Week 3: May 20th-26th
This week we learned about cyber-bullying and its affects on youth/children these days. In reading the assigned articles for the week, I was quite surprised at what I found. I didn't know how much support the schools lacked from the government/legislature when it came to dealing with cyber bulling. I thought about cyber-bullying in relation to my students and I began to think about what it was that I could do, to bring a change. I think observing in my children's attitudes towards each other and creating a safe environment in my classroom is crucial for there to be success and respect. I try my best to teach my kiddies that they have to be respectful of one another, and to treat them the way they would want to be treated. I also think I have a responsibility with monitoring what my children can access on the internet, both at school and at my home. I personally do not allow my children to use technology for Facebook or Twitter and I probably won't until I believe they understand what a great responsibility it is. In my classroom, my children don't have access to the internet unless I put in a password so I don't have to worry about that. But I also think teaching/educating parents about THEIR responsibility is crucial to ridding our nation of bullying in general. If we don't teach kids kindness, empathy, respect, and tolerance...how will we ever get rid of this problem? I signed the pledge on one of the resources we had been provided with, even though it's just a signature, I hope that it's stating that I do not agree with it and I won't tolerate cyberbullying (or any type) in my home or classroom. In the discussion we had this week I talked about the MTV show "If you really knew me". I am attaching a preview/snippet of part of that show that demonstrates what it really was like for the students in high schools and middle schools to learn about their fellow classmates, versus just judging them based on what they THOUGHT they knew about them. I liked the purpose of the show, and even though I am not sure what the long term effects are for the schools. The fact that these schools choose to have "Challenge Day" where they encourage that students feel safe, loved and celebrated is a great step in the right direction! Below is a clip from a University student's documentary at Spring Arbor University about this happening at a Middle School in Jackson, MI (I tried to find a clip of one in MI!) MTV has great clips also/promos you can watch at www.mtv.com!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuj8bcc3mvg * No CopyRight infringement intended*
The other big part of this class this week was to create a Prezi with a lesson plan. It has been a bit of a struggle because I haven't really used Prezi, besides showing another pre-made presentation. I had to figure out how this Prezi could present a topic that was applicable to my age group of students. I also had to create a lesson plans and make sure to hit all the areas that our professor wanted. Even though creating this Prezi has been a bit of a challenge, it has been a good one. I have been able to learn more about my abilities to learn about new resources and technology. I really liked Prezi, way more than PowerPoint actually. I hope this is a resource I can continue to use. Although I wasn't able to do exactly everything on my Prezi that I wanted to (tried to add background music but I had to get the file on the computer and it wouldn't download), I still learned quite a bit! I had to make the presentation something that I could read to my students that didn't have a lot of scientific terminology or complicated definitions. I tried to keep it simple, but also addressing the points that were needed to help my kiddos learn about sunflowers. I actually planted sunflower seeds with my students a month ago, so we have been working on this project for a while just hadn't presented this to them in this way. My class has grown pinto beans but I decided to focus on Sunflowers considering it's Spring Time :) Finishing up my lesson plans and handouts for my children. I am focusing on "S" words (sun, seeds, sunflower,etc) to practice with the children during Circle Time. I have actually had a harder time getting the lesson plan to communicate what I did with my students. Considering I can't just give my children a handout because they can't read :p But I will figure it out, a challenge is always good :) Below is the YouTube clip that teaches you how to use Prezi, in case you need any additional resources to learn how to use Prezi! Click on the clip below!
Christina,
ReplyDeleteI think it is very important to monitor our student's attitudes towards each other because if we see any problems in the younger grade levels maybe we can prevent future problems that could become more harmful. I also like how you teach your students to be respectful to each other I think sometimes as teachers we should only have to tell our students this once and we place it on the "back burner" until a problem arises. I think we need to constantly remind our students about what respect is and what to do if someone is not respecting us. I finally agree with you that teachers and educators need to be informed about internet safety and how to promote it in both the classroom and at home. We need to keep a safe environment for all children and it needs to be both at school and at home.