Reading

=**__Chapter 12__**=

When designing my classroom homepage, I would reflect on the grade level that I am teaching, the culture of the classroom, and I would certainly incorporate my own teaching style within the framework of the links. The elements that I would incorporate into my homepage would be: 1.) Student corner-resources for students 2.) Parent resources- links for parents 3.) Teacher resources- curriculum guides, and resource links 4.) E-mail-collaboration for parents, students, and teachers
 * 1) The elements that I would incorporate into my homepage in order to achieve the aforementioned effect would include graphics of the content to make it inviting to everyone. I would include a link for students; included would be student of the month, homework assignments, and work completed by the students, and a student chat room about their lessons. A link for parents would include, parent resources, a newsletter, calendar of events, and homework assignments. A teacher resource link, Maryland State Dept. of Education of content standards, Special Education resource links, lesson plans, and unit plans. Also, e-mail would be provided so that there would be a way to correspond with family, students, and teachers when there are questions and or concerns.
 * 2) All the “four-for” is important in developing a homepage. If I were to choose one of the “four for” it would be the ability to have a tighter link between home and school. I feel that it is essential for the parents and the school work together, because it will provide many learning opportunities for our students and keep the parents abreast to what is going on in the classroom setting. Also, teachers would be able to use the internet as a great teaching tool and providing pertinent information for family and students. Although, not all parents have computers in their homes, the computer is a great way to provide communication and to provide an opportunity for them to participate in their child’s education. The cohesiveness and teamwork would provide a great relationship for students, parents, and teachers. Our students would be sharing their learning experiences with others in the classroom and with their families. This would allow the parents to be a part of their child’s learning experience in the classroom and prepare the child for their education of the 21st century.

__Chapters,1-2-July 9__
1.The ways that using technology in the classroom can help students to be successful are: a. Low achieving students can be taught to learn a particular skill using the Internet and teach that skill to other students in the classroom. By doing so, allows the lower achieving student to become more successful and increase confidence and enthusiasm for learning. b. Technology in the classroom provides students using the Internet an opportunity to access new information and communicate with others. Thus creating a diverse networking system, because this information can be used worldwide. c. Using technology may become more excited and eager to learn more challenging content via the Internet. The excitement can lead to more learning and inspiring the student to develop to their fullest potential. d. Introducing technology in the classroom will provide learning opportunities where students may increase their understanding and appreciation of different cultures by exploring the Internet. e. By implementing technology in all content areas, there may be a deeper understanding and an opportunity for increased student learning using the Internet. 2. When looking at the “Central Functions During Internet Use,” I feel that I am a novice in this area. I will need further skill training to acquire the necessary the skills when using the Internet, before I can transfer majority of the necessary skills to my students successfully. This is a potential weakness that I working on. At the present time, I am taking classes to learn and develop my skills in the technological world. However, using the foundation skills that I possess such as vocabulary knowledge, comprehension, spelling, inferential reasoning, problems solving, and seeing the perspective of others have been essential to me using the Internet. These basic skills have allowed me to teach these skills to my students. I must say that the World Wide Web is constantly changing and it can be very challenging to keeping up with the informational age. 3.What I do as an educator to make sure that my students are safely surfing the web is to review and constantly remind the students of the current policy in place in our school district. Updates are reviewed and questions are asked for clarification. Also, some of the websites are blocked through the school district and are not allowed. Also, my assistant and I walk around and monitor particular Internet behavior of our students. The Internet policy for my school district is reviewed at the beginning of each school year and a signed document is placed in our file regarding the acceptable use policy. For my students, I will highlight some of the important aspects of the policy, do not provide personnel information about yourself anywhere on the internet; only use first names, passwords are secure and should never be given out, it is prohibited to copy or transfer materials and software without the proper authorization, deleting or copying other persons e-mail is not permitted, network system tampering, and unauthorized alterations of the operating system is illegal and sanctions will be applied. A form is sent home to parents and the students to sign regarding the use of the Internet. Also the Board of Education has technology support staff that monitors our computers in the schools, provides technical assistance as needed, and its usage. As mentioned before, certain websites are blocked and no one is able to access that site, unless approved by the Board Of Education. 4. As an educator, in order to further develop my middle school students’ navigational skills on the Internet, I incorporate using the Internet into lessons that I am teaching. Students in my classroom are paired together to assist one another when using the Internet. This will allow them to learn from one another and share ideas. Students’ that are proficient or advanced in using a certain skill on the Internet are allowed to assist others in the classroom. I allow time at the end of class for students to explore the use of the Internet when using it as part of a lesson. I use the computer/Internet as a reward or when students have finished working on their assignments. I have a sign in sheet to monitor who was on the computer. Also, students are in the computer lab to learn the required skills need using the Internet. To further develop my student’s navigational skills, I review the policy and review the different aspects on how to better use and navigate the Internet at the beginning of the school year. I prepare a list of kids or children websites that we will be using throughout the year. This way the students are able to familiarize themselves and know what the expectations are. The navigational strategies that I employ at this time are, I review what a URL is, and then write the URL on the board so that the students have a visual and know what a search engine is. They are shown to use a search engine and how to type in key words in the search window to find the correct results. They are shown how quotation marks can be used to limit unwanted sites, narrow the search and narrow the topic. They are shown how to check their spelling by using a dictionary or with the prompting strategy that is shown on the site with the search engine. I show them the back button, which is a green arrow on the left side of the toolbar to get back to the main links of sites when they feel uncomfortable. I also, show my students how to book mark and save the site in my “favorites”, so that it can be found easily. Since my students are in the middle school, I use the following URL’s, [] [|http://www.kidsknowit.com] Other search engines that I use are: -Yahooligans -Askjeeves -Google -SC-ETV know it All -Kids Click, has the following links: facts and references, health and family, Science and Math, Sports and Recreation, Reading and Writing. -I found other kid websites that have links to biographies, social studies, home schooling resources, and fun stuff for children.

