Final Post!!!

From the moment this final project was mentioned, the wheels in my head began to spin. The best way for me to benefit from this course was to create a project that I could use as a tool in my own classroom, both for my students and parents/guardians as well as myself. For the past few years I have begun to increase technology in my classroom from once having plain old whiteboards to having a document reader and projector, to now having an interactive whiteboard that is included in my daily lesson plans. These tools have been wonderful assets but I realize that I need to go beyond what is comfortable and stretch my knowledge in the arena of technology becoming more knowledge-able as Mike Wesch calls it (1). While I have not been resistant to using technology tools in my room, I have been frustrated with the obstacles of not being able to use the lessons I have planned at home in the classroom. With firewalls and blocked websites, I have often thrown my hands up in the air with disdain. Luckily, I think quickly on my feet and have my students complete alternative assignments or activities while I figure out how I can outsmart these technology roadblocks, showing my students that I am not technologically inept, which they often think! 

A perfect example of my frustrations occurred with this project. While I am extremely pleased with my work in progress of a web page, I was not able to immediately begin the creative process on the page. I was to have access to the site at the end of the school year, but it never appeared and access was still unavailable at the beginning of the week. As I became frustrated, a huge lesson landed in my lap. For me to be successful with this project I had to advocate for myself and the needs of my students. I had been waiting for a colleague, who was acting as the middle person, to gain my access to the site. However, I should have realized that was my duty and not hers. Throughout this project, I have become more comfortable with being more vocal pertaining to my needs in the classroom as well as the needs of my students. The students deserve and need to have more hands on experiences with technology in and out of the classroom and I must provide them with some of the tools. Through this website they will be able to have links and resources at their fingertips when they are at home and I am not an available source of information. This website is a practical tool for my kids as well as myself. I will be required to constantly update the page to keep the students and parents/guardians informed, showing that I believe it is a useful tool. However, it will ultimately keep me focused on learning new ways to navigate the various app pages and seek out additional tools and resources for all of us. I will be pushing myself to stay on top of interactive and engaging activities and sites for my students to utilize inside and outside of my classroom. Most importantly, I will be creating an interactive and informative classroom community that is not limited to the physical classroom, but that extends beyond those four walls.

Throughout this course, I have been pushing myself to become more accustomed to new tools that can be utilized in my classroom. As I have attempted to incorporate web cam videos, videos uploaded on Youtube, and more intense PowerPoint presentations, I feel as though there is always to be more accomplished by my students. Even when I do have the students try out new projects, there is a resistance to use unfamiliar tools and stick to what they know. With my project I am not only modeling how to successfully use new skills, but also showing students the value in the process. Wesch states, “The new media environment provides new opportunities for us to create a community of learners with our students seeking important and meaningful questions. Questions of the very best kind abound, and we become students again, pursuing questions we might never imagined, joyfully learning right along with others” (7). Together my students and I will learn new skills and stretch our understandings of literature through technology, becoming knowledge-able, and establishing a new discourse within the classroom that balances digital media analysis and print text analysis. For this to truly work, I will be incorporating more technology based assignments and including various links and resources we are finding and using in class on the website. I hope to have the website more polished by September and begin to utilize it the first day of school so the students become accustomed to it.

A unit I am interested in revamping is on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Set in the 1930s, the text showcases racism African Americans were undergoing and the popular views of the South during that time period. Lee calls for the readers to question why it was the norm to treat people who were different from you in certain ways as well as show the power of the social ladder in society. My students critically analyze and examine the relationships between characters, the time period, values and connections that can still be made to today’s world, but I want to challenge myself to show my students how the dominant ideology truly played a role in the novel. I want to incorporate more images from the time period and look at how Atticus shows Jem and Scout that it is okay to challenge the dominant ideology and how hegemony guides decisions in society. Croteau writes, “Hegemony operate at the level of common sense in the assumptions we make about social life and on the terrain of things that we accept as ‘natural’ or ‘the way things are’” (166). The citizens in Maycomb settled into what they thought was to be the way of life and did not want go against the norm but I believe it will be powerful for my students to learn to step away from what has always been “normal” and begin to tap on the glass right alongside of Jem and Scout. A possible assignment could be a critical analysis of commercials, advertisements or political debates and compare them to the issues that were being faced in Maycomb County. It will be interesting to see what my students and I can develop with this unit this fall and compare the methods of framing in the discourse used in the 30s through the 60s to keep people from going against the grain and how it is embedded in today’s media. These changes in this unit will take me beyond the instructional techniques I have come to rely on and push me to enhance my methods to be more critical of the digital world my students deal with on a daily basis as well as the classic literature we are reading.

