Promoting Internet Safety to the Hyper-savvy

In my personal experience as a student using the internet at school, all that the "forbidden site" error signal succeeded in accomplishing was to ignite the curiosity for transgression. This particular forbidden site, regardless of whether it was the home of truly useful information or not, began to created a schism between life within and life outside of school.  Outside of the classroom, the student was free to investigate the information that school deemed inappropriate.  This schism is further extended with the advent of today's 3G driven technology, creating a real barrier between the student in school, and the information liberated citizen outside the classroom.  This problem I've confronted is the question of how educators can create responsible digital citizens without simply blocking their access to information.  How can we harbor a self motivated sense of heaviness in internet activities so that our students can acknowledge the permanence of what is posted on the internet?  

Perhaps our students need more than an authoritative “safe” or “access denied” black and white scale. As for most things, I believe the solution comes from being educated about the topic and the permanence of our digital persona. The why in this scenario is more important than the firewall; If we can teach our students that our persona on the internet is the same as who we are on a day to day basis, meaning, there is no schism between our digital persona and our physical self, than perhaps students will be more inclined to think before posting anything on the internet, be it good or bad. The internet is a highly useful tool which gives us equal and unlimited access to an infinite amount of information, yet if it is not used in a constructive manner, can be harmful and detrimental, especially to a young person who is not equipped with the proper skill set to differentiate between what is acceptable and what is not. 

Flipped Classroom

In an English classroom, discussion is an absolute necessity in order to understand and explore themes and essential ideas within texts. Often times, it is difficult to dedicate the necessary amount of time to a fruitful discussion, when one is limited to a 47 minute block of time. This becomes problematic, especially when reading a difficult novel which may require more explanation or supplementary information. For instance, while reading Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, understanding the Great Depression as well as the Dust Bowl was crucial for understanding the context and plight of the characters. When time is of the essence, and a novel needs to be completed in an allotted amount of time, prioritizing discussion and engaging anticipatory sets becomes difficult when you just need to get the novel finished in time. Learning about a "flipped" classroom helped me to deal with this issue. In a flipped classroom, a teacher will assign something to be viewed at home, for instance, I had my students watch a PBS documentary called Surviving the Dust Bowl. I also had my students create three thought provoking discussion questions, which they where to bring with them to class the following day. Instead of spending half of the class period watching the documentary, we were able to use that time to engage in a class discussion which proved to be greatly supportive in helping students understand the time period, as well as develop an interest in the topic. Having experienced the usefulness of this method, I plan to continue using the flipped classroom so as to spur self initiative as well as fruitful discussion within my future English classroom.

Technology Integration Plan

Before reading the anchor novel Of Mice and Men in my eighth grade classroom, I found it imperative to create an anticipatory set which deeply explores the time period of the novel, which takes place in the Great Depression era. To understand the plight of the characters, George and Lennie, who are two migrant farmers forced to lead a transient life in order to attempt to make a decent living. Without having an understanding of the economic hardships which were caused by both the Great Depression as well as the Dust Bowl, the novel loses its value as a critical social commentary.  

To begin, I would want my students to access information regarding both the Dust Bowl as well as the Great Depression so as to create a backdrop for the novel. I would begin my lesson with a “flipped classroom” in which students will be assigned to watch a segment from the PBS documentary Surviving the Dust Bowl as well as a scene from the film adaptation of Steinbeck’s novel Grapes of Wrath. These videos would be assigned to be viewed at home, while students will also create three thought provoking discussion questions based on the two videos. The discussion questions will be shared with me via Google Drive, while every student at my middle school has a functional Google Account which they use for submitting work as well as collaboration, ect.

I will project the discussion questions which the students submit to me on the Smart Board, which will serve as the guiding topics of discussion. The class will conduct a “four corners” activity in which each corner of the room represents an opinion, either strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree. I will then pose a discussion question using the Smart Board, which students will respond to by physically standing in the corner which represents their opinion in regards to the question. I will then ask each corner why they chose the stance that they did, which will spur both discussion as well as debate.

Next, the class will listen to a radio segment from NPR called Is the American Dream Attainable? Young People Struggle to Move up the Economic Ladder. I will also provide a written copy of the segment so that students can follow along as they listen to the broadcast- both auditory as well as visual learners will be able to engage in the lesson by providing both the audio as well as the written version. The purpose of the segment is to define what the “cost of living” means, as well as to see how it is difficult for many to live comfortably when the cost of living is high. By examining the cost of living during today’s economic downturn, I hope students will be able to compare and contrast that of the struggles of those who lived through the Great Depression.

In order to connect the past and now, I will have students conduct a web-quest in which they will find the prices of the following items today and during the Great Depression: a gallon of milk, a gallon of gas, a loaf of bread, a new car, and the average cost of a four year college. I will also have students research the average annual salary of a migrant farmer, a public school teacher, as well as a doctor, both today and during the Great Depression. Students will use laptop computers as well as the books which reside in the classroom for the information needed to conduct the web-quest.

To put it all together, students will work in groups to collaborate and create a holistic way to present their findings. Students can use Power Point, Story Board, Prezi, or any other presentation format which they will use to organize their information in a way which will be efficient for presenting and essentially teaching the class. Their final project will be displayed on the Smart Board, while student explain their findings to the class. Following the presentations, a large class discussion will ensue which aims to restate the meaning of “Cost of Living”, and how its fluctuation greatly alters people’s ability to attain economical stability. Class discussion will consider the cost of the researched commodities, as well as compare the annual earnings of a farmer, teacher and doctor. Not only will these comparisons serve as a basic mechanism to comprehending the disparity in earnings, but also exemplify the high cost of necessary commodities which, in turn creates a high “cost of living”. 

Cost of Living Matrix

Auditory Processing

While driving to school every morning, I listen to NPR on the radio to hear the latest news updates, discussions about current events, politics, art, literature, psychology and sociology, and the list goes on. This public broadcast is especially important to me, while it sets the tone for my day, feeding my intellect as well as getting me to think about important topics which are current. On my way to school today, I heard the next chapter to a multi-part series which has been built upon daily. The series follows the making of a t-shirt, from the first step, which is buying the cotton bails (grown in Texas), to spinning the yarn (produced in a factory in Indonesia), to the sewing of the shirt (sewn in a factory in Bangladesh), and lastly follows two seamstresses in this factory. This series intrigued me very much, and I began to think about how every morning as I drive to school, I sit in a non-traditional lecture where I listen to in depth reporting on a multitude of topics, such as the production of a t-shirt. It then occurred to me that, if this type of learning could be so effective and fascinating to me, why couldn't I integrate it into my classroom? Once I arrived at school, I searched NPR.org and found the series that I had been listening to, in the form of an article, along with the audio clips which I had heard on the radio on the way to school. Considering the push for informational texts within the classroom in the common core standards, I figured this would be a great article to have students read along to while they listen to the audio clip. Students who retain information better from reading the text will have the opportunity to do so, highlighting and taking notes as they read, while those who process best from listening will also have the benefit of listening to the journalist, which also provides proper demonstration of annunciation, pacing, and pronunciation. While the topic harps on social, ethical, economical and political matters, as well as having pedogogical benefits, I believe the integration of radio/journalism in my classroom can be beneficial to an array of learners.