I found a short essay, titled “The Deadly Virus: The Influenza Epidemic of 1918.” It discussed statistics and provided both photographic evidence relating to the essay and primary source documentation, such as letters, photos, and telegrams.
These primary sources are important for students’ (and teachers’) research, as they are available alongside various websites that remain unauthenticated. Online research is a method often used by students, and they require genuine information.
2. NEA—ACHIEVEMENT GAPS
Students groups who may experience achievement gaps include racial/ethnic minorities, English language learners, students with disabilities, boys/girls, students from low-income families. Several guidelines set aside by the NEA for teachers to build on in order to identify and override achievement gaps are listed on the website. A few that speak to me include the following:
- "Ensure that your school has a mission statement that commits to cultural competence as an integral component of all its activities. The cultural competence committee should be involved in developing this statement." I really believe that this mission statement would help to outline goals in cultural competence. Mission statements and manifestos are useful tools in illustrating goals as set by not just educational institutions, but companies, social clubs, etc.--in fact, one must often be presented with small business loan applications. Clearly outlining an institution's (or on a smaller basis, class's) goals is a way to make sure that all parties strive for a common purpose.
- "Network with other schools that are developing and implementing culturally competent systems. Adapt the processes and information that are consistent with your school's needs and interests." To use others' examples of successful enterprises is helpful when deciding what course of action to follow in one's own undertaking. It gives educators an idea of what works and what doesn't--like walking into an experiment halfway through in order to determine the next step. It's a demonstration of team work.
- "Build and use a network of 'natural helpers' at school and in the community as well as 'experts' who have knowledge of the culturally, linguistically, racially, and ethnically diverse groups." I think it is extremely important to use all the resources we have, including people ("experts") to facilitate all our objectives in education. If we are able to muster assistance throughout the school as well as the community to help us close these achievement gaps, we should most certainly use them to the fullest capacity. They can teach us as well as the students.
In taking the quiz, "Are you a Cyberbully? (14-17)," I learned that I am "cyber risky." However, in my attempt to be as honest as possible, I did fess up to using bad language online. I catch myself cursing all the time although I only use this type of language in certain company. If it weren't for that (3) score, I'd have been a "cyber saint" with flying colors, since my only other offenses consisted of using someone else's passwords without consent (used my husband's to retrieve our VW password to pay a bill) and using an email address that looked like someone else's (my sister-in-law & I had the same name for 6 years, and we used to get each other's email from family members on occasion). Although I'm not surprised, because I go out of my way to be courteous online.
In reading the item "Offsite Internet Activities and Schools," I came across information citing the limited jurisdiction that school officials have over cyberbullies. It reveals that there has to be proof of in-school student impact in order to exert authority over the perpetrators. The article states, "Although, you should note that some courts have not extended the school’s authority to offline and off-premises actions in a cyberbullying case when the cyberbully himself did not bring the printed materials into the school." (http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/educators/offsite_internet_activities_and_schools.html). This is troubling at this specific moment when bullying is a hot-topic headline, because it is more likely that cyberbullies will use off-campus servers--away from authority figures--in order to bully their victims. For this reason, I think it is critical that we speak about cyberbullying not only from the perspective of potential cyberbullies, but ALSO to potential victims. When victims try to put on a brave front without contacting officials, they are taking the power to protect them away from educators and authorities.
4. KATHY SCHROCK'S GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS
Under the heading "Subject Access" I chose to visit the "History & Social Studies" area. Clicking on this area directed me to an extensive list of resourceful links to websites, some with troves of primary source information, others with additional links to supplementary sites. In my future classroom, I could reference these links in order to assign small research assignments on subjects from "What historical event happened on my birthday?" to "Name and map the original 13 colonies." There are even links to example American history curricula available with sample lesson plans.
