Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

  Educators do need to keep up to date and trained in using technology.  Technology is like clothing and slang, it changes frequently.  Children in the 21st century do have a different way of learning and we have to accommodate those learning styles.  My students love when I use technology to teach.  They also enjoy using the technology themselves.  Technology is what they are use to .  As in the article "Just Do It", educators need to get use to using technology and also absolutely needs support from parents and the administrators. 

Preparing Tomorrow's English Language Arts Teachers Today: Principles and Practices for Infusing Technology

     Technology is definitely an important part of classroom instruction.  It was interesting to read how students communicate with students in other parts of the world.  Technology serves as a corresponding network for education.  Students can benefit from using technology as a tool in the classroom.  Technology is important in teaching literacy and also provides a wide range of opportunities for the children.  Equity and diversity can be emphasized while using technology.  If teachers would use technology in teaching writing, students could peer edit writings.  Technology can also be used when developing a writing assignment.  Technology does engage students in the learning process.  Students do need to be educated on new technology terms to be successful in the 21st century.  Students also discover and use email, twitter, facebook, etc. daily.  These are forms of communication in the 21st century.  Technology needs to be used to help relate and teach students to help them to develop different skills.  Educators do come together to correlate technology into the content being taught.

Semiotic representations: Building complex literacy practices through the arts

     Using visual arts allows students to enhance their literacy.  Children express themselves in different ways, therefore their learning style is different.  The semiotic representations allows the students to use inquiry based learning to try to understand meanings and dig deeper into a text to express what it means.  I do agree that art is definitely a system of communication.  All the interaction makes students want to learn and get involved in their own learning.  I am eager to listen to Dr. Long define and explain the semiotic representations to see if I understood the article.

The Arts, New Literacies, and Multimodality

     I enjoyed reading this article.  I found it interesting the way literacy was redefined.  Educators should be prepared to teach students how to view and use multimedia texts in the world.  Students do learn more about literacy outside of school.  They learn from their surroundings.  The arts allows students to express themselves in different ways.  Social literacy is very important in a child's literacy development.  Students need to collaborate with one another.  This builds literacy and social skills.  The arts also engages the students into learning.  They feel a part of the arts and makes it about themselves.
     Reading about aesthetics education was interesting.  Aesthetics education allows students to be their own person and feel confident.  Aesthetics education also gives students the tools to recognize, notice, reflect, and appreciate education and their surroundings.  Reflecting is very important for students and educators.  I agree that students need to find a significance of education to appreciate it.  Children need to be allowed to be creative and have their own style.  Art is interesting because it does not have a single definition.  It can be interpreted in different ways.  Art is excellent for all types of learners.
     New literacy studies allow students to use different styles of technology.  This is very important since it is the 21st century.  Multimedia allows a wide range of communication throughout the world.  All is at our finger tips.

Infographics

     I really enjoyed watching the video A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words.  A picture is definitely worth 1000 words.  Children learn by seeing things visually.  The colors in the infographics would really catch a students attention.  Most teachers use thinking maps and graphs to teach skills.  So teaching with infographics would be a lot of fun.  Teachers would just be accommodating 21st Century learning by manipulating the thinking maps and graphs into infographics.  We has teachers have to learn the new technology to teach today's students.  I have a lot to learn myself. 
     After observing the Links to Resources, I found some of the links to be something I could use in my classroom.  The They Draw and Cook link could be used in my second grade class when teaching sequencing, following steps, and following procedures.   Flags By Colors could also be used when teaching about the American flag and when teaching about pie charts.  The students could create their on infograph after making the flag.  The flag would then be manipulated in two different ways. 

September 11, 2001

The resources on 9/11 were great to read about.  I am excited to have this information to use in my classroom.  While reading about the different links in classroom resources, I found several that I could use.  A Nation of Many Cultures could be used to teach my second graders about family, heritage, and people's interests.  The World of Peace would also be interesting to incorporate in my classroom.  All children could learn the importance of getting along and its benefits.  The American Flag link is something I will use to teach the symbolism, history, and the proper way to display the flag.  The Nick News video was exciting to discover.  My second graders would most likely understand the significance of 9/11 with the interviews of children and them asking questions. The video also shows illustrations of New York City on the day of 9/11 and the actions and disruptions of what happened.  It also shows the importance of remembering the ones we lost and learning about what now is history.  Children need to learn the importance of their American history and how it relates to today.  Children could also learn about the different service workers (policemen, firemen, and rescue workers) that helped in 9/11. 

Hurricanes

I enjoyed the sites on Hurricanes.  This week I have been reading books about weather to my students.  We have related the books to the recent hurricane and their experiences.  The Hurricane 1 website that focuses on Extreme Weather on Earth was interesting and The Science of Hurricanes.  With my second graders I could focus on force and motion.  We could discuss each slowing down, speeding up, and changing direction.  In second grade we could also teach about the causes of air pressure, water, and wind.  My children seem to be eager to learn more about what weather they have experienced.  The Hurricane 2 website was also interesting to read about.  The students could learn how technology and science are used to track hurricanes.  Students would love to learn how to identify, measure, and track powerful storms.  Children get into all the action involved in teaching about different types of weather.  Since the hurricane experience public awareness is another informative topic that I found from the different websites.  The awareness of what is going on with the storm, school closings, local shelters, and local feeding locations were very important for the students themselves.   Second graders can also benefit from learning and having actually experienced what occurs before and after a hurricane.  The link to the: hurricane center, hurricane tool kit, quick tips, and activity survival kit is wonderful to have acess to.