Thing 3

Well, since this is going to be a very busy week with the end of the quarter and all, I thought I'd use my lazy Sunday afternoon for something productive. So, yes, I did thing 3.

Research is one of those things I really enjoy about teaching history. There's always so many things you can do, so sometimes I really need to think about the outcome of what do I really want my students to know leaving my classroom?. What is easy for me about research is coming up with the ideas for research assignments. I am an idea person, so that part of teaching has always been very easy for me.

The challenges for research, and I think many teachers would agree with me, is getting students to learn how to do quality research. I know that they can google something, but if what they are looking for is not in the first site, then they are not patient and say its not there, I need a new topic. Well, of course they don't get a new topic, but yes, I can definately use some tools to help my students research.

As I am doing History Day for the first time this year, I am glad that I am taking the MILI course. It has made me stop and look at all the things available for teachers and students to work on research projects. Yes, I am interested in the project calculator, and I did see some hand-outs that I believe can assist students with this project. While I believe the project itself is signifcant, overall I think that students will this year be getting better research skills along the way-- thanks to this class. I am also setting up a wiki for History Day students, not only for questions, but also for writing about how this process is going once a week.

I am trusting that teaching better research skills will have my student's trips to the media center be more productive. Hopefully, this will assist me in helping all these students' projects.

As for support, I believe that our media specialist is awesome here, and she's willing to use these resources as well. In all, I think that just like anything else you try with students, you just have to try some of these resources and see what works best for your classes.

All the technology we have and yet.....

After recent conferences, it has come to mind that while some parents use our technology, we have so many others that do not. We have been told many times that our World History textbook is heavy, ummm yeah there's a lot of history in the world that has happened. When you mention that the book is online and that we have CD Roms available, this still did not make some people happy! We cannot purchase 2 textbooks for each student at eighty dollars each, so either carry the book or use the online version. I had a few parents say, well it's hard to monitor their use, they may switch onto different sites--- hello I have to check on 30 plus students when we are in a lab-so maybe you can check up with your student.

So anyway, the real part of my post is that we have all these tools to use: Online book, parent portal, email, webpages with assignments posted and the actual assignments ready to print, and many times parents don't help their student take advantage of them. Even parents I had attend Curriculum Night asked me at conferences, can I see their assignments? He says he never has homework-- wake up this is high school, if he never does, his grade is probably not looking to good--- use the website, use portal!!! I guess my frustration is that we spend a lot of time with technology resources for students, but many times they are not getting used. Now, I know we have people who watch the portal hourly, and I don't want obsessiveness either, but with all these tools, if you have internet access-- check it out, and help your student use the resources.

Thing 2: RSS and Blogging

Well, I did it! I actually got to sit down and do thing 2. I have already enjoyed reading blogs on various topics of interest before this class started, and I have commented on them. I have never used RSS Reader, and while there are so many cool features, I am a bit overwhelmed at all the options. I can see how this tool can be useful, especially if you start getting into all these blogs. There are so blogs out there on any topic that you can think of.

I have started to read more of my MILI classmates blogs, and I learn a lot from each one. I am interested in setting up either a wiki or a blog for History Day starting in 2nd quarter. I think this would help students be more responsible for their research and would let me see more of what they are thinking about the project.

I will definately have to keep playing with all these new tools! As I get more comfortable with RSS reader I could see it as a nice organizational tool for blogs that I am interested in looking at frequently.

Helpful website for History Teachers

Hey History Teachers--- I found a great site for technology use in History classes:
teachinghistorywithtechnology.com

It has lesson plans and helpful hints for technology use for history classes-- definately something to add to your delicious account!

Tools for better searching

I am excited to learn tools to help students do better searches on the internet. It can be frustrating as a teacher to have students quickly type in one thing, and say there's nothing on my topic. For me, it always seems to be the student that probably has the easiest topic-- like Columbus.

This year I am doing History Day for the first time, and I am really glad to have this class to assist me before I jump in with this research project second quarter. I believe that there are some simple tools that I could teach students, and even if they just tried a few, I think the searching would be better. I'm excited to try this out.

Plagiarism

As students start to use more and more technology, the act of plagiarism becomes even more to the forefont. I have learned just how many students think they can get away with this just this week. My student teacher gave a small research assignment--- 1 page summary on a topic in Asia and share a power point slide in class. The students worked could work with a partner. Well, he started grading papers and let's just say.... things sounded over the top for 9th graders, so we checked sources---- 18 groups had copied and pasted items straight from the internet.



We decided to make this a learning lesson-- students could re-do their own paper for 1/2 credit and a parent letter was sent home. Most students felt we were being fair. We did have a few parents who claimed that their child did not write any of it-- their partner did, and so their child should get to redo it for full credit. Okay, so your kid did nothing and you are defending it! Interesting week to say the least! We did have a whole class on plagiarism, and next week we are working on summary writing and how to not copy.



This lesson got the Media Center Specialist and I thinking about how best to teach students on this and what media tools can help. We plan on practicing Google Docs, but any other ideas on how to be proactive on plagiarism???