Advocacy for Communication between Home, School, and Student

How to Use Technology for a Field Trip (to Art Prize!)

One way that teachers can use technology to take advantage a field trip to Art Prize, or any other type of field trip, is to get the students interested and engaged before you even leave for the field trip. There are a few different ways that teachers could do this.

One option would be to preview parts of the field trip, in the case Art Prize, beforehand. Once the teacher has seen many of the exhibits, they can create a pre-field trip presentation of a couple of the exhibits. Teachers could set up the presentation as a sort of “I Spy” activity, where they crop a picture of one of the exhibits, and just show the students a piece of the art (they could also include a picture of the whole exhibit if desired). When the students go on the field trip, you can have them search closely to find the art piece(s) that you showed beforehand. This could help the students to pay more attention to the exhibits while they are walking around.

Here are two exhibits a teacher could easily do this “I Spy” activity with:

      Part of picture:                                         Actual Exhibit by Randall Libby :

             

       

                 

      Part of picture:                                                        

   

      Actual Exhibit by Sarah Heath:

Another thing teachers could do to get students interested is to either show clips of artists talking about their work in Art Prize, or even creating the actual exhibit!

Video showing how Roy and Amanda Clark created Spring Trees exhibit:

CIPA and COPPA Information

CIPA:

CIPA stands for the Child Internet Protection Act. This act states that in order for schools and libraries to receive federal funding for technology, they must meet certain requirements. These requirements include creating a policy which pertains to restricting internet access and filtering inappropriate material for minors, which includes pornography, obscene material, and other harmful information. Schools must also monitor students’ online activity, as well as provide documentation to show how they are educating their students about safe use of technology.

Congress tried for years to limit children’s exposure to pornography and other harmful material on the internet, and they finally accomplished this goal by tying the law to federal funding. This law is meant to protect young eyes from much of the obscene material on the web, which they are not yet developmentally able to process and filter for themselves. Unfortunately, filters today are still not perfect, and in 2008 they still under blocked 15-20% of explicit material, and were only 83% accurate.

http://fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html (Definition)

http://www.foreffectivegov.org/node/485 (Rationale)

http://www.lrs.org/2014/11/05/ala-cipa/ (Statistics)

COPPA:

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) applies to the protection of the privacy and personal information of minors under the age of thirteen. Companies must obtain parental (or educator) consent before collecting any information from children under thirteen. This act also restricts marketing that targets those who are under the age of thirteen. Companies and websites must include the information on how they are complying with this law in their privacy policy.

COPPA came about because in the 1990’s there was exponential growth in online companies targeting their marketing towards children. Children do not realize the potential negative effects and consequences of having their personal information online and public. It was easy for companies to obtain children’s information without obtaining parental consent, so the public pressured congress to intervene.

http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/COPPA  (Rationale and definition)

Teacher Resources:

There are many interactive and fun websites that schools can use to teach their students about internet safety in an engaging way. One of the best websites for students to learn about cyber safety is FBI Cyber SurfIsland, where students from 3^rd-8^th grade can explore different aspects of cyber safety such as privacy, bullying, etiquette, and more. Another website is Surf Swell Island, which is a Disney created website directed towards lower elementary students. Students can play different games which teach about viruses, privacy, password making and more to receive gems and win the game!

Feedly is Fantastic!

Feedly can be an amazing tool to help organize all of the different blogs that we all enjoy reading. Feedly lets you find all of the blogs that you enjoy reading and organize them into different categories to make them easier to access. A couple different categories that I have my blogs organized in are classroom decor, literacy, education, classroom technology, and Spanish blogs. All I have to do is click on a category, and all of the latest blog posts from those blogs will appear in my feed!

Here is a screenshot of my home page with Feedly.

Technology at César E. Chávez Elementary

As I did my research on the technology found at César E. Chávez Elementary, I was told by many teachers and faculty about their strong need for better technology in their classrooms, and for the school as a whole.  Only a couple of the teachers K-5 have a student computer in their classrooms. One teacher that I chatted briefly with talked about how she had to collect old, throw away parts of different computers in order to have a computer in her class for her students to use.

            The rest of the school has to schedule time periods to use the one computer lab, which is full of computers that are 7+ years old, even though the building is only five years old. Unfortunately, since the computer lab is on the second floor of the building, the kindergarten and first grade students are not allowed access to the lab, as it goes against fire code for our youngest César Chávez students to be above the first floor. This means that any kindergarten or first grade teacher has to schedule a time period to use on of the six movable laptop carts in order for their children to even have access to computers. The laptops on the cart are also old, so many of the teachers do not even bother with them. Since the students are not using technology consistently in the classroom, they are not encouraged to bring their own devices to school.

            Thankfully, many of the teachers do have very functional computers, projectors, and even document cameras, due to phase one of the school improvement plan. My own cooperating teacher uses her document camera and projector daily. Her computer and projector are linked, so she is able to show the students her educational videos and websites from her computer.

            Even though much of the technology at César Chávez Elementary and Grand Rapids Public Schools as a whole is lacking, there is a current bond proposal in the works to have the entire technology system updated. The vote for this bond happens in November, and I have no doubts that the bond will be passed, as the last two bond proposals and improvement plan phases have been accepted and executed perfectly. According to their instructional technology plan, GRPS values technology integration, growth, and competency for their students and faculty, and many of the steps in their plan for staff professional development have already occurred. For more information about the upcoming bond, you can watch this quick video, or visit the GRPS site http://www.grps.org/bond-proposal.

 GRPS Bond | November 3rd, 2015

Classroom Blogging

A classroom blog has the potential not only to be useful to the teacher, but to the students as well. I as the teacher can use my blog to keep the students and parents updated on current assignments, classroom happenings, and other relevant information for our class. My students could also have their own blogs, and create posts involving their learning and research in different subjects such as science, Spanish, art, social studies, and more. The possibilities are endless. Students can also post finished projects for their parents, teachers, and peers to see. Blogs can be used differently than Word documents because they offer a much bigger audience, and are much more interactive; students can comment and initiate discussions on each other’s blogs that they cannot easily do on paper. Blogs also give the opportunity to post pictures, videos, and live links onto them which take readers directly to the source of information. Blogs can be an amazing asset in the classroom.

10 Educational and Inspiring Blogs

1.       http://www.alicekeeler.com/teachertech/ : Teacher Tech is a blog created by Alice Keeler, who has her B.A. in Mathematics and her M.A. in Educational Media Design and Technology. Her quest in life and on her blog is to promote new and effective ways of using technology in the classroom.

2.      http://www.teachingandlearningwell.com/ : Teaching and Learning Well is a Weebly website run by GVSU professor Susan Laninga. This site is meant to be a well of information for teachers and more specifically, Social Studies teachers.

3.      http://www.coolcatteacher.com/ : The Cool Cat Teacher is a blog run by Vicki Davis, who is a fulltime teacher, author, and keynote speaker. Her blog, full of countless ideas, innovation, inspiration, and more, is a constant on the list of top 50 educational blogs.

4.      http://larremoreteachertips.blogspot.com/ : Chalk Talk is run by Mrs. Laramore, who taught kindergarten for 16 years and has a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Dallas Baptist and a doctorate in early childhood studies from the University of North Texas. This blog is aimed to provide useful tips and strategies for early childhood teachers.

5.      http://corneroncharacter.blogspot.com/ : The Corner on Character is authored by Barbara, a school counselor, character coach, and former Spanish and ESL teacher in Texas. Her blog contains many helpful and interesting posts about her experiences in teaching, in hopes that she can inspire other teachers to become better.

6.      http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/ : The First Grade Parade is run by Cara Carroll, a first grade teacher from Texas who’s been teaching for 13 years. The goal of her blog is to be a “virtual scrapbook” of her everyday classroom happenings.

7.      http://www.kids-bookreview.com/p/about.html : The Kids’ Book Review is run by ten women with decades of experience between them who fill roles such as authors, speakers, teachers, librarians, and more. This blog is a literature and book review site which includes literary news, book reviews, interviews with authors and illustrators, events, literacy articles and more.

8.     http://www.kleinspiration.com/p/tiny-tech-tips.html : Kleinspiration is run by Erin Klein, an educator who makes it her goal to help bring other teachers into the 21^st century by embracing technology integration and global preparation in the classroom. Her blog is full of pictures, examples, and more to help other teachers to implement technology in their own teaching.

9.      http://blog.maketaketeach.com/ : Make, Take, Teach is run by Julie, a proud Michigan resident with a history in special education. Her goal in her blog is to help teachers better meet the needs of their students by providing multi-sensory materials, as well as other literacy, special needs, mathematics, and DIY resources.

10.  http://funforspanishteachers.blogspot.com/p/about.html : Fun for Spanish Teachers is run by Carolina, founder of 1-2-3 Spanish Together, an early language program for teaching Spanish to children and also a K-3 Spanish teacher. Her blog is full of useful materials for elementary Spanish teachers such as songs, games, lessons, and more.