Do Not Track Plus

Downloading the add-on, "Do Not Track Plus" is a bit of an eyeopener when it comes to seeing who can see what websites you visit while you're on the internet. I began by visiting several well-known websites such as Facebook and Pinterest, and then I moved on to visit smaller websites which I found in google such as wedding dress websites. I found that the more well-known websites got more hits in the tracker (though there were only 3 or 4 on each website) than the less popular websites did. The website where I got the most "hits" was when I clicked on a "best vines" link on Facebook. On this site, I was being tracked by 15 other websites instantaneously. I was surprised to find that google is one of the websites that is tracking what you're doing online, and a little scared that something I had never heard of was tracking me. I was also surprised to find that Facebook is one of the websites that tracks you wherever you go. This can be a little scary when you think about all of the information that these websites may have access to as soon as you click "go".

Concept Map - Jumanji

Jumanji

Grade 4: Make connections between the text of a
story or drama and a
visual or oral presentation of the
text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

I.   Read the Story

As a class, read Jumanji. When we are finished reading, we will conduct a classroom discussion.
-What was your favorite part of the book?
-What did you like and dislike about the book and why?
-Who was your favorite character?
We will continue the discussion by asking why certain things happened to certain characters, and discussing the setting and plot.

A.   Read Jumanji as a class.

B.   Conduct a classroom discussion about the book.

II.  Watch the Movie

As a class, we will take a day or two to watch the movie. During the movie the students will be given a worksheet with specific questions about the movie to help them look for key points and stay focused.

A.    Watch Jumanji as a class.

B.    Complete a movie-guide worksheet.

III. Worksheet

Students will complete two worksheets to help them identify the similarities and differences between the book and the movie. The worksheet will also include questions about what seemed important to the author based on what he focused in on; and what seemed important to the movie-makers based on what they kept, changed, and emphasized on in the movie.

A.    Complete a Venn Diagram to gather thoughts.

B.    Complete a worksheet-questionnaire.

IV.  Book Review

Students will create their own opinion of the book, and write a book review in a Google document to have it published online. We will view samples of student book reviews as a class and discuss which ones are good reviews, and which are bad reviews. In the book review, students need to discuss the hook, a summary, and whether they would recommend this book to a friend or not, and why. With the assistance of the teacher, students will then create their own blog online, and upload their book review to their blog.

A.    Write your own book review.

B.    As a class, upload your review to your blog.

V.   Act It Out

In small groups, students will pick a number and based on that number, choose their favorite part of the book to act out. In groups, the students will pick a "director" to keep the group calm, not to boss around. As a group, the students will decide who will play which characters, write a script for their part, and pick costumes. When they are ready and have everything together, the students will record their part of the play on a video camera with the help of the teacher. When all of the groups have finished their part, we will have a movie day to watch our movie all together.

A.    In small groups, pick your part of the book.

1.    Pick characters and parts.

2.    Write a script.

3.    Pick Costumes.

B.    In groups, act out your assigned part of the book.

Safe Practices for Life Online

1) Facebook, Twitter, Match.com

2) Students can face many different consequences by the misuse of social media and social networking. Consequences can range from something like being denied from acceptance to a university or new job, being fired from a job, or being arrested. There are so many stories about people these days who have put a picture on Facebook and have been "shunned" because of it. The things you put on the internet matter, and now more than ever, employers and other people have easy access to personal information.

3)
-Sexting: carrying on a conversation via social media, such as texting or messaging, that can include anything from flirting with another person, to talking about sexual desires and exchanging photographs.

-Cramming: trying to remember a large amount of information within a 48-hour time period before you will need to use the information.

-Cookies: a way for your computer or the internet to remember information that you have submitted to a website previously, such as a user name and/or password.
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2007/all_about_cookies.asp

-Trojan Horse: a type of virus that appears to be something useful or from a trusted source, but once it is downloaded can cause damage to your computer, or annoy you in various ways.
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/virus.asp

-Phishing: attempting or being successful at stealing money from another person using personal information gained from the internet.

-Spyware: commonly known as being the reason behind advertisements on the internet. Usually websites will offer to advertise for a company in exchange for a portion of their profits.

-Rootkit: can be used maliciously or for good. It hides itself or other things such as viruses from being detected by other programs.
http://www.avg.com/ww-en/faq.num-2353

-Zombie: a kind of virus that grants access to a computer hacker without the knowledge of the owner of the computer.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/Z/zombie.html

4) The user names listed are poor choices as user names because they say something about a person that can be looked at as inappropriate or negative. First impressions are key in our society, and people with a username like one on this list will be looked at negatively from the get-go.

