Questioning the Logic behind “Bossy E”

Have you ever heard of the “Bossy E”?  If you are an elementary school teacher or working on becoming one like I am, you probably have. I had to do a group project this past semester in which one of my partners (ever so graciously) gave me a Bossy E worksheet to add to my center.  I have never been comfortable with the idea of introducing a concept of a bossy character to my students while at the same time discouraging the same behavior in them.  But today something really struck me that made me sure that I will not be teaching VCV (vowel-consonant-vowel)  this way.

First if you are going to personify letters, wouldn’t the letter that is “silent” be less bossy than a vowel “saying its name”?  Plus if a letter is insisting someone say its own name while he sits and watches silently doesn’t that make it more of a “creepy e” than a “bossy e”? 

I really feel like it is more accurate to describe the silent e in the VCV pattern as a shy guy who wants his new vowel friend to tell him their name but is afraid to say his own.  To me that eliminates the idea that we are paying a lot of attention to a creepy tyrant in class and makes it all seem so much more sweet and innocent.

Am I wrong on this?  Is this already a concept with another name?  I Googled “Shy E” and didn’t find anything related.

Technology in Action

I like this Wiki because it's simple but still has essential information for parents and students.  It's essentially designed to communicate what the homework is.

These podcasts are part of the NPR Education Podcast that is free every week.  I know not everyone is a huge fan of NPR but they really do high-quality, in-depth journalism.

• The Charter School vs. Public School Debate
• Are There Jobs Out There For Recent Grads?

This guy has a huge list of sites bookmarked and most of them are directly related to education. For example on of his top tags is "special education" of which he has well over 500.

This reading-tips widget is wordy so may be more geared towards parents.  I might make my own reading tips of the day/week for my wiki for the parents and students to look over and have a review in class.  The science for kids widget would be fun to use to have maybe little mini projects about their favorite piece of new science news.


I'm most excited about having my own classroom Wiki. My favorite teachers that my son has had have been the one's who communicate well with parents through technology. I know how helpful it can be to be able to keep up with what's going on in the classroom.  I'd have assignments and homework reminders plus lessons for students who (legitimately) missed a class. I'd also love to have password protected pictures of the students on special days for the parents who can't come and take their own pictures.  I also might link to my own blog for extra news and up-to-date information.

I also liked getting to use Publisher which is something I've not really done much with before.  I think it would be nice to be able to make custom, high-quality posters, signs, banners etc.  I feel like students learn to tune out those typical school posters and might really pay attention to ones that are unique, on their level, and interesting.

Integrating Technology into Social Studies

I like to use every opportunity to find ways to make teaching Social Studies not be a miserable experience for students, which is why I chose to read chapter 12 about integrating technology into social studies instruction.  As a student my social studies experiences ranges from terribly boring and sometimes not even accurate to moderately interesting and mildly clear how it applied to my life.  Reading this chapter luckily led to me getting some ideas on how to use technology to make social studies not be everyone’s least favorite subject.

Advantages of Integrating Technology into Social Studies

One of the many advantages that technology offers is making social studies more engaging, interactive, and motivating.  For example “…a larger percentage of students will voluntarily engage in creating digital storytelling than are willing to write a traditional essay” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 340).  Also GPS treasure hunts sound like a great way to teach students about “geographical information and techniques” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 348) without them even knowing they’re learning anything. 

Technology can also make information and experiences more accessible.  Virtual field trips are a great way to expose kids to places and cultures that otherwise may be inaccessible.  “The wealth of information and images available about other cultures enriches students’ study of other lands and ways of life” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 348).  Additionally the news is readily available in a multitude of forms.  Sites like this direct news at students in an age appropriate way.

Disadvantages of Integrating Technology into Social Studies

Possibly one of the most distressing factors in integrating technology into social studies instruction is misinformation on the internet.  “In the past, most information that students received was sifted through a reliable filter; today, those filters often are nonexistent” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 337).  This can be a major problem obviously but I think that it can be ameliorated by teaching students which sites are reliable and how to evaluate newly-found sites for content.