Throughout this short intensive course, I have been required to challenge myself to look at every day images, ideas and claims that are seen throughout education and the media and look at them with a more critical eye. I need to bring back these ideas to my classroom to have my students challenge the dominant societal ideologies and become more critical thinkers. I am beginning to look forward to this upcoming school year to see what I can put together for my students and create a more community and technology-based classroom. I will be stepping back from the more dominant teacher role and giving the reigns to my students to have them delve into the topics deeper, lending them a hand when needed. I hope my students and I can successfully utilize the new website and we can create sections for web-based discussions and use more digital literacy sources within our class to create authentic and meaningful learning experiences. 

Final Project - Final Blog To Come!

http://www.newportrischools.org//Domain/228

Discussion for Thursday - Video Posting

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Making-Sister-Wives-Video

Croteau's Media and Ideology

After reading over Croteau's statement, "Research on the ideology of media has included a debate between those who argue that media promote the worldview of the powerful - the 'dominant ideology' - and those who argue that mass media texts include more contradictory messages, both expressing the 'dominant ideology' and at least partially challenging worldviews," (161) I have to say that media is just on the brink of truly challenging the dominant ideology in today's society. When we turn on the television we are often faced with what is more "natural" (166). "Hegemony operates at the level of common sense in the assumptions we make about social life and on the terrain of things that we accept as 'natural' or 'the way things are'" (166). Television predominately depicts what society has deemed acceptable or natural to our every day lives. In the 50s and 60s, there was the nuclear family such as the Cleavers who almost every family was aspiring to be. However, as times changed, we now have modified the nuclear family to the more common idea of a single parent raising children, or a divorced couple sharing custody of the kids. While these are not new concepts, it took television quite some time to shift focus from the nuclear to the more modern family. Now we are even going further with the program "Modern Family" where there are various types of families, including a gay couple raising a child. This is quite a feat considering marriage between gay and lesbian couples is constantly in the news, which is the prime example for what society deems "unnatural" (167). Television is finally beginning to challenge the norm or dominant ideology to reveal that just because it is not what has always been accepted, it does not mean it is wrong. More definitely needs to be done to challenge what the majority is saying and expose what is really going on in society.

I taught a unit this year for my juniors about the perceptions of beauty within today's society and asked the students to keep an open mind about what really matters when choosing a significant other. The front runner of their responses was looks. I cannot say that I am surprised as there is a constant push from the media to be beautiful, handsome, fit, well groomed features. We watched a series of commercials, dissected advertisements, analyzed essays on perceptions, and at the end of the unit, my students began to really discuss the reasons why society focuses on certain images and ideas. They realized they were being force fed the dominant ideology of dressing a certain way, buying certain products, and focusing on sometimes the more superficial aspects of their relationships rather than the personality of their significant other or crush. The students reflected on the unit and I was surprised at how many of the students explained how their opinions had changed over the course of the unit and what they have learned about themselves. They enjoyed looking at the big messages from the digital tools and essays and stripping them down to the true meanings and messages behind them. They want to challenge what is considered natural and expose the unnatural in order to understand their surroundings better as well as the world in general. That unit was truly eye opening for me as an educator since they grew into such reflective learners, something Wesch would like.

First Impressions

Today’s class was a bit intense in terms of the amount of topics discussed. I think my brain is still in vacation mode and I had to stop and really process what we were all saying about our early interactions with technology and our best learning moments. I think we all bring forth different ideas and it will be interesting to see what we all focus on for our final projects!

