Literature Circles on Blogs

Kist suggests that teachers moves literature circles from in the classroom to online. I disagree. For starters I found that the 2nd sentence in the section was so stupid. it states, "Teachers are attempting to replicate the face-to-face literature circle experience in several ways." Last time I checked, face-to-face means just that, that two or more people are communicating in person about something. Having your students communicate online about a book or poem is NOT face-to-face. Also, I feel that the teacher is doing this partly because either they do not enjoy allowing their students have free reign of expression and communication in the classroom, or they are simply too lazy to go through the process of literature circles. Another point is this, when a student gives input on a novel in class, I know it is generally what they know or see or think, when they give input through technology, odds are they simply copy and pasted someone else's thoughts so they could get on with their lives on the computer. Have literature circles within the classroom tells me that the thoughts and feelings and discussion right there right then are real, they are not anyone else's but the students speaking and it is genuine. Online is way too easy and tempting to high schoolers and middle schoolers to simply look up something about the novel and rewrite it without even reading the works.

Online Safety

When it came to this section of Kist I was for it as well as against it. I do see multiple reasons for teaching internet safety in schools, however I do feel that it is the parent's job. Yes the schools should reach out to the students teaching them how to notice cyber bullying and inappropriate things as well as informing the students that there is an outreach group who can help them. However, the idea that schools need to teach children about the proper use of chat rooms and not trusting strangers and social media is wrong, that's something the parents Should take care of. So much class time today is taken away from students to prepare for standardized testing, so we should not be taking even more class time away from them to teach them not to talk to strangers on the internet. Teaching a child internet safety is a Parent's job, it is right up there with teaching them not to talk to strangers or run across the road without looking or to be polite to everyone especially their elders. It's one thing if the kids are in a boarding school where the don't live at home, it's another thing when they don't. Leave the parents job for them to do, not a school.

One of my favorite parts of this weeks readings was the sections, Bringing Together Research and Practice. Brice talked about how a big part of making a classroom work is to get the students excited and engaged. I agree whole heartily. At one point he even said how a student who loves to read and write may not do the work if they are not engaged and that is so true. Being excited about class is the only way a student will ever put effort into their work, how could someone put effort into something they don't care about???

YouCube!

Hey Everyone! I have a link for in my opinion a cool website that is great for projects. It's called YouCube and obviously works with YouTube. The purpose of the site is that you copy and paste links from youtube onto your cube so that when doing a presentation on say the greek gods, you could keep all of your videos together in one place versus waiting for each slide to buffer when you get to it. Also it's cool how you can do an entire presentation with just that program. For example if you wanted to do a project about child abuse with multiple videos then you can have your cube set up for class and each time you need a video you just turn the cube and your video starts playing. I hope you like the program, I was introduced to it in my mythology class senior year of high school where we all used it and it worked great! Hope you like!!


http://youcub.es/ 

Awesome way to bring back Memories!

One of Kist's ideas that I have fallen in love with was his PowerPoint Multigenre Autobiography! His idea of having his students put together a poster of some sort of what they felt had shaped them is jsut the coolest idea on the planet! As I read that activity I started thinking of what I would put onto my own poster if I got the chance to do it. I just feel that the activity would really make the students think about what they see and hear everyday and I think it would get them to realize that they are all more alike then they really thought. Most young adults in schools these days swear that only their group of friends had the same likes and dislikes when they were kids up until now. By doing this activity they would see how similar they all actually are!

If I did this activity, here are a few things I would have on mine!

Info on Kist....

When it come to the readings for this week, I was very shocked to find out that the author of our book didn't use too much technology in his classrooms at first. Thankfully he caught himself in the act he's against. I loved how he even said, "Not only did I need to "walk the walk," I needed to pick up the pace." I must say, I loved how he toured the U.S. schools to see how others were using technology in their classrooms to get a good idea of what was too much, what was too little, and what was just the right amount of usage of technology in the classrooms. I'm sure he got plenty of ideas of how he can use technology with his classes as well which always helps no matter how long you've been a teacher.

Hey There!

Hey Everyone!

My name is Victoria Botterbrodt, and as you can tell from my last name, I'm German! The name Botterbrodt translates into Butter Bread, and yes that's un-toasted bread. I have 3 older brothers and the I'm from South Jersey. I came to Slippery Rock because I heard how great their program is for Secondary Education English. I am also a minor in Art because I have always loved being Artistic! I've known since I was in 2nd grade that I've wanted to be a teacher, and though the workload is overwhelming sometimes, it's totally worth it! When I'm not writing papers and making art I can be found doing 1 of 3 things. I'm either reading an amazing book, watching a movie, or riding my horse, Noah! I read all genres of books, I just find it too boring to stay in the same genre too long because after a while it becomes too predictable. I watch any and all movies I can find the time to watch. When it comes to Disney movies or parks don't try to stump me because I'm way too obsessed. My horse Noah is my life, and that is not a lie. When I don't have class I will hang around the barn for hours just to be near Noah. Other than Noah I have 5 other pets. I have 3 outdoor cats named Sammy and Romy and Michele. I also have 2 dogs, a collie named Summer and a Yellow Lab named Trace. 

                   

           

                    Summer                                                          

Trace

  Mom & Dad

                     The Botterbrodt Kids with Grandmom

Left-Right: Karl (2nd Bro.) Jenny, Grandmom, Stephanie, Me, Eric (1st Bro), Glen (3rd)

    Me and Noah at ECRDA Championships

Noah at our First Horse Show