And probably the most practical and insurmountable problem with technology is the cost.  “For example, it costs over $1,000 to equip 30 computers with TimeLiner software, a piece of software that allows students to organize data on multimedia timelines” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 336).

References

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2013).  Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Web-Based Learning

URLs: What do URLs tell you/students about web sites?

URLs often have the name or initials of the website or group in the name as a hint at what the content will be as well as a domain designator that will give you information like whether it’s a business or government organization.  Roblyer and Doering (2013) list some domain designators in Figure 7.3 such as aus for Australia (p. 217).  I know another one I commonly run into is .uk which is a designator for the United Kingdom.  For example beware of buying DVDs from Amazon.co.uk; they probably won’t be zoned for our players. 

Search Engines: How can learning to use search engines help you/students find better information?

It seems that even people who have grown up using computers can have issues with doing effective searches on Search Engines.  Many people have trouble balancing putting enough keywords in a search to eliminate things they don’t want while avoiding putting in words that may eliminate things that may be worded differently but would still be valuable.  Plus it’s good to learn short cuts to find legitimate information when doing research.  For example on Google you can do an Advanced Search to find a website from a University or you could just use “site:.edu” as part of your keyword search. 

*Did anyone else notice Roblyer and Doering (2013) said they were going to list the top five Metacrawlers and only listed four (p. 219)?

Internet Tool: Choose one Internet Tool (in the section beginning on p. 223) and discuss how you might use it in a classroom.

I think an e-portfolio would be a great internet tool for students.  There are lots of options online some require a paid membership while some are free like at Elgg. Creating a portfolio could be a good way to encourage students to create for a wider audience and to “organize, revise, and store digital assets they have created inside and outside of the classroom” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 224).  However I would think it’d be important for younger kids to get some feedback from a teacher and a chance to improve their work before having to post it for other people to see.  I would worry that they would be too nervous about what other people would think if they had to just post it without a trusted adult seeing it first.

Web-Based Lesson: Discuss and link to a web site where students could access or you could create a web-based lesson. (discussed in Chapter 8)

I like the Teaching with Historic Places as a web-based lesson.  As they are, I don’t think they would be age appropriate for any level that I will most likely end up teaching but I think I could adapt them in some cases.  I appreciated getting to see the lesson on the Selma-Montgomery March because I grew up in Selma.  They even have copies of those ridiculous “literacy tests” for voter registration so you can see what kind of questions they asked. My favorite is the one about being a dope addict or a drunkard.

Favorite Web Sites: Finally, pick two web sites that you feel are your favorite. Post the web sites and talk about why they will be beneficial to teachers and/or students. Use at least two references to chapter 7 and 8 content (for each) that makes these web sites effective resources.

It’s hard to pick favorites but one that I’ve found very useful and helpful lately is Wikimedia Commons.  All the pictures are free to use and if you click on the “Use this file on the web” button next to the picture they have everything you need including how the photographer wants their attribution.  This would also be a great one to have students use.  “The Internet is such a rich and easy-to-access source of documents, images, and other resources that it is sometimes easy to forget that many of these resources are copyrighted and protected by U.S. copyright laws” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 216). Giving students access to Wikimedia Commons could be a good stepping stone into learning to properly attribute resources.  And another new favorite is one that will probably be one I use more in the future.  A person I know who is already a teacher recommended Lesson Planet and let me use her password to check it out.  There are tons of prepared lessons plans and even if you don’t use them exactly as they come, they are great for inspiration.  I even got to practice my evaluating content skills as I found a few lessons plans posted with errors. “An essential skill for the Information Age is being able to evaluate information critically and to look for indications that content is accurate and reliable” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 255). Luckily on Lesson Plant you can write reviews of lesson plans to let the creator and others know what you think.

