Inspiration (NETS-T I-V)

I used the digital tool inspiration to deign a mapping of all the NETS-S combined with all the technology that I have gained this semester. It is the use of technology to create a vivid image as a whole to outline a lesson. It communicates that the understanding of what we have learned in the classroom this semester.

Journal #9: “Green Schools Teaching Green” (NETS-T I-V)

Waters, John. "Teaching Green: An Abundance of online tools can help educators inform and instruct students about enviornmental issues." Journal(2011): n. pag. Web. 10 Jul 2011. <file:///C:/Users/Jonathan%20Garcia/Desktop/New%20folder/journal%209.htm>.

John Waters brings out some new interesting aspects in how education also effects students in becoming resourceful to the planet they live in. It is through incorporating technology that students can get a better understand of the importance of incorporating technology into classrooms and learning about the environment. I found this interesting because when I am an English teacher I don’t see this as part of my curriculum. Yet in looking back at the article there are websites that are designed to make them fun and enjoyable and still students continued to learn. Using technology in a variety of classes and a variety of grade levels is significant because we are educating our students using technology curriculum and as well as giving them the knowledge to preserving out planet and learning to become more earth friendly. The laws that were passed to make this happen are the reason technology is now appearing on the internet to bring students to these websites to learn through research, playing games and of pure interest. It really stood out to me when I look at the grade levels technology can influence in a variety of ways.

Q: How can you incorporate websites based on environmental learning into a creative writing class?

A: I think I would ask student to do research on the environment and expect them to establish a sense on nature through producing vivid details of what they have learned and incorporate them into the scenarios of their writing. I feel that this will bring a new sense of realism into their writing.

Q: Is learning about the environment seen as a distraction from the classroom?

A: When the article first began I was asking myself the same question on how or the importance of educating students about their environment should really be dealt with in schools. Yet I have seen through the reading that it can be incorporated into all subject matters even though it isn’t part of the curriculum, and more importantly it is through the internet students can become more interested on their own that they will relate to the research and games. 

Journal 7: My Person Learning Network (NETS-T-I-V)

What is your PLN and how will it help you as a classroom teacher?

MY Personal Learning Network (PLN) has been created for my classroom designed to encourage learning through the use of technology and using it to incorporate it into my classroom. Using technology for the subject matter of my English class I want to engage students to discuss their work online because it will help students learn in a variety of ways. My PLN consists of twitter where I can have students post up comments where all classmates can read what they have to say. Then there is DIGO a website that helps students bookmark any websites that helps them out. Finally there's the Educators PLN which help me as a teacher learn how to improve my methods of teaching/running my classroom. My PLN is resourceful to me and my students because learning is being done outside the classroom. I am engaging students to be technology savvy and be able to have fun in the process. My PLN is ongoing and changing as technology continues to advance, I will stay up to date in order to be the best teacher that I can be.

Discuss your use of Twitter. Who is in your Network? Reflect on your participation in an educational chat on twitter.


My use of Twitter has been to inform those following of what I have been up to. I see Twitter as a way of being informed from a variety of other teachers. Other teachers include future teachers from my Education 422 class that I am following and others that are following me. I am also following people that I got from my Education 422 professor. My network consists of people all in the education field as well as people from the Los Angeles channel five news, and the reason I chose this because it can relate interest to my students. I have used my Twitter account for my personal use and for my teaching to engage myself with others in conversations dealing with education. This is done through chats done on Twitter.

I participated in a one hour chat with teachers and students on Twitter ans is one that i found on ed chat. The topic was on Should students be allowed to have cell phones in schools? I thought that for a first time experience  it went really fast. The conversation started off small but as we got later on into the hour mo0r e people joined in. One thing that I liked that I would like to incorporate into my future classroom is students moderating the conversation. students and teachers and myself were involved in the conversation more questions arising and overall a great conversation. I did find it quite difficult to keep up with the pace because new issues arised after I knew what I wanted to contribute. For a one hour chat it went better than expected and there was a great involvement I thought. Twitter does expand the knowledge on students and can be fun and exciting when everyone is participating and engaged. I found it interesting that I also had the ability to input myself before the chat even began because there was a poll for what the weeks discussion would be and it eventually lead to the use of cell phones on school.

Discuss your use of diigo as a networking tool. Describe what you tagged on your PLN and why?

