, fellow teachers, and educators. These tools are beneficial for our growth, and can be a great advantage to our classrooms!

Web 2.0 is also something we can introduce to our students. The tools available using Web 2.0 are a great resource for students. They can access these products to enrich their work, and display their academic achievement throughout their student careers!

Yodio!

Ed for Eq Chapter 6 Assignment

Chapter 6 reflections

6.3

I chose a 4^th grade science textbook. It’s a McGraw-Hill Science Series. National Geographic (2000)

I am pleased to report that this textbook is very diverse. It is a science book, so the people featured in the text were there as examples for different science projects and such. But each page had a different representative from many different kinds of cultures. There were even people with disabilities in the text. I was happy to see that this textbook was so diverse. It was a nice change. Had this been 1970, this would not have been the case. I did notice though, that most of the scientists featured throughout the text were male. Very few female scientists were mentioned, even though we have had many leading women throughout the history of scientific breakthroughs. Based on my tallies, the winner for the most representation was the White American (mostly male), but was only up one tally. If I were to create a bar graph of representation, they would all be pretty level. I think this is thanks to the National Geographic influence on this particular text. National Geographic is pretty objective and diverse in their influences. Although my findings are not exactly equal in representation, I felt this book was diverse, and useful for healthy scientific learning. Next edition, I might suggest featuring more female scientists.

Totals from my observation

Arab American-13 Latino American- 15 Mixed groups-20

Asian American-21 American Indian-18 Male-68

African American-21 White American-22 Female-62

6.13

http://www.tolerance.org/activities

This website was produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center

It was intended to reduce prejudice, and improve intergroup relations by supporting equitable school experiences. They provide free educational materials to teachers and schools in the US and abroad. Their magazine is sent to 400,000 educators twice a year, and approximately 10,000 educators use their free curricular kits. Every year more than 10,000 schools participate in the annual Mix It Up Lunch Day Program.

This website is categorized to easily search for activities to use in the classroom. For example, you start off picking a grade level, and then pick a subject. From there, you scroll through various lessons that help teachers integrate race, poverty levels, sex, religion, and all sorts of diversity issues that may arise in the classroom.

This organization was founded in Montgomery, AL. It covers a wide range of multicultural topics, so I had a hard time finding any biases. There was a lot of information on the website supplemented by videos that talked about racial diversity in the classroom; I can only assume this website was based primarily on this issue. I also looked up the demographics of Montgomery, Al, and since half the population there is black, I assume there is an emphasis there on racial equality in the schools. That was the only bias I could detect might be a possibility.

This sight tends to view the world from the eyes of the minority. I noticed that since it offers material regarding homosexuals, gender issues, and “environmental racism,” the website must be tapping deeply into issues revolved around minorities often ignored. It is interesting to note that these lessons are designed for K-12^th grade. I explored some of the K-2 activities and I was so surprised by what this organization is integrating into lessons for the early childhood levels. I never even thought of teaching “Music for Justice” to 1^st graders.

This website does wonders for implementing issues that might be tough to include in the curriculum. I found though that they do not contribute helpful information on school violence, mediation, and bullying that occurs so often in school. It is definitely important to educate our children to tolerate all cultures because that is what America is about. However, we must also focus primarily on the safety of our students. And multicultural resources need to implement safety with their lessons in order to promote peace.

Overall, this website is fantastic, and something I have never seen before. Check it out. There is a lot of unique information.

Blogs and Education

Why Blog? Simple. As teachers, it provides a great way to publicly display our ideas, previous works, and biographies so that parents can easily follow classroom work. It is a great interaction tool...Not only for parents but for coworkers and even students!

THIS IS ME!

Find the Child in You

So one of the things that I am hearing over and over throughout this MAT program is that to be a great teacher, you must find the child in you. How many of us find ourselves rushing out the door each morning with our black coffee in hand, briefcase, fancy outfit, low-calorie breakfast and the attitude that this is what it must be like to be a professional? Is it? I do not think so...In the teaching profession in particular, to connect to our students, we must have some sort of inner sense as to what its like to be a child again.Revert back to elementary school again. Think... What were your fears? What made you happy? What did you constantly worry about? Did your parents make a difference in your life? What kinds of friends did you cherish? What kind of people did you try and avoid? Interestingly enough, when I thought back to 2nd grade, I realized that the fears, worries, emotions, and interests that I had back then are still buried inside me today. Just like in elementary school, I am still afraid of change, I worry that people are not going to like me, I still worry about making my parents proud through my achievements, boys are still silly, I avoid people who use authoritative power to bring me down, I cherish good friends, and at night, I still worry that maybe I am not good enough.So remember that children are a lot like us. The only thing we have now that they do not is experience, knowledge, and the ability to help them grow. Just because we are expected to be professional does not mean we are expected to be dull. Have fun with life, and apply it to the classroom. Laugh, dress up, be silly, animate your words, adjust to change, find out what's cool, watch the Disney Channel, glance at the Billboard top 40, sing, dance, and remember...learning is SUPPOSED to be fun. Connect with the kids, find the child in you, and bring life to the classroom. Be a teacher to be remembered. Be different. Find the innocence in you, and leave your mark. Don't turn into the next Mr. or Miss "what was their name?" I don't know about you, but I think one of the best things about the this job is that we all get a chance to be famous.My goal is to be "Miss Lally, World's Greatest Teacher" Dream Big!xoxo