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1. This virtual tour I looked at was about Influenza epidemic of 1918. The tour described what the influenza was and how many people were greatly affected by the epidemic. Many of the cases came without previous symptoms and resulted in death. Sites like these are very influential to teachers especially now with all the budget cuts. Instead of spending money on transportation and fees into these museums the teacher could take their students on a virtual tour of an exhibit. This could also be very useful if a teacher was trying to find a way to connect a historic issue to a present day issue by using the internet and simply showing them one of the virtual tours.
2. Some of the groups that I personally feel are most at risk in regards to achievement gaps would be the students in the Black and Hispanic groups. Many of the schools within the district we live are majorly Hispanics and have to deal with an array of achievement gap characteristics that most majority groups don’t have to. I felt that many of these areas could be very influential and help my teaching style. There were a few that did stand out although. “Engaging school staff in discussions and activities that offer an opportunity to explore attitudes, beliefs, and values related to cultural diversity and cultural competence” I believe is important because it teaches and can teach the importance of not being so closed minded. When we teach children and adults to not only value themselves and their culture but to be aware and acceptant of others in changes the shape of our world one step at a time. Another area that would fit nicely into my teaching style would be the area involving engaging the school to develop a mission statement that incorporates cultural competency. By having the entire school focuses around these cultural awareness and acceptance it opens students, faculties and even parents eyes to diversity awareness. Diversity in schools doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Lastly networking with the students, faculty community and parents would be an important area as well because like all of the other areas it increases cultural and diversity awareness. When we can get individuals aware it’s what I believe the first step towards helping ever cultural diverse student feel like they have a place in society and the educational system.
3. I took the cyber bullying quiz for the 7-10 ages. My total score was a 1which set me in the cyber saint category. This seems like the right area for me to be in because I rarely picture myself as a bully especially in regards to cyber bullying. One thing that I learned from the teacher area was about not only the different types of cyber bullies but also how to combat each type. According to this site, there are four different types of bullies. These four types are the Vengeful Angel, the Power Hungry, the Mean Girls, and the Inadvertent Cyber bullying. The Vengeful Angel’s are those who try or think they are protecting themselves or other from the bad guys. To combat these types of bullies it can be helpful to let them know that being a bully themselves doesn’t help. Possibly coming up with a place that this type of individuals can report bullies could help lessen the occurrence of these types of bullies. The Power Hungry bullies want to exert or show that they are superior and show their authority. What surprised me about this type is that typical this kind of bully is the victim on non cyber bullying. The third group Mean Girls is all about basically ego building. The one bully or bully group wants to make themselves viewed as superiors. The last group known as Inadvertent Cyber bullying it is basically how it sounds someone who is bullying without really thinking they are doing it. They just say or do something online without thinking that most time makes them look like cyber bullies. Knowing the different types of bullies would be helpful in the classroom because you could know what they look like and how these groups start and how to keep them from spreading into widespread problems.
4. Under the Subjects Access link on this site I found a site that was particularly interesting. The site is called Cybrarian and it is a site that gives students help with their HW in different areas of interest. The site has links to good places to look for research and data as well as practice test and quizzes for extra help in certain areas of interest. This site could be helpful in the classroom because it would give a student’s another place they could go for not only HW help, but also for help in researching and how to research certain topics. Under the Teachers Helpers tab one area that I found some useful information was under the tab critical evaluation information. Under this tap there were many sites in which one could find critical evaluation test so individuals and students could test sites as far as copyright materials, authenticity and whether the data on the site was scholarly or not. Sites like this would be useful in school age children who are just starting to do research type projects because it would help them better decipher what is authentic information on the web to use and what is not as useful. I would have students use this before each research project to get them to figure out if the information they are using for their projects is the best information to use for those particularly topics.
5. My top three multiple intelligences were Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and Bodily Kinesthetic. I watched the video entitled “Multiple Intelligence Leaves No Child Behind” This video was about a school called Key Learning Community in which the curriculum was solely based on multiple intelligences. They had different types of teaching and reporting scores methods than do most schools. A program called PODS allowed the students to choose a multiple intelligence that they particularly liked or were strong in and do part of the activity that day in that area of multiple intelligence. The principal at this school discussed in the video that problem with the “No Child Left Behind” law and how it is hindering their school from expanding and really truly getting to teach how it would like for the students because of all the testing the students are required to do for this program.
6. The lesson that I choose was called Put Ups. This lesson was geared towards 3rd- 5th grade students. The subject was mix it up. The main purpose of this lesson was to teach students to put up their peers instead of always putting others down with their words. That activity consisted of having slips called put up slips in which students could right put ups about the other students throughout the week. This put ups could include something they saw their peers do well or something they like about them. I would use this in my classroom to teach my students how important words can hurt or help someone. Even if you don’t mean to hurt someone with your words you can. By teaching them to say nice things and be nice to each other it will help students feel more comfortable in the classroom and more comfortable around their peers. I would try and keep this activity as a yearly thing in which students could write put ups to other students throughout the year.
7. Two questions that I found interesting were question #12 and #13. Question #12 was in regards to homosexual students. It stated that the percentage of gay, bisexual and transgender students’ report that their teachers never or rarely respond to homophobic demands by other students was equal to 84.5%. It was shocking to me to see this number so high. All students should feel safe in the school setting both from physical harm and verbal harm. It is sad to see that teachers don’t treat these kids with the same protection that they deserve. Another question that interested me was question #13. This question was in regards to US workers annual income. It asked what the annual average income of a full time US worker was in regards to CEOs income. The incredibly shocking answer was that it was equal to the hourly earnings of average CEOs in the US. This fact alone shows just how so little of the population has so much of our nation’s wealth. When the majority of the US works so hard to just make average hourly pay of a top CEO they have a great deal more than the majority of the Country. In my opinions most of the average US workers do much more tedious and harder work that even the World’s most successful CEO’s.
8. My score on the netiquette quiz was an 80%. It is important to teach students about netiquette because it will help them not only look more professional to society but also to their peers. These rules will also help eliminate or lessen many of the cyber bullying cases that come up from people posting mean or harmful things in chat rooms and on other social networking sites. By teaching students about proper net techniques just like you would proper manners it helps them be perceived in a better image. Teaching kids about the rules of things such as emails and chat rooms will also help them from getting themselves into sticky situations later on. Technology and texting type applications are slowly becoming the way of the future teaching kids about the proper way of doing things in areas like these will only make things better for their future. So do your part and teach your students about the rules of Netiquette :)