In the first short film we watched today, A Vision of K-12 Students Today, I found myself holding my breath at some of the statistics. While I have seen the video before, I am always amazed at how much students do in a day. This current generation multitasks as much as possible in order to stay connected. While technology is an amazing tool, I sometimes wonder if there is too much emphasis on being connected with one another, but completely understand the various ways in which technology is useful. I was sad to see how much some students said they would read on the Internet versus what they would read in terms of the curriculum. I am always wondering how much my students are actually reading and what they are skimming on the web from Sparknotes and other resources. I have to stop at times and think about whether some students are bringing in authentic ideas and opinions or if they are just telling me what they think I want to hear. I think a great way for me to break the students from this “I’m going to tell Ms. Dunbar what she wants to hear and stop talking” epidemic, is utilizing video clips and other visuals to have the students analyze and look at what is really going on. When we viewed Beauty and the Beast to discover the secret education that Linda Christensen discusses, I found it to be really interesting. It is a great way to show students that when we look at things for enjoyment, we often graze over the other messages that are being presented, but when looking at the same show with a more intense purpose, things begin to stand out. This skill of digital analysis once truly understood can be transferred to the closer reading of a text which can help further the students’ abilities of creating interesting papers and establishing more focused and insightful class discussions.

I think this class is going to give me a new perspective on how I am teaching my students and what I am placing value on. I am aware of needing to include more technology in my classroom as it helps to increase student engagement, but I also need to have the students interact with tools they have no used before. I would love to establish blogs or maybe even a wiki space for my students to encourage a constant conversation amongst the classroom community and see how they do with it. I find blogging to be interesting, but also time consuming and is making me feel extremely vulnerable. I suppose discussing my weaknesses with my students is not a bad thing, just an uncomfortable feeling for me.

Digital Native or Digital Immigrant?

Professionally, I feel as though I am a semi-digital native, but I have a lot of room for growth. I try to incorporate as much technology in the classroom and into my lesson plans, but I often hit obstacles in my attempts to broaden the curriculum. With limited access to computer labs during the school day, students who do not have consistent access to computers and other areas of technology as well as limited time due to a rotating block schedule, I have to plan out activities utilizing technology well in advanced. I am also faced with having to differentiate instruction for the various levels of student abilities within my classroom. Additionally, since students do not have the same access to computers/technology, I must provide alternative assignments that are providing the same amount of rigor, exposure, analysis and productive/active involvement as a more advanced blog posting, website, video etc. project. While my district is moving towards incorporating technology and providing professional development on new tools for the classroom, I need to step up and become more innovative in my lessons and incorporating these tools in my own classroom to expose my students to more.

Personally, I am a digital native. I am addicted to my cell phone, email, social networks and finding new websites to browse. I love being in the know and do have the guilty pleasures of TMZ and People magazine. I am a multitasker and do not "power down" often. The last time my cell phone was off for more than a day was when I went out of the country two years ago. If my cell phone is not with me, I do feel lost. In a way, I am saddened by the fact that I need to be connected with people at all times, but understand that the culture is moving in this direction more. It is an amazing feeling to be able to have information at my finger tips and educate myself in various ways, however, I realize I must also include the outside world and the simpler things in my life as well, such as the outdoors. The one thing I am resisting right now in technology is an e-reader. I love the feel of a solid book in my hands and think I would have a difficult time adjusting to not turning a page. I will probably succumb to purchasing an e-reader in the next few months since it is more cost effective and easier to travel with!

A Short Intro

I am an educator, enthusiastic learner, and an avid reader. I am going into my sixth year of teaching at Rogers High School in Newport, my old high school! Apparently I never wanted to leave! I am in the process of finishing my degree at RIC and cannot wait to be done to move on to the next chapter of my life, probably taking more classes. :) I hope to gain new insight and create more innovative activities for my students in order to encourage their learning as well as engage them in the various units I teach.

Literature is a huge element of my life and something I want to pass on to my students. I can be often be found reading five different books at any given moment on top of the novels and readings that I am teaching my students. I enjoy reading, analyzing and critiquing others' writing, however, when I have to write myself, I feel extremely vulnerable, which is awesome for my students to understand that I have similar feelings when publishing my own writing as they do.

When I am not in the classroom, I can be found on the beach, enjoying the sunshine and Newport life with my family and friends. I love being outdoors, trying out new restaurants and various activities. I recently became an auntie to a beautiful baby boy and I cannot wait to start this new chapter of my life with my nephew!