5) Someone might harass a person with a username like the ones listed because they insinuate something about the person that can be taken in a wrong way. "FatMama" is an easy target because the person is calling themselves fat and is therefore giving "permission" for others to do the same. "Lookin4Luv" can be taken in a sexual manner by an inappropriate party.

6) All of these user names give personal information that can grant easy-access to personal information to anyone.
-Tom_Evans34: Gives both the first and last name of this person.
-Missy-13: Gives the first name and age of this person.
-AndyKarateKid: Gives the first name and a strong interest of this person.
-ViolinGurl: Gives a personal interest.
-restlinmatch: Gives personal interest.

7)
-i8sushi2: Good name. It doesn't describe any personal information about a person and cannot be taken in an inappropriate way.
-Soccerstar: Bad name. This could potentially give away too much information about this person by describing a love for soccer.
-Puppygirl1234: Good name. Does not describe any personal information.
-KeKe1995: Bad name. This describes both a personal nick name and year of birth.
-Bookworm: Bad name. Can be the basis for being made fun of and being called a "nerd" by fellow classmates.
-2BorNot2b: Good name. Does not give away any personal information.
-Choco-holic: Bad name. Can be taken the wrong way, and can be used as a source of embarrassment.
-CapitlOfens: Bad name. Implies that a person has a disregard for the law or has something against his/her country.
-AmrcanIdol2: Good name. Cannot be taken the wrong way, and does not give personal information.
-BellaIsabella: Bad name. Gives a name and potential nick name.
-DarkAngel666: Bad name. Can be taken the wrong way and give a bad impression of the person, and some people could use this as a source for embarrassment.
-Karla-Love-1996: Bad name. Gives personal information.
-SimpyMe: Good name. Does not give personal information.
-gUn4hiRe: Bad name. Can imply something inappropriate which may offend or scare other people.
-babyfaceLA: Bad name. Can be used as a source for embarrassment.
-Watup?: Bad name. Can offend some people or imply immaturity.

8)
-tmcrim
-kheus
-countrygirl

9) -2

10) Most-Common Reason: others who know personal things about the students guess their password.
Least-Common Reason: Other students see the password as the student enters it on a keyboard.

11)
The video, "Malware Analysis: Drive-By Download" confronts a problem that many people may not be aware of. Especially those who are young and uneducated about all of the issues that can arise from contacting an inappropriate or unapproved website. This video also brings up some concern in my mind about the internet. I was completely unaware that anything like this existed, and I am concerned by the fact that it is so easily undetectable.
How many websites contain this virus? Are the websites aware of the virus? What precautions do popular websites take against this kind of virus or any virus? These are all important questions to consider. Especially when you think about how technology-dependent people are becoming in today's society. Through watching this video, I feel like more people need to be aware of how to protect themselves against threats.

12)
1: Are you protecting your identity? Medium Risk
2: Are you an unwitting accomplice in a crime? Low Risk
3: Authentic or Counterfeit? Low Risk

13)"Ransom-ware purporting to be from the FBI is targeting OSX Mac users"
This article describes a new type of ransom-ware that is beginning to target OSX Mac users. The virus disguises itself as a javascript program and encourages users to run it. When the program is being run, the user will click to a drive-by website that will cause a message to pop up disguised as being from the FBI. It requires that you pay $300.00 in order to get rid of the virus and have access to your computer. Users who pay the money will receive no benefit, in reality, all a person has to do is cose out all of their windows and reset safari.

The Padagogy Wheel and Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

The Padagogy Wheel, created by Allan Carrington, and Bloom's Digital Taxonomy are going to be excellent resources for teachers who are beginning their careers in the world today. The two resources can be used together to help teachers incorporate the world of technology in to their classrooms and to benefit their students in the best way possible. 

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy is a tree of "HOTS" or "Higher Order Thinking Skills" and "LOTS", which are "Lower Order Thinking Skills." This tree shows how teachers can best engage their students in the classroom to help them learn as best that they can. For example, at the top of the list is "creating," this means that students will learn the best when they have the opportunity to learn in a creative way. Teachers can use this in their classrooms by focusing on ways for students to be hands-on and make their own decisions about how they learn. A few examples that come to mind would be: Book Reports, acting out the scene in a book, or doing an art project related to a lesson.

The Pedagogy Wheel is a model of all of the different technological resources than can be used to learn in different ways. A teacher will begin by choosing an overall "goal" for their students, such as evaluate, analyze, apply, remember/understand, and create. The wheel is then sectioned off in five ways and includes activities that teachers can use, and the different applications that can be sources for learning with technology for students. 

These are going to be excellent resources for me when I am a teacher because when I am struggling to come up with a lesson plan or in need of a project for my students, I can look for a way to teach that will best benefit my students and different sources of technology that I can use to teach them. There are so many applications today that it is hard to determine which ones will be useful and educational, and which ones are junk. Having this wheel is going to be a benefit to have at my fingertips.

