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“In Democratic parrhesia" -where one speaks to the assembly, the ekklesia-one must be a citizen; in fact, one must be one of the best among the citizens, possessing those specific personal, moral, and social qualities which grant one the privilege to speak.” -Michel Foucault 

Something I had been thinking about is the safety of women on the internet. 

What first came to mind when we broke into groups for our project about gender violence and diversity was the gaming community. I had always heard of women on the internet and in gaming communities getting rape threats from the others in the community. And it makes a pit in my stomach every time I hear about it. How can someone go out of their way and say something like that? How can you create a culture that makes a large group of your population feel unsafe? How can you create a consistent culture that perpetuates stereotypes and sexism in society? 

I never really was one of those people who feared or hated the use of technology. It was just something that was always in and out of my life. I was a part of the first elementary schools to gain access to SMART boards, but in middle school, the school was too poor to expand on their technology. The high school has classes that were the mix of the two. I can understand why people have a hard time understanding it, but I believe that a lot of the fear of it comes from a sense of mass panic, lack of critical thinking, and miscommunication, like how we talked about in the Fake News presentation. I like the idea of having technology in my classroom and using it to help the students soar to new heights, but also understanding the beauty of the world where they don't need to be dependent on it, and critically think about how we use and don't use it. 

My first love of this class came from Mindomo. It is such a fun way to keep track of link and organizing information. I have expanded beyond my technology classes into a resource for my other classes and everyday life. I have appreciated the world of Twitter. I never really used it before and was kind of put off by it, maybe because my friends never really use it, but the network I have developed and the resources I have obtained it amazing. I would love to see how my students use it. Google Keep is another one I have fallen in love with. I am so bad with planners. If the note is not right in front of me, it is out of sight and out of mind. I think it would be a fun way to share announcements with students, keep myself organized, and help students like me who are not good with keeping up with planners. I think PearDeck is a fun way to screen share. It is more exciting than PowerPoint and is very interactive. Middle Schoolers love anything interactive, and PearDeck is a great incentive for that. I love that Plickers was a fun way to implement Smartphones into the class. Students are going to be on their phones anyway, might as well put it to good use! The last thing I loved was Kahoot! I am a student with ADD and various learning disabilities. It was a fun way to keep me focused while having fun and I know students will love the competitive aspect of it. 

I feel as if students will become too dependent on technology as a resource. I feel as if they are not going to want to use paper resources or the library, or not understand them if we only show them technological resources. I would love to show them as many of their resources as possible, both technological and paper, so that way come project or test time, they have a choice of options that meet their needs. A scholastic article we read talks about welcoming into the classroom, and I love what they said about the internet having “teachable moments”. I love a happy medium. 

The Web 2.0 Tool that I used was from a website called Flippity. With Flippity, there are several review games that you can use, like Madlibs or Bingo. The one that I used was Madlibs. I used this for a review on parts of speech because you have to fill in the adjectives, nouns, and verbs to get the story. It is a great tool to use after a mini lesson. With the Madlibs, you choose a story type and fill in the parts of speech. After filling in the parts of speech, you can finish the story and read the final project. It looks like it is geared toward teachers to use for a review game, but I could see students using it for their own review or presentation to the class. It is nice because you don’t even need an account, you can just go to flippity.net and have at it!

Using Blooms Taxonomy, I can see this under “Create”. The students and the teacher have the chance to create a story using the terms that have reviewed. I can also see it being used under “Evaluate” because they are inclined to make a decision as a class for that words they want to use under the parts of speech.

Under the TIM (Technology Integration Matrix) I can see this being fairly entry level. I am giving them the technology to use and I use it for quick content lesson. It is collaborative because they are collaborating together to pick the parts of speech as a class.

I swear the floor is its own alternate universe. Its own dynamic. Things, like your matching socks, are always lost. That’s why my socks never match. But they always come back, like your neighbors on vacation. If you ever need to know the state of my mental health, just look at my floor. I’m not good with words, so I guess actions really do speak louder, and my floor is a loud mouth. But the floor has always been more comfortable than my bed. It has always been there to hold me close to the Earth I want to be a part of. You’ll never have to save me a seat on the couch. You’ll probably catch me laying on the floor like my clothes. The floor has its own system. Promise, I know where everything goes. Clean clothes over there. Dirty over there. Stuff from my bed that I can never get to put away go there. It almost looks like a rainbow, except the 75% of my wardrobe that is all black. I know where everything is, I swear. Until I need that one black shirt. No, not that one, the other black shirt. I thought I saw it on the floor. 

Teacher War, Chapter 6 by Dana Goldstein 

Why School? by Mike Rose, page 29

This quote, in my opinion, gives a good insight on what certain standards and testing have an affect on teaching. When you have a certain set of standards to meet, and specific things you need to get out of those standards in order to be proficient, it is hard to find ways to implement them in experimental learning, especially when there is pressure from school boards and other factors pressuring the schools to teach to the standards. 

Rita Pierson 

Why School? by Mike Rose, page 29

My purpose is to become a teacher. 

My purpose is to inspire. My purpose is to teach the new generations what the world is like and why. My purpose is to get students ready to be whatever it is they want to be, because there is little support in this world, and I want to be that support.

I want to see how the world changes and help lead that change. I want to see students to grow up to be amazing. I want to see how education changes, and I want to help spark that change. I want to fall back in love with school. I want other to love school as much as I do. I want my students to come back to me thanking for helping them develop and grow.