Thursday, September 24, 2015

Blogs and blog readers

I created a tumblr account and added several reading quotes. It was simple to use. https://www.tumblr.com/blog/nmorrisseyuniverse After looking at the following blog readers; Bloglovin’, Feedly, Bloglines, and Digg Reader; I feel that Bloglovin’ is the best for me. I found Bloglovin’ to be set up in a similar format as Pinterest. Since I am familiar with Pinterest this blog reader was the easiest for me to relate to and use. Whereas, Feedly had a welcome screen format and coloring that I didn’t care for. Therefore, I didn’t spend time signing up or further exploring Feedly. While Blogline was located within twitter, which I am a fairly new user of. Thus, causing me not to be comfortable with using this blog reader. I signed up and started to explore Digg Reader, but was unable to find an area where I could do a topic search. This resulted in me being unable to find what I needed in a timely manner. Though I selected Bloglovin’ which has a similar format to Pinterest, I feel I need to continue to explore this blog reader in order to best use it. Below I have included links to a few of the blog readers that I viewed and thought may be useful at a later date. https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/1001-childrens-books-6972583 https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/crazy-for-kids-books-5210773 https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/andis-kids-books-5142707 1. ) http://justinthelibrarian.com I liked how this librarian had a variety of library related topics included in his blog. My favorite was how the library’s video game arcade game changing policies changed in order to encourage the children (tweens/teens) to read at least 20 minutes per visit. In the beginning the librarians were feeling down because several children were coming into the library’s video game arcade, but not checking out or even looking at books. One of the librarians decided to introduce a book display related to video games to help encourage the children who came to play in the arcade to read as well. Though the book selection was changed at least every week and a half, very few books got checked out. 2.)http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com This blog not only can be helpful for librarians, but teachers too. I really loved how the blog began with pictures and short blogs about many things stressed out (or burnt out) teachers tend to do that you need to distance yourself from, such as: stay out of/change negative environment in the teacher’s lounge, collaborate, defend our kiddos, think before you comment, and more. The first blog post that came up on my computer screen referred to the negative environment in the teacher’s lounge. As a teacher, I know that the teacher’s lounge is not a very positive environment especially in school districts with excessive demands on their staff. Therefore, staying out of the teacher’s lounge will most likely be a smart choice and create one to hopefully be surrounded with a more positive environment. This blog continues by expressing the importance of collaborating with other within or outside of your school. Then there is another post that talks about how you do not know what the children are battling outside of school, so be sure to defend and not talk negatively about the students. Next, the post reminds the reader to thinking before you comment. After starting in a new district and grade level this school year, I feel that I have become more negative lately and this blog really helped me see this. Now I need to take that time to turn negativity into positivity and encouragement for myself, co-workers, and most of all students. 3.) http://www.librarygirl.net The first three posts on this blog related to reading to and with your students. These posts include how and why this is important. Students need to know that the teacher or librarian is interested not only in the books, but also in their (the student’s) love of books/stories. Reading aloud shows the students how reading should be done and strengthens their comprehension of books. While reading with your students can help you (the teacher) to better get to know your student(s). This may also help to instill the love of literature into student/students. 4.) http://schoollibrarydisplays.blogspot.com As a teacher and future librarian, I found this library blog to be extremely interesting. I enjoyed how this particular blogger has included several decoration ideas and more. I really loved the idea of word cloud quiz pictures with words (http://schoollibrarydisplays.blogspot.com/2015/09/word-cloud-quiz.html). I will be sure to follow and check out more of the posts on this blog in the near future. 5.) http://schoollibrarydisplays.blogspot.com/2015/09/word-cloud-quiz.html This blog contains several tabs related to book reviews, library ideas, and much more. The information on this blog was easy to locate and understand (book reviews are sorted by genre).
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Friday, September 18, 2015

Teens, Technology, and Friendship

Teens, Technology, and Friendship Work cited: Lenhart, A., Smith, A., Anderson, M., Duggan, M., & Perrin, A. (2015, August 06). Teens, Technology and Friendships. Retrieved September 16, 2015, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/06/teens- technology-and-friendships/ Number of pages read: 69 pages This online data about teens, technology, and friendships was was surprising, yet not surprising. "One of the things discussed was the percent of teens who actually met their online friends in person. As a parent and teacher, I find 20% out of 57% to be a scary number. However, not all teens are using technology to make new friends online, many teens use technology in order to stay connected with friends that they already have. Around 55% of teens text their close friends on a daily basis. Things can get dramatic when 88% of teens believe that too much personal information is shared on social media, 53% have seen events in which they have not been invited to, 42% had negative things posted about them, and 21% say that they feel worse about their life. Social media is said to cause 40% of teens to become pressured and resulting in them posting content that only makes them look good. While 39% of teens tend to worry about posting content that will be of interest to others and result in lots of comments or likes. However, technology can be damaging to friendships and result in teens who unfriend or unfollow and block their ex-friend(s) (Lenhart, 2015)." I found it to be interesting that Caucasian teens are more likely to share their password(s) with their friends then African American or Hispanic teens. This can be an issue for various reasons. One reason is that your friend may become angry at you and post inappropriate things on your social media. The data was interesting and I hope that you take the time to look over my infogram below and possibly even read Teens, Technology, and Friendship for yourself.
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Thursday, September 3, 2015

Twitter (Tech Leaders)

I love how Kathy Schrock (@kathyschrock) tweeted an article that includes an overview of the Bloom's Revised Taxonomy, a set of Android apps and websites that can be used to suppose teaching and learning, and questions to identify if an app should/could be used for a particular level of Bloom's. As a teacher I find this information to be helpful. Before reading this tweeted article, I didn't know that there was something like this accessible. _______________________________________________________________________________ After spending a few weeks with my new students, I have learned many things about them. When looking at the tweets on Linda Braum's twitter account @lbraun2000, I came across a neat writing idea to use with the students. For this, the students write about what they did during the summer. This is a great way not only to get to know them, but also to see how your new class of students write. ________________________________________________________________________________ When reading over tweets by Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent), I can across a tweet on how to set up Apple TV so that it is classroom friendly. I feel that with the level of technology that children use today, technology should be used within the classroom setting. However, it is important that the technology used is safe for the students. Therefore, it is good to have the information available to help a teacher set up a safe Apple TV in their classroom. _________________________________________________________________________________ Buffy Hamilton (@buffyjhamilton) tweeted the following quote, "Important problems ... are the reason this work matters.They are the only way we will change the world." As a teacher who just started in a new district and grade I find this quote to touch home. Teachers are responsible for an excessive amount of duties, paperwork, etc. while having a small amount of time to teach certain subjects/topics to students who come with various academic levels, home backgrounds, etc. Thus, one must tackle the important problems in order to help students succeed. ________________________________________________________________________________ On August 9th, The Daring Librarian (@GwynethJones)tweeted about a summer reading program in Washington, D.C. where the company Jetblue donated over $1,250,000 in children's books. These books were placed in a few book vending machines for children to get free books to read over the summer months. I love this idea, especially for areas of the world where children are unable to purchase children's books. _________________________________________________________________________________ When looking at Jim Lerman's (@jimlerman) tweets, I came across one on TED-Ed. TED-Ed allows educators easy and free access to thousands of pre-made lessons over a variety of subjects and topics. Educators can also use TED-Ed to create their own lesson with web videos included. In today's day and age, I find this to be a beneficial because a majority of students use technology on a daily basis.
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