__Chapters: 3-4-July-14 __
On the homepage, the title of the unit would be provided, student-learning objectives could be posted, and what the unit is about. Then on each page a heading could be provided with a tag and the directions of expectations. For example: a. On the home page the Title of the unit : __Families__ This Internet workshop will introduce the students to our unit on Invertebrates. Learning objectives will be posted. The expectations of what the students should have learned about invertebrates. Each additional page would have a title and a tag if needed. __Classification of Plants and Animals__ b. Go to the bookmark [|www.fi.edu/tfi/units/life/classify/classify.html] and read about classification of and animals. Then click on the button Biological Classification (http:www.physicalgeography.netfundamentals/9b.html) and read about the classification of living things. Take notes and share what you learned during Internet Workshop. __Classified__ c. Go the classified button, read and begin the experiment. The materials are labeled and in a box on the table. Stop at the conclusion; write down you your observations and what you learned about classifying. Be ready to share your observations during our Internet Workshop __ Vascular and Non-vascular __ d. Go to the website [|www.fi.edu/tfi/units/life/classify/classify.html] scroll down and  read the section on classification vascular and non-vascular plants and animals. Click on the button and read about leaf structure, fungi facts, Lichens, and mold. Write down notes what you have learned. Be ready to share during our Internet Workshop. e. __Your choice:__ View at least one link on our home page [|www.fi.edu/tfi/units/life/classify/classify.html]. Scroll to the bottom of the page, starting with the paragraph on vascular vegetable and ending with mammals choose one section and read information, write down notes about what you have learned, be ready to share at our Internet Workshop.  2. As technology advances and the Internet is utilized more in the classroom then we will experience more Internet Projects. I feel that as databases are further developed teachers, students, and other cultures will begin to collaborate more often then we will see a influx of Internet Projects. An entire year of Internet Projects will be simplified as technology advances, it will become easier. If this is a new way to plan instruction, then as more professionals find that this is a valuable learning tool, we will find that the Internet is just a way of life. However, I do not believe that the Internet should be the sole way of introducing the educational curriculum, but I think that it is fundamental to be able to work effectively with school systems in other countries. It would be great to turn on the computer and speak to students from other countries, their native language could be interperted, by pressing a button when asked what language and then it would translate the currciulumm content into that language. This would give us a new and inventive way to communicate instead of reading it from a text book and imagining. I feel that the real life experiences of having different cultures to work on a project on the world wide web is so fasinating. Thus all students would be experincing different cultures could relate, ask questions, appreicate, and develop a better understanding of one another. I feel that it is hard to relate and connect to something that one does not know. I feel that Internet Projects would allow team work and a collaborative effort to really florish in the near future.
 * 1)  When using the Internet Workshop model, the way that I would develop student background knowledge is to create a web page. This model would suit my teaching style, because the lesson is visual and interactive. The students would be utilizing their Internet skills, learning to work together, developing critical thinking skills, and sharing ideas with their fellow classmates. Through creating a web page there could be different pages such as using wikispace. I would create a site that my entire class could use. I could edit the pages and change information as needed. Also, I could add as many pages as needed for my unit. Through the use of the wikispace, each student account could be set up, so that the entire classroom would have access to the lesson that I was going to teach and the background knowledge provided.

