Digital Citizenship in High School

Digital citizenship  is about showing and teaching our students the appropriate and inappropriate content that is online and in our technology. Students will better understand digital technology when the teacher takes the time and goes over the steps that need to be covered to use technology. If the students don't understand digital technology then their computer could catch viruses that would eventually cost the school money. Cyber bullying is becoming the most common form of digital citizenship. Teachers need to monitor and watch their students to make sure cyber bullying is not happening in their classroom.

 

Resources Page

 

 

Differentiation

Differentiation is where students in a single classroom learn in different ways and the teacher in that classroom needs to figure out if every single student is a visual learner, auditory learner, or hands on learner. Differentiation is understanding that all students will not learn the same way and that every student learns in their own different and special way. Once a teacher understands the way a student learns than that teacher will be able to guide that student to the goal that they want them to reach. That is the key though, the teacher needs to put in the extra effort and probably put in more work than they are used to and figure out the students interests and dislikes. What their hobbies are and they definitely need to find out the students strengths. Once they find out all of this information than they can figure out what will work to help the student learn and what strengths to use for that students lesson plans. Now some learning techniques won't work and you will get it wrong every now and then but you can't give up. If you give up than your giving up on these kids and the future of our country.

I surprisingly first experienced differentiation not in the classroom but in the film room for football and in the wrestling room for my wrestling career. My coaches were wondering why I wasn't understanding what to do during a play or during a wrestling match so they figured out that I needed to be shown visually and once I saw what they were talking about, then it clicked for me. My experience in both sports increased a huge amount from my coaches recognizing that I and other players learn in different ways. Now my coaches were also teachers for my high school so they informed all of my other teachers that I needed to learn differently than they were teaching. I had heard that they weren't very happy that they had to put in extra work just to get me to reach my goal of good grades and graduation, but they sucked it up and put the extra work in and I thank them and my coaches for doing that for me.

Technology can play a huge role in differentiation, because it will allow students to use the Internet, social media, and questionnaires online to help the teacher figure out what type of learner they are. Twitter can show the teacher what the students likes and dislikes are in their personal life and the teacher can also use that towards differentiation. Before this class I wouldn't have thought that technology could be used to help students learn, because I thought that student would just go on their Facebook or other site and talk to their friends and than their mind would wonder off. Now being in this class for some time now I will be using technology in my classes to help me find out what types of learners my students are and how I can help them to reach their goal of a good education. 

Twitter and Me

I didn't even know what Twitter was until my wife showed me. She would always be on her Twitter account following everyone and sharing what celebrities would be saying about their day. I thought that it was stupid to just be able to read what people had on their minds or what they were going to do for their day. So I never bothered to create an account because I was satisfied with my Facebook account. One day my wife told me that she had made me a Twitter account and gave me my password and told me to go on and check it out. So I did and I have to admit that it was pretty interesting reading some of the posts on Twitter made by celebrities and friends. Then one of my friends told me to start using Twitter for news sources, and I did. I learn more about the news from Twitter than I do from any other source, because I have no time to sit and watch the news on TV. I work full time and go to school full time so I just get on my Twitter and check out the news from there.

When my SEDU 183 class started I thought I knew pretty much everything there is to know about Twitter and how it operates and I was wrong. This class has taught me so much about Twitter and the uses of it inside and outside the classroom. I have learned that as a teacher I could use Twitter for exams and quizzes. I could also use Twitter for discussions that we will be having during class and that will give all of my students an opportunity to participate and to speak their own mind. I will definitely use Twitter for parent/teacher conferences, because I know how hard it is to be a parent and sometimes parents to want to go to the school to sit down and talk with the teacher about their child's progress. So they could sit at home together as a family and we could hold the conference on Twitter. This past Tuesday our class participated on taking our first quiz online using Twitter and with little instructions we worked together and figured out how to successfully take and hopefully pass our quiz. So if we can do it, then anyone can use Twitter as a resource for their classroom.

I am going to be a High School Social Studies teacher and I will definitely be using Twitter and other online sources to give quizzes and exams and to hold discussions during class. I don't want to be the boring teacher who lectures all class period and all year, because kids won't learn from that and they will be bored very easily. I want to use to new ideas and technology in my classroom so that my students can participate, work together, and give their own opinion without saying what someone else said. I am very excited to use these new ideas in my classroom and I have already started of thinking about ways I can incorporate Twitter and technology to get my students to the educational level that I will want them to succeed at.

The Final Frontier

For our assignment we showed that teachers need to have and use technology in their classrooms in order to be up to date with the technology generation and to succeed as a teacher. Peggy Ertmer's article discusses how teachers knowledge and beliefs are different, because whereas beliefs generally refer to “suppositions, commitments, and ideologies,” knowledge refers to “factual propositions and understandings.” Collaboration is key to success because more heads working together are better than just one head working alone. Most people work better when they are working in teams than by themselves. The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and their technology practices. We used the google drive and the internet to show people how easy it is to use technology and if we can figure this out then I am pretty sure anybody can do it. We all three put in an equal amount of work as Stephen worked on writing the slides. I worked on finding the pictures, videos, and graphs and putting them into the slides. Kyle worked on the transitions of all the slides. Now take a look at our final draft and enjoy!

All About Me

           My name is Matt Myers. I am 25 years old and I am from outside Akron, Ohio. I am a junior at Edinboro University. I transferred from the University of Akron when my wife was accepted to Gannon University for their Graduate Program. I graduated from Norton High School in 2005 and enlisted in the United State Army. I went through training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. I was then stationed at Fort Drum, New York. i was an all wheeled mechanic in the Army. I was deployed to Iraq twice. One tour was in Baghdad and my second tour was in Kirkuk. I ended my Army career in 2009.
           I was accepted into college and was introduced to a wonderful, smart and beautiful woman who is now my wife. We were married on August 5, 2011. I am a huge sports fan, because I played football, wrestling and baseball my entire life. My favorite sport is college football. My favorite team is The Ohio State Buckeyes. I watch every single game on Saturdays and my wife hates it when I watch football, because I am always yelling at the t.v. I currently work at GNC at the Millcreek Mall. I love working out and getting the discounts on my supplements. I also enjoy hunting, fishing, and being outdoors.
            I am majoring in Secondary Education: Social Studies. I feel that technology is becoming more popular everyday in learning. Some people don't know what they are doing when they are dealing with technology but when someone learns about the technology it seems very easy to complete your work. I believe technology is very important when it comes to teaching, because newer technology is coming out every year and the older style teachers don't know anything about how to work technology and being a newer student will help us get jobs when the older teachers retire. Plus you don't want your students constantly teaching you about technology in your own class. I love teaching because I believe that teachers are what drive this country. They are guiding the future of our country by the words they say and the actions they do. I also love it when you see a child finally grasp the concept of a lesson.