Standard 6.1

WebQuest


6.1 Candidates integrate instructional technology to facilitate learning in their classrooms, to supplement instructional strategies, to design instructional materials, and to enhance hands-on experiences and problem solving.

1. This means that I really need to be willing to utilize the many technological tools available to me as a teacher. I know that one of the biggest things we seem to be concerned with in regards to what our children are learning these days is whether they are learning how to problem solve, how to creatively problem solve when it comes down to it. Especially at a high school level, when my students are so close to being out there in the real world, they need to be aware that there are numerous ways to solve a problem, or to quote the old phrase "there's more than one way to skin a cat".  With history, I know it can sometimes be a little difficult to come up with ways to apply it to real world problems today. However, there is so much we can learn by comparing and contrasting that it needs to brought home to the students.

2. I will be honest, I'm not sure yet how confident I am in the WebQuest design category. I think that will take a lot of practice, primarily in the developing of ideas for it. I did try to work something out for it and gave it my all so I'm willing to put the work in for it, I just need to do some more research of the WebQuests out there. I think I have demonstrated that I am willing to try and to hopefully learn from my mistakes, however, I honestly don't know if I've been able to demonstrate any real proficiency with it.

3. Is there some way to practice with WebQuests without subscribing and without creating a dozen email accounts for free trials? I think the concept is excellent but I really don't want to pay for a subscription just to practice with it.

4. I need to find if there is a way to do something similar to WebQuest but that is entirely free. Or other types of technology along those lines. I did like Quizlet and plan to look into that more in depth. I really want to get involved in some of these blog groups that share information that I've seen around the web while doing things for this class. I think that will benefit me greatly because I can be an observer for now and then when the time comes, I will have some reasonable experience and people I know that know what they are doing that I can turn to for assistance.

Standard 6.9

 Tutorial


6.9 Candidates model the legal and ethical use of educational resources.

1. As a teacher I must be aware of the legal and ethical uses of what I utilize in my classroom. My students will remember how I behaved and that will help to shape their behavior in the future. I must set a good example, the same way I would with my own children. If children see you do something, they will think it is ok to do the same. I am one of their leaders into the future and I must act like it.

2. I feel that I have tried to make sure that I am utilizing materials that are allowed and not using someone else's work in my submissions, as tempting as it can be at times. I also realize that by doing the work myself, I'm learning how to use the different items. I've started being much more careful with what I post online and what I do online because I don't want that to be something that could come back and hurt me later on. I realize now how much that could be detrimental to my future.

3. How do I insure that my students are indeed following legal and ethical practices? So many of them live in households where it's ok to download music without paying for it, or to purchase a DVD from someone when it hasn't been released to the public yet. How am I to insure that I am getting them to understand how they are hurting themselves and others by these practices?

4. I am trying to make sure that I don't use complete phrases from someone else or even lines from songs without making sure that it's allowed. I do have some help in this. My husband is well versed in what's considered public domain in regards to music and literature so I do plan to use him as a source of information on what I can and cannot use in the future. 

Standard 6.5

EverNote

Henry, K. L. (2007). Who's Skipping School: Characteristics of Truants in 8th and 10th Grade. Journal Of School Health, 77(1), 29-35.
      I found this article helpful because if I'm going to be teaching 10th grade then I know there will be students who skip. Especially if they think they can keep up with the class through technology or friends. While I understand the appeal of being able to do the class without being there at specific times, I would be concerned that the students would start to think that they could do that with anything in life and most jobs still don't allow you to work from home or from a distance.

Idan, O., & Margalit, M. (2014). Socioemotional Self-Perceptions, Family Climate, and Hopeful Thinking Among Students With Learning Disabilities and Typically Achieving Students From the Same Classes. Journal Of Learning Disabilities, 47(2), 136-152.
     This article discusses having students with special needs in my classroom combined with the students without special needs. While I've taking the introductory class about special need students, it is always good to continue to be aware of new and useful information on the topic to better help me to create a caring, inclusive classroom for all my students. Especially at a high school level because they will be so close to being out there in the real world and they will need to understand so much more about how there are so many different people out there and that they need to be able to work with all types of people.

CALLISON, D. (2014). Expanding Exemplary Information Sources for the High School History Curriculum. School Library Monthly, 30(4), 23-26.
    This article is wonderful. It's written with the new Common Core Standards in mind and is focused specifically at high school history. It talks about the fact that there needs to be a greatly expanded section of secondary sources of historical information available in the collections that high school students can access. This would be highly useful because these secondary resources are written from scholarly research and can provide much more information than the simple blurbs in a history textbook. They are often much better researched and have more reliable forms of references available. While they are often written from a certain viewpoint, they are considered scholarly articles and therefore open to debate over the conclusions. But these would allow the students to actually research various topics in history, (ie women in the Revolutionary War) without relying on the sparse information collected in textbooks, encyclopedias or the like. 




6.5 Candidates use technology to gather, sort, and analyze information needed for their own research projects.

1. This standard is important in that there will be so much information to sort through as a teacher, that I will need some way to keep track of it and organize so that I can also keep track of my thoughts about the different information. I've already noticed that I'm getting better at being organized since I've been incorporating technology resources into my life more and more. I've found that I can keep track of things better.  Especially when I get into teaching high school, I feel that this will help me keep track of the different classes I'm teaching and what kind of projects I have them working on. I may have a history class, a government class, and/or a geography class, all teaching different things but I will need to keep my project requests for them organized and easily accessible. Evernote is something that I can have on my tablet or phone so I can pull it up where ever I am to answer questions. Invaluable.

2. Purdue, for citing, is completely invaluable tool that I plan to use a lot. At a high school level of education, my students will have to be very much on top of knowing how to cite basic references and how to find out how to cite references for various things so that they are better prepared for college classes and the real world. While there are many people who just accept what someone says at face value and never look any further, there are still several who want to know where that information came from so they can examine it themselves and make a personal determination about something. Evernote, as I stated earlier, I feel will be invaluable for me to keep my different projects organized. because I can utilize with just about any type of file (ie photo, audio, pdf, website, etc) I can utilize it for both professional and personal uses. If I see something or hear something at a conference or seminar that interests me and I want to remember it later for doing further research, I can easily take a photo or recording and put it in an Evernote notebook and then when I start looking into it more, I can add the new information I find to that same notebook.

3. I know that there are several different methods of citation available depending on what subject you are writing about. Purdue does cover all of them and quite thoroughly. My concern is whether I should insist on that Chicago style for my students or allow them to work with MLA while making them aware that they will need to use Chicago when they get to college. I never had to worry about any of these when I was in high school because we were still doing everything by hand (sometimes a typewriter was used) but I'm not sure what the current recommended practices are and if it's something I'll need to be concerned about or not. I guess I am concerned about if I need to teach them the proper writing style or not.

4. I think I'm going to continue to use Evernote. I can already think of several personal uses of it. While I don't have any professional uses right now technically, I was thinking it might be useful for me to help plan my professional wardrobe. The closest I've come to needing something like a professional wardrobe, I was working in a call center and the dress code was business casual. Jeans were allowed as were dressy tank tops and such. Because I also like to dress in costume inspired clothing, I know my wardrobe for being a teacher is currently rather limited and I'm having trouble expanding it. I forget ideas when I see something online that I could make myself. So while this usage is not exactly professional, it will help me when I earn my license and it will help me continue to develop a feel for the application so that I will, hopefully, be quite proficient at it when I start teaching. From there I am sure that I will find a myriad of uses for the application.