 __Chapter 6,July 16__ The Internet can broaden and personalize social studies and language arts instruction for students by integrating technology into the curriculum, such as expanding cross-cultural opportunities such as Internet Project, creating their own web page, and providing opportunities for each student to share what they have learned from one another through the use of the Internet. The students could learn about other cultures throughout the world through Internet Project by communicating with others. The students could be allowed the opportunity to read, write and share information with others on what they had learned through using the Internet. This raises enthusiasm and a high level of self-esteem. By allowing the students to assist with their own web page, they may develop a sense of ownership and a shared responsibility in the learning process. When students are using interactive ways to learn about social studies and language arts through the Internet, I feel that it raises their level of confidence and peaks their curiosity to continue to explore and be creative about learning something new. Thus, the Internet opens up a variety of ways for the students to learn. The teacher could provide a variety of curriculum resources via the Internet that students may use during social studies and language arts experiences. When teaching a social studies/ language arts lesson it could be taught simultaneously. As a teacher, I would integrate the use of technology in the instruction for students by using a site [|www.teach-nology.com/themes/social/]. There are many learning opportunities for students when they are able to use Internet resources to enhance their learning through reading, writing, and communicating with others. For example, the students could be taught a unit about Africa, the teacher could bookmark the website for the students to use. Utilize Internet Project. They could look at the map via the Internet, complete reading comprehension worksheets, crossword puzzles, read poems, complete writing activities such as group journal writing, and vocabulary words, by spelling and or filling in a blank with the correct spelling word. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">The Internet could provide many learning opportunities for our students and allowing them to develop the skills needed in this ever-changing society.

__ Chapter 10,July 21 __ 1.Yes, I do believe that incorporating multicultural activities have a positive effect on my classroom climate and civility. In our classrooms we have a diverse population of students. I feel that all cultures should be respected within the classroom, because every student is a snapshot of our culture. I feel that no matter what the language is or economic status of the student is; he or she brings a wealth of experiences, skills, learning styles, skills, and abilities. Being in a culturally sensitive classroom, provides students with an opportunity to relate to the subject matter, to learn and grow. It is indeed a need to incorporate multicultural activities into our lessons, so that others may become, culturally sensitive of one another and respect the history and accomplishments that others have made. I believe by exposing others to diversity allow one to develop an understanding about others and their culture. I believe that there is a correlation to the learning process when multicultural activities are provided and that the curriculum content in all content areas should reflect varied cultural and socio-economic groups. The school curriculum provides opportunities for students to demonstrate their own heritage, value the uniqueness of cultures other than one’s own and a school climate that promotes the development of interpersonal skills that prepare our students for a diverse workplace and society. Multicultural activities are a part of our school curriculum. In the state of Maryland School Systems, education that is multicultural is required. Programs promote values, attitudes, and behaviors that are culturally sensitive. When teaching different subject areas, such as science, math, language arts, and social studies we as a school system include curriculum content to represent different cultural views. The goal of our school system is to develop high expectations for all students, thus starting with the level that they are on and continuing to raise the bar. Strategies are implemented to motivate students to work toward their highest degrees of academic achievement. Some of the strategies used to implement multicultural education are, all cultural groups utilize positive Behavior Intervention supports. Instructional materials are evaluated for bias across ethnicity, gender, and social economic groups. Cooperative learning, and differentiated instruction are used to get our students to work together. Differentiated instruction is used to accommodate different learning styles in the classroom. Peer tutoring and small group instruction are used when students are used to assist others in the classroom, thus this strategy helps others to build confidence and communication skills are practiced. Cooperative learning opportunities provides the students with the opportunity to work together as a group, thus respecting different ethnic viewpoints and communication styles. In the classroom, student work is represented of all students and bulletin boards reflect different cultural groups, related to the content that is being taught.The students’ use the Internet to complete research projects about different cultures. They are provided the opportunity toselect a person of whom they would like to learn about. They have online chat groups with one another and <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">uses the computer to send e-mails to one another and Power Point presentations are used to complete an assignment and then presented to other students in the classroom. Even though there have been great strides in implementing multicultural education into our lessons and respecting diversity in the classroom, I feel that more can and will be done.

__Chapter 11, July 22__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">1. When working with all types of students in the classroom, such as students who are visually impaired, has a hearing loss, and ones that are intellectually challenged bring many challenges when building self efficacy, developing new literacy’s, and accessing the Internet. In my classroom many accommodations are made to compensate for these disabilities. When accessing the Internet, the students with a visual impairment are introduced to larger font sizes, screen magnifiers, and voice out put devices and paired with another student that can assist. The students with a hearing loss have large print that is highlighted and paired with another student that can assist them. The students that are intellectually challenged are able to participate by using a head switch to turn the pages and press a switch to be involved in the interactive activity and paired with the assistant or my self to develop self-efficacy. However, even though these students with disabilities require accommodations, they are taught to be as independent as possible, but request assistance if needed. Equality is provided by modifying the lesson to their unique needs, providing peer groups, providing accommodations that meet their needs, and collaboratively respecting his or her own unique abilities.