My use of Diigo as a networking tool is to primarily promote my ideas to other educators. This is done by creating an account where other educators or students can refer to if they ever need assistance with lesson plans or help with assignments. I can do the same in taking ideas that have been used by others in the education field. This can be with creative writing, English, or just issues within the classroom. I can find what I am looking for by searching what I need specifically.

What I tagged on my PLN is basically websites that have been recommended to me. For me it is very helpful for the day when I do get in the teaching profession I am able to use Diigo as a way of getting all my references and be able to look back and see what I can incorporate into my classroom. I only got the basics, but it helps me see how technology helps me further me in improving my classroom and me as an educator.


Discuss which digital discussion forum you joined and describe what it is, add the badge to your blog, and reflect on the blog post, video, or article you explored.

URL: http://edupln.com/forum/topics/school-newsletters

I Joined a discussion based on the newsletter where there is a search for a whole new different way of creating a newsletter. I found the discussion interesting because the newsletter is something that interested me in Education 422. This is a type of discussion that is based online through the educators PLN website. It is basically starting with a question and seeing on who responds answers you to help you improve the classroom or issues within it. when I looked over the discussion the responses made the persons job of creating a newsletter much easier because they created a new way of designing a newsletter through a website rather than publisher. I learned that through this website I can start a question that deals with problems and see what other educators advise me and it helps me become a better educator.

Journal 8: Point/Counterpoint: Should Schools Be Held Responsible for Cyberbullying? (NETS-T III-V)

Bogacz, R, & Gómez-Gordillo, M. (2011). Point/counterpoint: should schools be held responsible for cyberbullying?. Learning and Leading with Technology, 38(6), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Point_Counterpoint_Should_Schools_Be_Held_Responsible_for_Cyberbullying.aspx

I found this article to be very interesting because it revolves around safety and how we as a society can prevent cyber bullying in our schools today. The trend involves educators, administrators, students parents, and police because they can all take the initiative in preventing cyber bullying. All we need to do is speak up and in doing so we are making the statement that cyber bullying will not be tolerated in our schools today. Police involvement is a clear statement that cyber bullying will have consequences. Most students are influenced so much by their parents and it is important to get parents involved in the process because parent’s involvement can lead to preventing cyber bullying. This includes talking with their kids, but also keeping an eye on their kids activity on their text messaging, social networks, and doing this means knowing their passwords to see what they’re doing and seeing what their saying online. Students fear that if they speak up for another student who is bullied will make them a target, and it’s true it is better ignore it than to confront it and speaking up. Ignoring these issues will only make things worse and the best thing is to confront it and speaking up to the bullies then to educators so that they can take care of the issue. Bullying weather it is in person or online administrators need to have consequences that will send a clear message that cyber bullying as a way of speaking with students won’t be tolerated at all.

Q1: Is Police necessary to make a statement to bullies that cyber bullying will not be tolerated?

A1: Yes, definitely because anything that happens off campus is much harder for the school administrators to get involved. I believe that if it Is happening off campus and not during school hours I believe that police involvement because they can speak to parents and then with the students involved that bullying online will no0t be tolerated and that their actions will have ramifications.

Q2: Speaking up makes students a target how can schools prevent this bullying from continuing to new targets?

A2: When students inform administrators of bullying going on they are seen as the enemy. In order to avoid this I feel that student’s names should be kept anonymous so that they don’t become the known targets, and this way only the bullies are apprehended without them knowing who informed the administrators.

Journal 6: Grow Your Personal Learning Network (NETS-T I, III-V)

Warlick, D. (2009). Grow your personal learning network. Learning and Leading with Technology, 36(6), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-march-april-2009.aspx

In dealing with PLN’s as technology advances It is important for teachers to add more PLN’s to their ways of teaching. In ways it means being aware of what is out there. It is no longer just television and twitter, but now there are blogs, facebook, and so much more that can help revolutionize the way a teacher teaches inside the classroom.  New PLN’s and having knowledge open the doors to the ways we see our classrooms. I found that the more technology we feel comfortable with the more resources and references we can go to.  In applying new resources it improves communication and adds more input from others because maybe not one person has the answer, but another expert with the same area of interest can have the answer that someone else doesn’t have. The resources continue to expand and improve and that leads to ore resources and that is the main purpose of a PLN to help extract the answers we need to the questions we have. These recourses are not that hard they are recommended to the individual and they that individual can check it out, or always come back to it if they ever have use for the resource. In my personal experience there is so much more to just answering my personal questions about teaching but rather engaging myself in conversations with educators from other places, but have the same passion for teaching such as myself.

