What I Think of Blogs in the Classroom Now...

I chose to read Bridget Thompson-Hall's EDM 310 Blog. Bridget is in my class and we are always having to help each other out with assignments. Bridget and I are also both from rural areas in Alabama and our respective hometowns are relatively close to one another. I, like Bridget, was very new to blogging when I started this class and although I had heard of blogging and have friends who blog religiously about their lives, I had never thought of using blogs in an educational setting.
I covered my views of classroom blogging in my podcast earlier this year but I really think that blogs have the potential to be great tools. In the classroom, blogs can be used in many constructive ways. As always though, there are always pros and cons to a tool and blogs are no exception. I see blogs as a great way for parents to keep in touch with what the students are doing. If a parent can log on and see what the assignments are for the week and what the students are learning about, that will save them from having to dig through their child's backpack for a note from school that may not have ever really made it into the backpack. Notes should still be sent home, since not all parents have Internet access. Also, students could use classroom blogging time to perfect creative writing skills in a "grown up" sort of way. Students could also spend time typing their spelling words. If a student has to type the word "cat", they must think "c", "a", "t" and put the letters together in the correct way. Typing spelling words is a way to spice up practicing words. Student may blog about things they like or dislike about school, such as they wish they had more bathroom breaks or times to go get water from the water fountain or that they really like when they get to act out their reading stories. Students could blog about things they are learning our in Social Studies or Science and maybe even type some Math Rules like writing out in words, "Two times two is equal to four."
However, in order for this wonderful classroom blogging to be able to work, the students must have Internet access. Many students will have Internet access at home but some may not. While the public library will probably have Internet access, the student must have a way to get to the library. If a student rides the bus straight home from school and Mama doesn't get home from work until 5:30 or so, then there is no time to go to the library. If the teacher wants the students to blog in class, which I think would be preferred so that the students could be well monitored, the teacher must be able to find time to allow the students to blog. Finding time for one more activity in the classroom is difficult but since the blogging could be integrated with other subjects, perhaps finding time to squeeze in some blogging would not be too difficult.
I have found blogging to be enjoyable but it is difficult to remember to blog. Since blogging must be done from a computer, it's not something that can be done on the go. Some homework can be taken and completed easily between college classes but blogging isn't like that. Also, if students do much of their homework on the bus ride home, then blogging must wait until later and probably will end up being forgotten. I do like blogging and I do think that in the appropriate classroom with students who are mature, blogging can dramatically reinforce classroom objectives.

Duke University- Center for Documentary Studies

I watched "Broken", a short documentary about HIV in South Africa. "Broken" shows a young girl being raped by her father and being denied help from her family since her family thinks she is lying about the incident. The main goal of this film is to stop the assaults that go on every day in South Africa and the assaults that increase the numbers of HIV/AIDS patients in South Africa. This was a very disturbing film but I feel that the things that tend to be most disturbing in life are the thing that need the most attention. The events that occur in this video are horrific and only show a glimpse of the horror that some children must endure. This behavior needs to stop and this film helps shed light on a very dark subject.
I also listened to "The South in Black and White". I prefer video pod casts to strictly audio pod casts and I really wish that there was some video footage to accompany this podcast. Duke University is holding a series of programs in a historic black church dealing with racism and southern culture and the influences of the two on the world. The programs will cover ideas, music, storytelling, and other things that contribute to Southern culture. The Duke lacrosse team cross burning was referenced several times in this podcast and seemed to be awkward. I really do wish though that this podcast had some video clips of the historic church and maybe some samples of the music and stories that this program would include.
I found both of these pod casts to be interesting but I do not know that either one would be appropriate in an elementary school classroom. However, I do think that as an individual and part of not only the community of the South but also the global community, both pod casts are beneficial to me and the enrichment of my own personal knowledge.

ACCESS Lab at Satsuma High School

Today, Crystal, Joye, and I visited the ACCESS Lab at Satsuma High School in Satsuma, Alabama. The facilitator of this lab is Ms. Jennifer Phillips. She was very friendly and ready to answer any of the many questions that we asked.From what Ms. Phillips said, we were not the first group of eager observers to ooh and ahh over the lab.

Currently, students take their classes online, much like a collegiate online course. They do not utilize live web feeds at this time. Next semester, however; classes will be taught from the Satsuma High School ACCESS Lab. Right now, the lab is used during all four class blocks with classes including English 12, Creative Writing, Latin, German, and Environmental Science. Not all of the students who are in the lab at the same time are taking the same course. In the lab block that we visited, students were taking Creative Writing and Latin, among other courses. The students who take the language courses must use a microphone attached to their computer in order to complete their coursework.Students are assigned a computer with a number for the entire school year. That is the only ACCESS computer that they will use.