Use Arts Integration to Enhance Common Core

Summary:
Edutopia published an article titled, "Use Arts Integration to Enhance Common Core."
This article discusses the benefits to individually incorporating arts in to the Common Core State Standards, rather than just using what the Common Core is providing to teachers. The author describes that integrating art in to other curriculums in the classroom is essential not only to keep the attention of students in a classroom, but also to help expand the thinking and learning of these students. Not only is it a positive aspect for students, but also for teachers. It makes teaching a lesson so much more fun when the teacher is doing something that he/she enjoys. The article also provides a few ideas on integration of arts in to a lesson, such as "mirroring" in to a math lesson, or using a "call and response" technique to help with memorization in reading or math.

Opinion
The author says, "Almost everyone has one art form (visual art, music, dance or drama) with which they connect and use to make sense of the world." This is essential for students to explore these different areas. For all we know, the next Van Gough or Michelangelo could be sitting in our classrooms, learning under the Common Core State Standards, and could be being deprived of their natural abilities by the absence of arts in a classroom. Some of my favorite lessons when I was a kid, were the ones where I got to do a project and work with my hands. The author uses a wonderful metaphor, "Arts integration allows us to build chefs who make choices - not cooks who merely follow the recipe." As an upcoming teacher, I am going to look for ideas like this which I can use to incorporate arts in to the Common Core, and if the Common Core State Standards allow teachers the freedom to teach HOW they want to (which is what they insist), this shouldn't be a problem at all.

Common Core State Standards for ELA and literacy

What is the purpose of the college and career readiness standards?
To prepare students in one state for the challenges of schooling in another state with a separate curriculum.


What are the benefits and challenegs of the shift to reading and writing nonfiction texts?
80% of what we read are informational texts. Show that you can do something that is going to be used when you're working (reading and dmaking a response rather than writing about yourself).
Knowing the difference between reliable and unreliable sources.

What are the benefits and challenges of having standards for science, social studies and technical subjects?
One benefit of having standards for other courses is that it will further prepare students for writing and reading informational texts in all other parts of education in life.

John Hunter and the World Peace Game

John Hunter engages in a TED talk in 2011 that can change the way educators and other adults see the world when they hear what he has to say. He begins by giving his background story and describing how he ended up where he is today. One focal point being the day he got his first educational job. When he was awarded a job as a teacher for gifted students, he asked his superintendent, 'What do I do?" To which she responded, "What do you want to do?" Hunter describes that this shaped the rest of his career, and he learned to carry with him the things he has learned from his peers; in turn, this has shaped who he has become.
He continues in his discussion by describing that during a class one day, he decided that he no longer wanted to lecture at them, instead he wanted them to be engaged and interact with each other. He created a game called the World Peace Game with a class of his fourth grade students, which has since evolved to something much bigger than he ever anticipated.
What started out as just a clever idea to get his students to interact, has turned in to a way to get them to think. The game involves many elaborate, and politically correct rules. Students own their own country and have a cabinet that works under them. To win the game, the students must solve a set of fifty problems that are intertwined within each other, and come out better off economically than when they started. John Hunter turns the class over to his students once the game has begun. He points out multiple instances where his students have shocked him with compassion and understanding towards each other, their greater goal is to make everyone happy rather than to create more issues and fight. One student quotes something he read in The Art of War by Sun Tzu, "Those who win battles will want to go back in to battle, and those who lose battles will want to go back and win." The young boy goes on to describe that he was shocked to be living through an experience of something that he read. He says that he has won multiple battles, and he wants to go back and win more. War never ends under these circumstances.
John Hunter wraps up his presentation by describing his experience with a specific class. There was only a minute left on the timer for the whole game, and although the students had solved all of the problems, one country was more poor than it had been at the beginning of the game. Hunter felt that he had failed his students and was beating himself down for not finding a way for them to come out on top, the game was going to be lost. Suddenly, one student jumped up and began collaborating with all of the other students, with less than 10 seconds on the clock, he convinced all of the other "countries" to make a donation to the poor country in order for everyone to profit. Without a second thought, everyone agreed and the game was won. John Hunter says that this is not something that he could have planned or taught, it just happened and he could not have been more proud.

This TED talk was such an inspiration to me, and provoked so many thoughts in my mind. How can fourth grade students make sense of and solve the problems of the world, but the leaders of every country struggle with it every day. The mind's of children are so simple and pure, what happens to that purity as we grow up and develop? Where does it go? John Hunter is a prime example of the impact that teachers can have on their students, and how we can teach them to think for themselves, rather than being taught what is necessary to pass state testing. We can make a difference.