Q1: Is there a certain number of PLN's a teacher should have to refer to?

A1: I beleive that there shoudn't be any limit to how much a teacher has when it comes to PLN's. Although after reading this article it is always a good idea to keep up with the technology, but always have old resources because you never know whehn  chance might come up when an old PLN resource will come in handy.

Q2: What should be an important quality for a teacher to have when it comes to working with PLN's? Why?

A2: One important quality when using PLN's is commitment. I think this is an important quality of a teacher because with commitment when using these PLN and its resources a teacher must also commit to responding to other educators because educators want to hear from everybody. PLN's are not made to just help when an educator needs help it is for all educators to add their input solve problems and add more to the PLN's.

Journal #4: It's Time to Trust Teachers with the Internet: a Conversation with Meg Ormiston” NETS-T III

Schaffhause, D. (2010, December 1). It's time to trust teachers with the internet: a conversation with meg ormiston. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/12/01/its-time-to-trust-teachers-with-the-internet-a-conversation-with-meg-ormiston.aspx?sc_lang=en

In “It’s time to trust Teachers with the Internet” Dian Schaffhause is interviewed with question that basically ask for the truth on white social networking sites such as facebook are being blocked in schools. I found it very interesting that she revolves her answers around the fact that teachers are not aware of social networking sites. She continues that if teachers knew how to incorporate these websites into their curriculum there wouldn’t be this problem. The issue is not being seen from the aspect of protecting children but rather seeing a way that students can learn with websites such as facebook and youtube. YouTube contains so much good stuff, but the argument also arises that with so much good there is so much bad and that is where teachers are losing control. Teachers fall behind on technology that they are unable to keep up and find it easier to have these websites blocked, but rather it is the students who are suffering because we are taking away an aspect of learning. If a teacher knew these websites very well then these websites would not be blocked because Teachers can incorporate them into the learning part of the classroom environment.

Q1: Do you believe that this article is the real reason these websites are blocked from school?

A1: I am not going to question Dian Schaffhause because she see's things around these issues that i don't. However, I believe that the real reason facebook is blocked on campuses is that these social networks can be used for non learning and seen more as a distraction father than learning.

Q2:Do you agree that trusting teachers is a valuable excuse for blocking websites such as facebook?

A2: I don't agree that trusting teachers for blocking facebook and other websites like this should be blocked. pornography sends a wrong message to students, but facebook doesn't. facebook disrupts students learning and anything disrupting learning needs to be blocked. 

Journal 2: Join the Flock! (NETS-T I-III & V)

Ferguson, H. (2010). Join the flock!. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Join_the_Flock.aspx

The article brought up many issues in not just learning from those around us or those that we work with. Computers now allow educators to go online and see what others are doing in their classrooms. The proper use of twitter is a good example of this. An emphasis with getting a good deal from a twitter account is to make sure you are committed to participating and engaging yourself in what others have to say. Creating an account is easy, but finding the right people that have the same interests as you is up to you as an educator. The process is then taking that information and putting it to work in the classroom. It’s interesting that as a teacher and I want to get into creative writing I can easily go on twitter and look up high school creative writing teachers to see what tools I can incorporate in my classroom. Then I use that information and retweet it so my followers can see what I got. The information and ideas are going around and their not full proof but it’s good to stay connected with others in other parts of the world. Commit oneself to using ideas that are your or from others to express what works for you as a teacher. The point of tweeting is not to make friends, but rather enhance students learning and the classroom environment.

Q1: How does twitter tie back to a classroom setting? Can students use tweet as well and in what ways?

A1: Taking what I've read about twitter I can say that any class can have their own twitter where students can talk with a professor in or to answer questions from students especially the ones that pertain to certain assignments. also a teacher can use twitter more when he expands it to more than what he is learning from other educators, and now students are also being included in teaching the teacher. 

Q2: Would Twitter be a good way of communicating with parents of the classroom?

A2:I strongly believe it would be the best way. Parents need to take a priority in their child's education. Twitter can make the commitment of parents into education by reading tweets, and a teacher could ask for volunteers through twieets with parents. this is a great way of getting parents to be more involved through twitter.