Some students only take one class via ACCESS but there is one student who is taking three classes through the ACCESS lab. Students may work at their own pace, somewhat, since the online teacher has set firm deadlines that are strictly enforced. Students may do their coursework from school or at home during non-school hours. Students may not do their tests or quizzes from home. Students have a only one log-in chance to complete a quiz so they must be sure that they have adequate time left in class to finish the quiz. Most of the online tests can be taken over the course of a day or two with multiple log-in times allowed.
Starting next year, all incoming freshmen will be required to take one class through the ACCESS lab before they graduate. Student reception is varied, with some students thoroughly enjoying the program and others not being so keen on the lab. Student grades vary from A to E currently in the Satsuma lab. Ms. Phillips said that the reason for the worse grades is due to a lack of student motivation. Students can only be told so much to do their work. Whether or not they actually do their work is up to the individual student. Ms. Phillips did say that overall, ACCESS is a success at Satsuma and that students' grades in their ACCESS classes closely correspond with their grades in the regular classroom.
In order to become an ACCESS teacher, one must be a certified teacher and be hired by ACCESS, not by the school or school district and earn about three hundred dollars per student enrolled in their ACCESS class. ACCESS facilitators must be at least school aides and many librarians and library aides are ACCESS facilitators. At Satsuma High School, some ACCESS blocks are taught in the ACCESS lab and some are taught in the library. Ms. Phillips has been the facilitator at Satsuma High School since about the third week of this semester. The facilitator's main job is being sure that students behave and that the grades are turned in to the school counselor's office for progress reports and report cards. There is also a "rolling lab" that classroom teachers may check-out of the ACCESS lab to use in their regular classes.
All in all, I think that ACCESS is a great program and I can see where in many areas, it has the potential to be very successful. Not only does it offer a wide array of classes to students in areas that those classes would not normally be taught but it also allows students to have more of a choice in the classes that they take. When students are given choices, they will more than likely respond better to the course material. The students at Satsuma High School seemed to be enjoying their time in their class and appear to be well on their way to join the world of collegiate online classes. I'm not sure that I, as an elementary education major, could use ACCESS as much but perhaps for some of the music class, ACCESS would be useful. I know that funding is tight and that music teachers are rare. If there was an ACCESS teacher who taught general music, chorus, or maybe even some sort of instrument, students could learn even more skills. Music is a passion of mine and I would love to see many students touched by music. I think ACCESS could help achieve this goal.

Our very own pod casts!

Wow! We did it, y'all! We made our own pod casts! Yay for us! I am so proud of all of us for doing something new. I find that doing something new, even if it may be easier, is always harder than doing a more difficult version of something that we already do. Doing the pod casts really wasn't that hard. It was just a new thing for us to do.
With that being said, there is always room for improvement. With the pod cast that my group did, I think we could have practiced a bit more so that we were more comfortable with what we were talking about. I know that my absence from class the week before due to a horrendous migraine did not help matters any. It took Joy, Rachael, and me some time to really get the nervousness out and to feel confident talking about blogging. Again, another pro of blogging is that you can kind of hide behind your computer and not worry so much about having to try to conceal a very thick Southern accent.
I know that my own accent is very thick but I think I may have met my match in Bridget. The more that I listen to pod casts though, I think an accent makes the pod casts unique and helps to connect the voice with a person. Go ahead and say "y'all", Bridget. :D Bridget, Susan, and Angela talked about ACCESS and I think that the coolest part about their pod cast is that Susan actually attended class held by ACCESS.
Over all, I think that most of the pod casts could have benefited by being a bit more rehearsed and having the group members more comfortable with themselves, each other, and the topics at hand. However, I think that for the first time pod casting, we did pretty well!

Mathematics with Technology

This week, I listened to two podcasts hosted by Judy Chandler that dealt with Mathematics and Technology in everyday classroom settings. Judy Chandler is a math mentor trainer, technology integration specialist and a math teacher. She says that when she talks to most math teachers about using technology in their classrooms, they say that they do not have enough time to integrate technology into their lessons, that they need to finish the book before the final exam, that their students are doing well enough without using technology, or that they just don't understand the importance of using technology in their mathematics classrooms.Students have many conventional tools that they use in the math class but these conventional tools may not bring the topic as alive as using technological tools would. Implementing technology-centered mathematics lessons takes less time that teachers realize and may actually provide better use of class time. Also, Judy Chandler says that she has found that more lessons may be covered in less time with this technological approach to mathematics. In the second podcast, Ms. Chandler says that students should think mathematically and not just learn the rules and algorithms of mathematics. They should understand the "why" of mathematics. Technology can help students visualize the solutions to some math problems and help students see practical applications for their mathematics lessons. If students can think of math critically and by using questions, they can "learn how to learn" and can grasp the concepts more easily. Ms. Chandler ends both episodes of her Mathematics PodCasts by sharing this website http://www.noteshare.ACTEM.org/noteshare. She also gives us the public password, ACTEM, for this site. Ms. Chandler says that there are many helpful math and technology tools on this website.
Podcasts like this can be of help to me as a teacher because they help me to see other teachers' opinions. Ms. Chandler is a math teacher and talks with other math teachers and she has found that they do not have the same views on things. Maybe the way that my school does something is different from how another school does something. Neither way may be right nor wrong but I won't know of a different method unless I hear about it from someone and these podcasts provide ways to get new ideas from other teachers.
Also, podcasts about technology are more and more important in today's society since more and more people are becoming heavily dependent on technology. Without using technology, students may find the concepts boring or out-of-date. Also, since technology can help bring the subject alive, students find it easier to comprehend. Again, if my school doesn't use technology very much, I may not be fully aware of what sorts of resources are available to me for use in my classroom. Podcasts like this one, though, provide not only reasons why I should use technology but also websites to view in order to improve upon my use of technology in my classroom.