The similarities of this clip with the movie is that a lot of the dialogue is word for word. The actor playing Walter is exactly as I envisioned him, the way he uses his mannerisms to show his contempt for his family. The actor makes me hate him more than I did with the book!
In the book, I couldn't visualize some of the characters and this movie helped with my perception. I thought the mom would be more mean like in the book, but she seems more quiet and easy going in the book.

Themes from the 1960s:

Segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience. King has become a national icon in the history of modern American liberalism.

A Hippie is a person who was raised under the ideological system that came out of the tumultuous 1960's in North America and western Europe. They are either of the flower-child/baby boomer generation or that generations' subsequent offspring. They possess a core belief set revolving around the values of peace and love as being essential in an increasingly globalized society, and they are oftentimes associated with non-violent anti-governmental groups. There is a stigma of drug abuse attached to the hippies that is prevalent to this day, specifically the use and abuse of marijuana and hallucinagens

Free Online Apps Review

The first online app I will be reviewing is Sumo Paint.
Sumo paint was completely new to me. I found it very easy to use and fun as well. It is a free paint tool as well as photo manipulation. The site states that the purpose of this app community is to "create, share, remix, explore, comment, rate and fave the artwork of its members. You could consider it a photoshop someone that does not want to fork out the money of photoshop.

Some features that I noticed Sumo Paint offers are:

• You can open files from your computer, Sumo Paint, or from a URL.
• Includes fun filter features such as kaleidoscope, wave lab, triangle patter, liquid wave, spherical and cylindrical mapping, and a camouflage filter.
• YOu can send and receive messages from other members of Sumo Paint
• You can edit pixels using Sumo Paint.

When I think about how I can use this application in my classroom, the possibilities are endless to add creativity to projects. Students who are at all familiar with paint applications will have no problem using this. 

An example of what can be created with this!

The second app I will be reviewing is Google Docs.

I use Google Docs pretty much every day. It is one of the most useful tools for me in communicating and collaborating with the four teachers I teach with as a coteacher. We post lesson plans, curriculum guides, student assignments, correspondences, and forms created on Google Docs shared on a google drive. I don't know what I would do without it!

Some technical information on Google Docs:

Google Docs features are a word processing suite, spreadsheet suite, presentation suite, and data collection/ form suite. You can easily create a free account with google to have access, which will also include access to tools for email communication, calendar, photo sharing, and personal website hosting.

Collaboration between multiple users is possible and allows each person with access the ability to edit and change the same document on the Web- internet is required to access documents. 

Website!

Here is the website I created for a co-taught English class:
English 10

The Great Depression concept map

This concept map demonstrates an activity I would have 10th graders do in my team taught U.S. History class. I feel this would be a beneficial activity for students because it makes reading the book interactive. I would have them choose a concept (in this case the Great Depression) and highlight the key ideas in the chapter through concept mapping including a time line which I feel is always essential when discussing events in history that occur over a time period.

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Screen Casting- creating an email account

2012-11-04_0848

Community Scavengar Hunt

View My Saved Places in a larger map


 Students in the community based vocational education class at my school do a lot of work with independence and acclimation with mobility within the city.

This assignment allows students to become more comfortable finding destinations within the comfort of the school. This is a good introduction activity before they make their way within the actual community.

Students would be given a list of destinations they need to find and mark them on the Google Map. They would then need to answer (based on the starting point of the school or their home) how many miles it is and the names of the streets from starting point to destination.

This is the example used in the embedded Google Map above.
1. Bus Station
2. Local College
3. Hospital
4. Library
5. Grocery Store
6. Public Utulities
7. Cell Phone Store (use the company that you go with if you have a cell phone)
8. Park

Education podcast:Transformation Education | Blog Talk Radio Feed

Education podcast:Transformation Education | Blog Talk Radio Feed

This podcast includes various educational news that relates to new innocations within the field of education- specifically technology used within education.
In one espisode, a superintendent uses words that were from a webpage with tips on how to speak in public. The discussion is led on wether or not his is illegal or not and how we should use information found on the web.
Another episode discusses gadgets and how they can be used to transform education.

Embedding Idea- Calendars!

Kalamazoo Central High School

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My Styl

Animal School

My Flickr

My Delicious!

My new Wiki!

I had a couple of blogger accounts that I used as creative outlets to share my writings with friends. I set up a webpage through class jump to help keep students and parents aware of assignments and tests/ quizzes. This was helpful. I think using blogger professionally will be a great asset for my team taught classes. I am a special education team teacher in many different content areas and I can see myself using blogger to communicate assignment and content to make it more assessable to all students. I am anxious to play around with blogger features and other tools out there to find ways to clarify curriculum for ALL students. Since I am pulled in many directions as a team teacher working in 4 different subject areas with 4 different teacher, I feel like I am inevitably less accessable to my students. This will allow me to communicate with all students and their parents. I like the idea of using blogger within the professional community as well. I think it is a great way to reflect and hear peoples take on things. With a teachers schedule, it can be difficult to sit down with cohorts and discuss the trials and successes within our classrooms. Blogger allows us to do this in a more convenient setting.
I liked using the RSS feed. Being a busy mom, teacher, and now grad student, I can really appreciate being able to keep up on up to date information about my profession in the most timely way possible. It took me some time to figure out how to upload the feeds for our group. I was at a complete loss of what to do. Even my husband, a very tech savvy guy, was not sure. Once I figured it out it makes perfect sense. In essence, I have used the feeds (without realizing it) by "liking" certain pages on Facebook, which allows me to follow stories in my areas of interest.
I feel that blogs and RSS feeds would fit into the exhibit category because students are able to interact with the blog through viewing other peoples thoughts and experiences through other people's feeds, but also apply what they are learning by expressing their understanding through journaling. Students would be able to reflect not only through words however, but through pictures, diagrams, and movies.
An imaginative use for RSS feeds and blogs: In an English class, depending on the curriculum for the class, students could follow feeds such as song of the day, picture of the day, photo of the day...and use their blogs to discuss why this item was chose, how it makes them feel, what is reminds them of, etc. Assignment can be extended to having the students create their ___ of the day and make it a part of their blog.

I agree with Postman that bringing technology into the classroom for the sake of technology is not going to solve the problems in education. However, it is esential to bring technology into the classroom because students need to be prepared as citizens of the 21st century. They need a strong understanding of how technology works and how it will apply to them when they become a part of the workforce. The number of jobs out there that do not require some technological skill is dwindling away.
Allowing technology into schools does not mean allowing students to send text messages to friends during lecture, or listening to an ipod while the teacher lectures, but more like having students send a text message to the teacher overviewing the lesson of the day, or allowing the student to play a relevant song to add meaning to their presentation. Using technology with thought and relevence and inducing connections with students is what I gleaned from the Reigeluth article.
As educators, it is our responsibility to keep on top of the most up to date research in methodolgy and this most definetly includes technology. Technology developments are continuously changing and that means we need to be kept aware if we want to maintain relevance in our classroom.