References

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2013).  Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

 

 

 

Multimedia and Hypermedia

     First I saw this book and thought it would go well with the YouTube video further in this blog post.   But alas it is not digital anywhere which is particularly unfortunate as “various studies have reported positive impact of interactive storybooks on children’s enjoyment of reading and development of reading skills” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 175).  Maybe depending on the age of students they could use software like this to make their own interactive books.  Especially since “creation of hypermedia products requires that the learner constantly make decisions and evaluate progress, thus encouraging students to apply higher order thinking skills” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 176). What I did find is this sound effects site as a collection of developmental resources that I think would be a fun addition to the video project I mention later.    You could require students use a certain number of effects and then tell why they chose certain ones.  It could give them a depth of understanding beyond just the visuals.

     From what I can tell iMovie seems to be a commonly used audio and video production and editing system for fourth grade (which has so far in this class been my imaginary grade level).  The site for it made me think that a fun project might be to have students make a few “trailers” throughout the year and then a final project at the end of the year combining everything they’ve learned over the year in a full-length movie.  I would think it would work best for science or history where visuals would make sense and help to drive the concepts home.  Students could be separated into groups and then you could take a week toward the end of the year to watch each movie during your regularly scheduled time for that subject.  Each time students present their trailers could be a good opportunity to use the “Sequence of Development Steps for Hypermedia Products” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 183).  Maybe students could make a PowerPoint presentation of how they went through each step and present it with their trailer at the end like a behind-the-scenes extra.  Step 6 “Test and revise the product” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 183) could be used as an opportunity to make sure the other students are paying attention.  They could help evaluate “Organization and Navigation, Appearance, [and] Graphics, Videos, and Sounds” while it would obviously be more of a teacher’s job to evaluate “Content [and] Instructional Design”. (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 186)

 

I think this is a cute example of a student history video:

              

Reenactment of history could make it fun and more comprehendible for young kids.

 

References

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2013).  Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Instructional Software

·        Drill-and-practice: Fact Monster has some good, basic math flashcards where users collect stars for correct answers.

·        Tutorial: From what I can tell Roblyer & Doering were right that one of the problems with tutorials is a “lack of good products” (p. 88).  I spent quite some time trying to find an online tutorial of some kind and was instead directed to a lot of games and drill-and-practice exercises.  One reasonably good one is this Touch Typing Lesson.   As an aside, I definitely feel like typing is an important skill. “Some educators feel that students will never become really productive on the computer until they learn 10-finger keyboarding.  Others feel that the extensive time spent on more important skills, and that students will pick up typing skills on their own.” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 120)  I personally know several people who use a computer every day and have just gotten faster at bird pecking the keys. If there’s not time in a regular curriculum maybe programs like this would be a good addition. 

·        Simulation: A fun simulation I found about the sun position effecting shadows is on The Children’s Universityof Manchester website.  Players get to change the time of day and see and measure the resulting shadow. 

·        Instructional game: PBS Kids has some good games for younger children such as the Puppy Letters game.  It has players drag and drop letters into simple words. 

·        Problem solving: Science Kids has some “Detective Science Games” in which users get to use science skills to thwart criminals. 

·        Integrated Learning System: IXL seems to be an online ILS.  It has an extensive selection of math drills at almost every level.  Unlike many other sites it’s possible to work without a membership to work problems and see if you like the program overall.  If you decide you do want a membership, a parent or teacher can get reports on progress.  Another feature you get with a membership is to be able to deactivate the timer.  As our textbook points out “If students’ responses are timed, or if their session time is limited, they may find it more motivating simply to move quickly to the next question, rather than receiving recognition for correctness” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 83).

·        Software support tools

o   Materials generator: Vocabtest.com uses vocabulary terms and definitions to generate several exercises including tests, crosswords and word searches.

o   Test generator/Data collection and analysis: Exambuilder.com is a website where teachers can design exams and collect and analysis students’ results in a myriad of ways.  One of the features is randomizing question order and multiple choice answer order which “is especially helpful when a teacher wants to prevent ‘wandering eye syndrome’ as students take a test” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 148).

 

References

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2013).  Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.