Social Bookmarking (NETS IV)

1. I visited the National Archives bookmark and read the online exhibit about the Influenza virus of 1918. This exhibit had pictures of artifacts during the time of the influenza epidemic. It also mentioned the effects of the "flu" and how quickly it spread. Many people had not yet developed the immunity to withstand the flu virus at this time which lead to many deaths within the span of days. Many mail carriers and police officers could not go outside without having to put on face masks and others were encouraged to stay home away from crowded ares.

Online exhibits such as these are very important to use for primary sources in the classroom. They help students research information for assignments and projects. It also gives them credible sources to cite work and information.


2. As a teacher, I feel that I have more of a hands-on teaching style and in order to be able to implement this style of teaching, I would have to know my students and where they come from, assess the problem by figuring out what my staff needs to support these students, and conduct a hands on experience that both staff and students can learn from. I feel that issues such as achievement gaps will be better addressed if students and teachers work simultaneously and for this reason, I chose these three areas to become a competent educator:

-Determine the diverse groups served by your school. Consider cultural, linguistic, racial, and ethnic diversity. Find out the degree to which families and students in these groups are accessing available school services.

- Assess what your school staff perceive as their staff development needs related to providing services to each group.

-Engage school staff in discussions and activities that offer an opportunity to explore attitudes, beliefs, and values related to cultural diversity and cultural competence.


3. In the Stop cyber bullying section, I took a test and my result came out to be a cyber bully. It turns out that even the smallest of teases and jokes are considered some form of bullying on the net and without having taken this quiz, I would've never know this. I turns out that children are the Einsteins of today's digital age and use the internet like how we use our clothes. Most of the time parents have no clue what their children do on the net, and most times, children start abusing their privileges. I learned that using the web for communication has a new meaning for words and just words alone cannot describe actions anymore. Cyber bullying is an issue that flies just below the radar, an someone needs to give it that big discovery in order to treat this issue.


4. Under the "Subject Access" header, the link that most interested me was the link to the Bill Nye the Science Guy website. I found this website very innovative in creating science lesson plans for students. Because I am a Science field depth of study, this website looked very fun to incorporate into the classroom. Students can access this website to go over science experiments done in class and find other experiments they'd want to do outside of the classroom. On the "Teacher Helper's" header, I chose the Multi-user Virtual Environments. This tool reaches out to ANY subject you can think of and also provides a simulated reality experience that the students can enjoy. MUVEs are probably one of the best tools designed yet to cater to all subject areas presented in the classroom.


5. My top three Intelligences are:

1. Musical
2. Logical
3. Visual

Watching the video on smartville was very interesting and informative. In Smartville, students demonstrate their different "smarts" through different activities in a building created to represent a real-world. Students use their multiple intelligences, created by Howard Gardener, to do real world things such as cook, run a post office, or a store. Through multiple intelligences, students are encouraged to use their intelligence to their abilities to help them succeed in multiple subjects.


6. Caring For Hair

Grade: 3-5
Subject: Science and Health
Topic:Caring For Hair

This lesson plan is a research activity students do to explore different ways people care for their hair. They write a 1 paragraph story about hair then do some research through magazines, newspapers and first-person interviews to explore different ways people can care for their hair. After this research they gather their information and share it with the class and write a new 1 paragraph story about hair implementing the research they've done. This activity would be excellent for meeting cultural competence standards in the classroom. Students will be able to compare physical differences and discuss the positive things about cultural difference.


7. Question 2: Compared with White women, how likely are African American women in the U.S. to die during childbirth due to a lack of access to prenatal care, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality?

Answer: 4 times as likely

This question is ridiculous. Because some African American women lack access to prenatal care this makes them 4 times as likely to die during childbirth. I can't even begin to fathom that this is fact. I just can't believe that this would be so.

Question 13: Based on a 2007 report from the Economic Policy Institute, the annual earnings of the average full-time U.S. worker is roughly equal to:

Answer: the daily earnings of the average CEO in the U.S.

The margin between the middle class and upper class is large but I would have never thought it would be this huge. It seems that the average full time worker deserves more the daily pay of a C.E.O. if you consider physical work load alone. It's amazing at what this country has become.


8. My Netiquette score was: 80% (8 out of 10)

Netiquette is very important for students to know and also works hand in hand with cyberbullying. As teachers, we always want to promote a positive learning environment in the tech world and without the knowledge of netiquette, students will not be able to recognize communication lingo's and may become offended. Students always seem to be in the know about anything technology but one thing that may underlie this concept is netiquette. It's very important for students to learn manners in the classroom, why not the net either? ;p