Bringing Twitter in the Classroom

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I found this article very interesting. I've noticed that a lot more high school students are using Twitter these days and they prefer it over Facebook. My friend's sister was saying to me, "Facebook is for old people, Twitter is what it's all about." Little does she know Twitter has been out for a while :)
This article discusses how to implement the usage of twitter into the classroom. It's great way for posting reminders and quick updates and a good platform for students to ask questions and track hashtags. When I was in high school, my teacher did a similar project to #3 on this list: Personifying Characters on Twitter. We were learning about the Holocaust and we were each assigned a role and Twitter was meant to be our diary entries as us writing in that time period. It really helped to get into the mindset of the topic.

Student Feedback

Students are in the classroom, so should they not be given the opportunity to speak out and have opinions? Joshua Block, a Humanities teacher at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, thinks so. He wrote an article, Learning From Students, for Edutopia discussing just that.

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Student feedback can heath teacher assess if certain methods, and teaching styles are working well for the students. Also, maybe the the students' are completely bored-teachers could try to do something about that. In college, we fill out evaluations for professors that may help them for the following semester. This article provides several options that teachers could do in an elementary school level. One way that I really like is by giving students a choice. Giving them a choice between how to do an assignment opens up a platform for communication and can be very beneficial in the classroom.

A New Way to Monitor Class Behavior

I went to a wedding a couple weeks ago and I interacting with a 3rd grade teacher and she was telling me about her classroom and she mentioned this new fun way to track student behavior. It is called ClassDojo. Basically it is a classroom management tool that helps teachers track student behavior with efficiency.
It comes with built in avatars for different classes and teachers are able to add the names of their students. Teachers are then able to award points (positive or negative) called 'dojo.' Two different sounds are associated with the type of points, so the teacher can have this open on a smart board where students are able to see their points. In the article, the teacher mentioned that she installed the app on her phone so she can record points right away (if students are at lunch are walking in the hallways). Another positive side was that teachers are able to send reports to the parents without much hassle.
I think this is a great idea in a classroom. It encourages students to improve their behavior and the idea of points gets them excited. With the ease of technology, teachers can update on the go. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this!

Rethinking Education Graphic Organizer

This week we read "Rethinking Education." It gave a lot of insightful ideas on how to think differently in the society where technology is a strong part of every day life. Below is a nice summary of the main points and takeaways.

Copyright and Fair Use

Copyright laws are in place so the work of authors, musicians, artists and others are protected. This means that people cannot take their work and pass it off as their own. However, teachers are allowed to use copyrighted material with certain limitations-this falls under Fair Use. To use materials under Fair Use, certain guidelines must be met. A few of these guidelines are: material must be used for educational purposes, must be acquired legally, and only portions of the work must be used. However, this policy does not give authority to copy or distribute the work. It is important to cite the work correctly and give proper credit. This video gives a funny twist on who credit goes to:

Many teachers have began using Creative Commons. Creative Commons was established in 2001 and it is a non profit organization that makes it easier for people to distribute and share work with others. There are licenses that creators can choose from that tell how they are willing for their work to be used.
BY: Allow for distribution, tweak, addition as long as the original creation is being credited
SA:Allow for distribution, tweak, addition as long as the original creation is being credited and the new creation will also have the same license
ND: Allows for sharing and distribution as long as the creation remains unchanged
NC: Allows for distribution, tweak and addition as long as the creation is being used for noncommercial use

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Video Essay Storyboard

Ellie, Corey and I will be creating a book trailer for the "Disrupting Class." We thought that this would be the best way to highlight the main points in the book while being creative as well. This book focuses on student center learning and the proper implementation of technology use in the classroom. We hope to capture these ideas in our trailer. Attached is our storyboard and a link to our trailer.

Hi!

Hey everyone! My name is Herra Khan and I am senior at George Mason University. I am studying Mathematics with a concentration in Education. I want to come back to pursue a Masters, but for right now I am happy to be almost done with school!

Being a full time student as well as working both on and off campus does not give me
too much free time, but I like to enjoy as much as I get. Binge watching on Netflix is one of my favorite things to do :) Reading is something I really enjoy, over winter break I finished 'Gone Girl.' I love to bake, Sally's Baking Addiction is my favorite food blog of all time!

'Friends' is one of my favorite shows and never fails to brighten my mood! Here's one of my favorite clips: