Blogging in the Classroom

I think my classroom, I would not introduce blogging by using paper blogs, because I assume most high school students know about blogs and have probably read them. By 10th grade, even though I feel that blogs are WAY more common among teens now, I knew what blogs were and wrote them. I think students now are way more familiar than I was at their age.

I think my main goal with using blogs in the classroom would be using it as a log of what students see in their daily lives that is related to science/biology. It's easy enough for most students to snap a picture or draw a picture of what they see. Even if they looked up what they saw and posted a link in their blog, they would be learning about it even more. I think logs like this are important not only to spend more time focusing on your surroundings and how much science surrounds you every second of the day, but by following fellow students blogs, they will see what else is in their area. (for example, one student sees a monarch butterfly that has just came out of it's cocoon - posts a picture and its location. other students can go there (possibly, if its in public) and see it for themselves. Awesome idea, in my opinion.)

There would clearly need to be rules about the content that is posted, the locations that are posted and obviously students would need to keep their identities (besides first names and possibly last initial) safe. Comments should be appropriate and on topic.

I like the idea of the students being able to choose the things that they are interested in. That always makes for good reading. I think other students being able to comment is a great idea because it also brings positive reinforcment to the student writing the blog. I also like the idea of talking to the students about blogs/blogging before we start the assignment because honestly, I think the teacher should know about what the students impression of blogs are before they start something like this. I think the general attitude toward blogging can be varied, especially among secondary students.

Opinions on creating a Unit Plan including Technology

I think technology is an amazing tool to be able to use in any Unit Plan. Students are able to have classroom interactions because of techology that in the past, we never could have dreamed of. Students can do research right in the classroom on a computer, without having to go to the library and look up information in multiple books. They can collect data, create and analyze graphs and word process an entire report very quickly. They have access to resources all over the world. This is such a great advantage for our students.

Whats challenging in creating a unit plan that involves technology is that at some point, there has to be a limit. You can create projects or papers or experiments... by just looking it up. There is no exploration there. I truly believe you only learn if you're finding out the information yourself. Sure, you can look it up but that won't help you to remember. There has to be a line when it comes to too much technology, or using technology in a way that won't benefit the student. That seems to be my main concern when it comes to creating a lesson plan like this.

Cellphones in the Classroom

If I did decide to use cellphones in my classroom, I think one of the points the article brought up about being able to take pictures is an awesome tool, and one that I use now as a college student. In my classroom, when we are doing lab, I will definitely allow students to take pictures of their experiements along the way. I do it now and I find it to be extremely helpful. A lot of labs ask you to "draw" your results - but I am not the best artist, and sometimes despite understanding, my picture STILL isn't what I wish it looked like... but if I had a photo I would have more time to draw it than just sitting in front of it. So, for that, I will definitely allow cellphones in my class.
Beside that, I think that I would like to use cellphones as a pre assessment to see what students know about the subject before I start the lesson. If I assign them to pre-read the chapter for the lesson to be taught the next day... I could (as a daily thing) have them come in and take a cell phone poll. I think it would be a good tool for me to be able to know how much I have to include or don't have to include.

Honestly, I was/still am a little skeptical about students using their cellphones in the classroom. As a current student, I know what looking at your cellphone means. The minute I look at the phone and see a text, I have to check it and answer it - and then I spend about 3 minutes thinking about the text/context before I go back to thinking about the class. This is why I keep my phone in my backpack. Now, add to that distraction "high school drama" - no thanks. I understand that students will probably use their cellphones in class anyway, and I see that there are truly beneficial ways to use cellphones in the classroom - but I'm just... skeptical.

Thinkfinity and SAS Curriculum Pathways

Thinkfinity
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/interactives/3djigsaw_02/index.shtml?organs
This tool is to have the students go through and put organs in the right area and at the right angle in the body. Students cans use this to better visualize where in the body these parts go. I thought it was also interesting because students can choose male or female. So, they can choose their own gender to see what organs are like in the other gender. I also thought the visuals were very correct. The students could use this as a supplement during an anotomy lesson or as a study tool for a test or quiz on human anatomy.



SAS Curriculum Pathways
http://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/Launch?id=6
This tool is all about cell division and mitosis. It allows students to see a step by step view of a cell during each stage of mitosis. Each visual also has a description. Then, it lets students take a quiz by designing a cell at each stage of cell division. Cell division is a difficult topic to visualize in a way that students can understand. I could use this tool right after a lesson so that students could further their understanding and then check their understanding about mitosis before we start on learning meiosis.

Blog 3! Copyright in the Classroom

Though I've always known about copyright laws and licensing, I never really thought it about how I much I would need to know just to conduct lessons in my own classroom. After this class, I realize now that I really should brush up on my copyright knowledge, not only for my future classroom but for my life in general.

I think it is important to introduct students to copyright from the get-go - to show them the importance of crediting someone for their work. I might do this by having everyone submit something and then making a copy of them. I will then put it on the overhead and act as if they were my own. I expect the students to take ownership of their work. This will put them in the position of people that they could potentially be "stealing" from. (That's how I see copyright infringement, as stealing...)

Overall, I believe that copyright is something that needs to be more emphasized and made to be more important in schools. I feel that it is not priority in schools and needs to be - especially in an environment where plagarism and copying from others is strictly prohibited.

Blog #2 - The Flipped Classroom

Well, the Flipped Classroom is an interesting idea. I think that it would be beneficial for students to be able to learn at their own pace at home - listen to the lesson as much as they want, rewind, etc. and be able to get directed attention from the teacher while doing the work in class. I also think that there would be downfalls. For example, the lessons would have to be designed so that they did not include some technologies that teachers could present in the classroom. For example, in science, you can SHOW a student in a video the parts of a microscope but usually its more beneficial to explore it with them. Although I so understand that you could just as well have a lesson about microscopes and show the microscope as a review in class the next day. In addition, I personally believe it limits students because they cannot ask questions to clarify the point as the lecture is going on. Although it could be possible to have the teacher available each night for a certain time so that some students that do ask more questions could watch it and ask the teachers questions live.

There also leaves no room for improv in the classroom, which I think is important also. Like I said before, these things could be addressed the next day, but for example if a student asks a question in a "normal" lesson, the teacher could incorporate details during the rest of the lesson that continually answer the questions that the students had. If it's prerecorded, it leaves no room for that.


I do understand the concept and the logic behind the Flipped Classroom, and it would be good for some lessons, but I just don't think it appropriate for ALL of my lessons as a biology teacher.

Blog #1!

I consider myself to be fairly profiecient in many technologies but  after seeing the list of software and programs that we can use as educators, I am eager to learn about all of these tools. As a Biology major, I know that for many of the concepts that the students will need to know for the Regents exam, many terms and vocabulary words need to be known. My fieldwork has shown that students usually do not remember these terms and concepts after the test. I know that there must be ways to help students retain this information for a longer amount of time than just for the test, and I'm really hoping that technology and the programs we're going to learn about will help with this.

I also know that students these days (all students, of every age level) are so connected my technology, whether it be facebook, blogs, twitter etc. and I know that we can use this to our advantage. It does not only need to be a social thing, but most certainly a LEARNING experience. A lot of teachers today see technology and these social networks as a distraction to students, and try to eliminate it - but I think we should use this connection to our advantage- and I hope to learn how I could do this by using the things I learn in this class.