Because we have been discussing rubrics in class, I was drawn to the "Assessment & Rubrics" component. In the article "Make Room for Rubrics," contributor Mary Rose deals with the definition and practicality of using a rubric to grade writing assignments and projects. Looking back, I have realized that rubrics are not a new concept. I remember being given a specific rubric for grading the writing composition portion of the annual standardized exams, although at the time it didn't have a name. I am mostly interested in secondary education, including mostly "right-brained" subjects such as English and Social Sciences. A lot of grading in these areas can tend to be subjective, as there are less often right/wrong answers. More often, these analysis assignments are graded on efficiency of explanation of perspective. It makes a lot of sense to get the students' input on these grading policies, and I look forward to implementing them in my classroom. Just like we did in last week's ED422 class, I could ask students what they would expect to make for each element of an assignment. If the students come up with the guidelines, they are allowing themselves to come up with their own goals. Although we have access to other sites containing examples of these assessments, Kathy Schrock's site is a useful for everyday references and updates for these tools.
5. MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
The results of my multiple intelligences quiz showed that my top three strengths were Bodily-Kinesthetic (75%), Musical (75%), and Logical-Mathematical (can you believe it?--75%). I then watched the video titled "Multiple Intelligences Leave No Child Behind." The original article and video highlighted the positive consequences of using students' multiple intelligences to their advantage. However, I learned that although accentuating these strengths is favorable for the students' self-esteem, focus, creativity, and learning habits, standardized testing severely inhibits the schools' ability to progress within these programs. These standardized tests still only apply to one or two of the multiple intelligences, leaving out the other six. So that while some students may excel in naturalistic or interpersonal intelligences, these strengths are continually ignored in favor of logical, analytical, and mathematical aptitudes.
6. TEACHING TOLERANCE
For this exercise, I chose grades 9-12, Social Studies, "A Town, A Teacher, and Wartime Tragedy." This lesson describes how one progressive English/journalism teacher in Utah encouraged her students to discover provocative subjects for their journalistic assignments and wound up founding a museum to preserve the devastating history of Japanese internment camps during World War II.
Because it is an embarrassing subject often swept under the rug, Japanese-American internment doesn't get a lot of attention in our history classes. I would use this lesson to illustrate the various ways that our country has discriminated against its own citizens. It is an interesting tangent theme closely related to the more frequently in-depth lesson about Jim Crow laws, as both occurred within the same generations of Americans. I would also use it as an example of how racism does not just stem from the individual, but often from one's own government. There
are many other examples throughout the world: South African apartheid, burning of monasteries by Mary I of England, etc. But I would use this lesson in order to illuminate the steps our government has taken toward rectifying its past errors.
7. MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION AND EQUITY AWARENESS QUIZ
Two questions that I found interesting were:
- 4.) "In a 2007 study, UNICEF rated the treatment of children in the 23 wealthiest countries in the world based on 40 indicators of child well-being. Which two countries received the lowest ratings?" The answer is "The United States and the UK." I think it's astounding that these two nations rank the lowest based on 40 indicators. I am really interested to know what those indicators would be, and how large portion of the population is used in the study.
- 12.) "What percentage of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender high school students report that their teachers 'never' or 'rarely' respond to homophobic remarks made by other students, according to a national study by GLSEN?" The answer is "84.5%." I'm not so much interested in this question as in the answer. I would like to see related follow-up questions concerning attention paid to disparaging remarks in regards to race or gender.
8. NETIQUETTE GUIDELINES
I actually got 90% on the netiquette quiz. I had never heard of "scrolling," typing a single letter in the compose area and continuing to hit send. I think it is just as important to teach students netiquette as it is to teach them etiquette, because impoliteness should be warded off at any age and never tolerated, especially at the expense of others. And students spend a large amount of time online, and should always act as responsible digital citizens. Besides, maybe it's just because my grandmother gave me a new book of etiquette every year for Christmas, or maybe I'm just nice, but rudeness makes me so :-//.
See all those caps? According to the quiz, I'm shouting.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment