Thing 9

So, chances are that you are all familiar with the much beloved memes we see on Facebook. I'm particularly fond of the philociraptor myself. While these have become a part of our social networking lives, what is stopping us from using these as learning tools in the classroom, nothing. The "philociraptor" is cool because it is primarily used to point out contradictions in logic that are typically held as being true statements. While the statement itself may ultimately be true, the main object of it is to be thought provoking which, as teachers, will be our job.

memegenerator.net

That awkward moment, indeed...

These two memes were both created by me at memegenerator.net. It was really easy and free to do. there are a few pictures that can only be accessed if you have an account. But, it's free and only requires an email address and a password. As an historical reference point in my future french class, this meme would be a particularly good tool for showing about how far back France has influenced American culture and vice versa. It's important to note, here, that while the french monarchy aided us in the Revolutionary War, the people of France found it hypocritical that they would be paying for a war for freedom of another country from one monarch just to live under the tyranny of their own. Hence, the French Revolution was born.

 comicstripgenerator.com

One way that really helped me in high school french was translating catchphrases from American pop culture into french. In this example, Bart is demonstrating proper use of the imperative tense by using his famous quote "Don't have a cow!" In order to maintain proper retention of any subject matter, it's important to relate it to the everyday life of the student. By using things like these easy to use picture generators, we can make life easier on ourselves and let the meme say the thousand words for us instead of doing it all ourselves. 

Thing 8

It's a well known fact that visual aides (like colors) help us learn because our brains then can associate things like letters, numbers, and even whole words or sentences with that color which allows us to retain the information better. That being said, one thing people find difficult to learn is a foreign language. With the use of mashups,  visual aids are easier to generate and use, kind of like this one: Bienvenu!







For anyone that may not know, this is "welcome" in french. I grant you that there seems to be too much going on on the surface because it's a new language and all of the letter are in a different form even when they repeat in the word itself. But, because this is (supposed to be) a compound word and the i's and e's sometimes sound the same, it's sometimes hard to keep their positions straight. So, remembering the shapes and colors of the pictures is a good way to remember the overall structure of the word. Also, the word "venu" is the past participle of the verb "vinir" which is "to come". Given that the hardest part of any language (in my opinion) is verbs and tenses, having a visual aide for things like this really helps to keep it all straight.

As far as sharing photos online is concerned, as long as it is done for the betterment of society and there is no real malevolent intent behind it's posting and can thereby do no harm to the poster or others that might be tagged in them, why should there be a problem? There is now a huge problem with people posting pictures or statuses that are doing nothing but make them look immature. Seeing as how potential employers are now wanting to use social media as a tool to delve into the real life of their new hires, it's a good idea to keep certain conversations and photos out of the public eye. I think the old adage of "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" should be invoked a little more often now.

Thing 7

Thing seven is about Flikr and how to use it. I found it really easy to use. there were a lot of really interesting pictures and groups to browse. I started my search by looking around the most recently added pictures. There were a few that I really liked, but, I ultimately decided to search for something a little more noteworthy. I searched through a French tag and found some really beautiful pictures including a few artist renditions of the... well, Leonardo DiCaprio Titanic variety. I finally settled on a picture on on the twentieth page of the philosophy tag that I searched. It was taken by Cody DeMatteis and was taken in 2008 and posted to icanhascheezeburger.com.  The picture is of a cat with a piece of cheese on its face, and, it has a quote form a post modern philosopher named Marshall McLuhan much like the now popular memes that are all over our social media such as Facebook. "Good taste is the first refuge of the non-creative. It is the last-ditch stand of the artist."

As soon as I saw this picture, I fell in love! First of all, the picture itself is pretty hilarious. Second of all, the quote enhances the picture in quite a remarkable way. I see this picture and see a funny image of real life: it isn't cruel, it isn't cute, it just is. To take it a step further the quote is a great explanation of the death of creativity in life and the resurgence of kowtowing to the masses instead of doing something new. An example of this is all the movie remakes in the last several years. I don't know if it's just laziness or if it really is lack of originality, but, don't those two things go hand in hand? There is just such an overwhelming fear of what is out side the box that people are more than willing to think on the edge of it, but, they never take the big plunge and say what is REALLY on their mind. That flows into the new direction and changing face of education right now. We can't be afraid of stepping outside the box and trying new things to get our points across to our students. The reason there is so much pressure on us as future teachers is because the things that worked twenty years ago aren't working as well now. It's up to us to continue to improve ourselves and be creative even when it seems too hard.  Is that what was really meant by the picture as a whole, I doubt it. But, I do know that that is what it means to me.

Thing 6

In thing six, I was asked to browse through Go2Web20 and find a website that I thought was a good learning tool. Well, I normally start these things out with my major in mind since that's what I'll be teaching. But, it's hard to find learning tools for French. So, I went with a broader approach and looked for "education." In doing so, I came across E-learning for kids. It's a pretty awesome tool. It's mostly not in my field of secondary education, but, it is full of great things for people of all ages. It does have some things on there for teenagers and college students to develop leadership, marketing, and other professional skills.  It can also be used for parents who might not know how to explain something to their child just right so that he/she understands it better. Being a parent, I know how difficult it is for me to simplify things so that my six year old can understand them. It could also be used for parents who are home schooling their child. I had that idea because I remember having to be home schooled and how hard it was sometimes for my mom to come up with a good way to keep my attention and listen to what she had to say.

This site has age appropriate tutorials and tests which would be great for lesson re-enforcement, a pretest before starting a new lesson to gauge how much is already known, or just a test in the middle of the lesson to see if the child is paying attention. Between the grades of 1-6, the subject areas range from math, to environmental skills, to English. There are a few things on the site that require a specific download, but, most things on the the site that are completely open for use anytime.

Thing 5

Before I get started with Thing 5, I would like to go ahead and make my main point now because, well, I just can't think of a better way to get this one started.

Web/School 2.0 IS the future of education because the internet has been the future of everything since the first website was launched in the early 90's. And, as far as all this hate of fonts is concerned... GET OVER IT! PLEASE!? It's a font. As long as it's readable, does it really matter? Yes, there are some situations where certain fonts really should or should not be used , but, fonts like Comic Sans are better than fonts like Zapf Dingbats which, when I tried to copy and paste it onto this post from Microsoft Word, the computer pulled what I call a "Google girlfriend" on me and interpreted it and posted what it thought I meant. It didn't do that to Comic Sans, did it? No, because, compared to things like Zapf Dingbats, Comic Sans, is a sight for sore servers. As my friend James just said, "people have too much time on their hands" if they are going to spend their time worrying about the evils of the dreaded Comic Sans. With that much time on your hands, why not do something productive and talk about the new direction of education? 

Now that I'm done with my rant, I have a few points to make from it. 

To me, School 2.0 is the next evolutionary step in education. Rather than teaching students how to find information, over the next few years, the goal should be teaching them how to interpret the information and make sure it makes sense. I think that Steve Hargdon makes a good point when he says that in order to understand this pile of information called internet content, we must add to the pile with our own content. I see this as his way of explaining the difference in fact and truth. Fact is empirical while truth is subjective. The only way to make sense of it all is to look at it and delve into what we think it means. If at the end it doesn't make sense, we start over and go from there. Or, we shift gears in the middle and do something else by pointing out the flaws in our own logic.

However, in order for students to point out their own flaws in their own logic, they must be taught how to reflect on their own logic and not be hypercritical of themselves to the point of discouragement. Steve makes another good point in saying that the the search for information has been taught for decades, but, it now needs to change to interpretation and thinking skills. Some might say that what college is for. Well, guess what. Not any more. Students these days are bored of sitting in a classroom and having facts preached at them from the front of the room. As aforementioned, facts are readily available these days. Sure, some of the same things will still need to be taught in the same factual ways, but, the bulk of most subjects will need to be taught from a real world perspective rather than just being pounded from pulpit in a "BECAUSE I SAID SO!" kind of way. It didn't work for me when I was in school, and, that trend seems to be catching. Now is the time to catch up completely before it's the students that leave us behind.

I think that being a new educator fresh out of school will be beneficial to our first students because we will be a breath of fresh air assuming we play our cards right. Young minds change as the times change and the times change as technology changes. Given that technology changes in the blink of an eye, their minds will change just as fast. In order to make sure that the facts they are looking up are correct, it will be up to us to guide them through the never ending barrage of information and show them how to tell what is real and what is really as stable as a house of cards in a hurricane. Are facts important, yes. But, what matters in the real world is how we interpret those facts and apply those interpretations in life. But, before all else, it's up to us to make sure they are doing their own interpreting and not letting someone else do it for them.

Thing 4

So, in my reading I discovered that it's important to comment. Well, I suppose I knew that it was important all along, but, I have gotten out of the habit because I was tired of being attacked for having an opinion. So, now, as I scroll through my Facebook page, I mostly just like things I agree with and keep my opinion to myself. When someone says something about something I post, though... well, it's fair game then. After all, it is my page. I try to keep it civil, of course, and, when it gets out of hand, I step in. I have rules of decorum and have sometimes had to act as something of a moderator. But, for the most part, my news feed and notifications are pretty quiet these days.

But, one of the topics in the reading was about how commenting helps create a stronger sense of community. I remember a few years ago when I lived in Texarkana, I felt alone. Back then, the only way I had to stay in contact with my friends was through Myspace. When I would post a blog and someone commented on it, I realized that I really wasn't that far away from home. All I had to do was get on Myspace and there I was.

One thing that was mentioned about commenting in  Cool Cat Teacher's blog was the always present Darth Commenter. The Blue Skunk Blog actually called it "being a troll."  Cool Cat Teacher said, basically, not to let one person with a bad attitude get you down. Just because they want to be a jerk doesn't mean that you have to let it get to you.  She also said that when dealing with these "Darth Commenters" that the best thing to do is to merely reflect on why you're blogging. It is a good exercise in figuring out who you are and staring in the face of adversity and either setting the record straight or backing down.

I liked the 10 Techniques to Get More Comments. I think my favorite suggestion was to leave posts open ended. I have a tendency of making things definite and unwavering. Sure they sometimes get a lot of likes, but, likes don't actually mean much in such a wide world of opinions. But, at the same time, some of the things I would talk about end up becoming heated arguments assuming any comments are left (mostly politics in case you were wondering).

The final part of of this assignment was... (drum roll) COMMENTING ON BLOGS!!! I found this part to be more interesting than I initially thought it would be. I found one blog about a woman's weight loss journey called Fashionably Late. It's called Fashionably Late because she got started very late in life with exercise and weight loss. I chose this particular blog because I, too, have struggled with my weight all my life, and, it's nice to know that there is someone out there that has the same thoughts and feelings about it as I do. One thing she said was that she realized that happiness is a choice. I know that it may sound absurd to say that, but, it's true. We are faced with choices every day that we must live with for the rest of our lives. We can either be happy with them or not. If we aren't happy with them, we fix them. If we are happy with them, we leave them be.

The second blog I found was one about another passion of mine which I only acquired a couple years ago during my time at Columbia State: philosophy. The post I chose to comment on was titled "To Thine Own Self Be " The main idea of this post was that there is no such thing as an unauthentic self. The author argued that even people that act in a scripted way are acting in an authentic way because they are still themselves. They did not become a different person. They are merely playing a role, and that someone that may act one way in public and another in private has no alternate persona.They are just authentically acting as a different person. I disagreed starting with a quote from H. Jackson Brown Jr. which stated “Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." From there I inferred that, by his logic, " In the case of those who commit suicide or commit mass murder, many times they are only described as seeming outwardly happy, or keeping to themselves...", "if people only act one way and there is no unauthentic self, then, we can infer that all people that are happy or that keep to themselves are very likely to commit suicide or mass murder. In reality, many people are very outgoing and happy and never commit such atrocities. On the other end of the spectrum, many people are perfectly content with keeping to themselves..."

 Next I found several blogs that were about the 23 things themselves. I wanted to stick with blog posts that were about things that I have already done or was in the process of doing. So, first I found Hayley Carney: Thing 3.  She talked about blogs are a great way of keeping parents involved with their child's learning and teacher's education process. As I was reading I began to think that if the parents remain involved on such a level as she talked about, it could, potentially, do away with the need for parent teacher conferences because all issues can be addressed in real time rather than waiting a couple months to have the meeting and than waiting another couple months for the results.

Next I commented on  Valerie McAllister: Thing 1. She said that she has the most trouble viewing problems as challenges and that it's a challenge in itself to not view problems as problems. I told her that it sounded like she was on the right track because she had already identified her first challenge. I also told her that it also could be a contextual problem because some use their solutions to problems to define them where as others use the experience in overcoming a challenge to define them.

The third group member blog I came across was Alena Glassford: Thing 2. She talked about how excited she was that she was being given a chance to pick up blogging again and how difficult it was for her to set up her new blog because of how much had changed since she had last done it. She also talked about how hard it was to close out all of her old blogs. I felt compelled to contrast our individual experiences and tell her that I wasn't excited at all to begin with, but, now, it's really not so bad. I also told her that I felt the same way she did when I closed out my blogs but solved the problem by copying and pasting them into a word document so that I could revisit them whenever I needed to.

I then commented on Desirae Sheppard: Thing 4. As I mentioned before, I have always struggled with my weight. Well, it just so happens that my girlfriend has too. When I went to Desirea's blog, I didn't find anything about weight loss, but, she DID mention that she loves to run. I have been trying to help my girlfriend stay motivated keep going to the gym even though the benefits are not immediate. Given that Desirea is a highly motivated runner and a female, I sought her advice on how she stays motivated as a woman to keep going to the gym or the track. Staying motivated as a male is different, I think, because men see results faster than women. So, I can use all the help I can get as far as helping my girlfriend stay on track.

The last blog I found was Rachel Burkhart: Thing 3. I actually sought out Rachel's blog because of Desirea's blog. She mentioned that she thought Rachel made a good point about students spending a lot of time on the internet and how students open up easier online than they do in person. So the use of blogs makes sense. Needless to say, I was concerned because there was nothing in her post about the possible dangers of opening up online and shutting down in person. I went to Rachel's blog and was discouraged to find that she hadn't mentioned those dangers either. I took it upon myself to point out that "...using blogs is a good starting point to increase student involvement..." but "...it will be our responsibility as educators to ensure that our students understand that they aren't just talking to a computer or a cell phone."

In conclusion, I realized that commenting is important is many different ways. It's important to constructively point out mistakes or omissions. And, it's equally as important to re-enforce the position of the thoughts that are worth re-enforcing so that they may take root in your minds and make their way to our hearts and allow for the maximum amount of growth possible so that we can all reach our potential as one race: a HUMAN race.