What did you takeaway from our digital citizenship night?

I really enjoyed learning about social networking sites (SNS) and the suggestions for how to use them in a positive manner. I learned a lot about the different examples of SNS. I also did not realize employers will search out job candidates on SNS. Perhaps I should've known that, but I really had no idea. It reminded me of when my former assistant principal showed me the Myspace page of one of my colleagues. He was dressed in a leather vest with no shirt underneath (to show off his tattoos). Although I have absolutely nothing against leather or tattoos (I have a tattoo myself), I found myself losing respect for my colleague based on that photo. He is a very good teacher, but I was judging him based on something he posted on an SNS that I probably was not intended to see. But I did see it, because it all comes back to Chris Pirrillo's #1 Social Networking Do's and Don'ts: Everything goes on your permanent record. It was a gentle reminder to me to reconsider some content on my own profile.

Critical Thinking: To what extent do you teach, model, and have students engage in critical thinking. . .

I feel critical thinking is crucial in the classroom. Students will connect more to the content if they must use critical thinking skills. Also, these skills are so important in the real world, and our students will learn and retain more information this way. I try to foster critical thinking as much as I can in my class. Instead of just having students practice for the Reading CRCT, I have them create Thinking Maps around the text they are reading. Thinking Maps are awesome for critical thinking in all content areas. There are 8 of them for each thought process we have. They require students to create a graphic organizer of the information, connect to it, and consider how they know what they know. Technology is also a great way to encourage critical thinking, as we are learning in this course. All of the web 2.0 applications are awesome ways for the students to take their information and find a way to apply it authentically. I am learning a great deal in this class. I am constantly thinking about what all I could do if I had access to a computer for each student each day. We don't even have a computer lab at my school, just about 10 or 15 computers in the media center that you CAN sign up for, but considering there are around 700 kids at our school-not a very promising resource. We do have three tech labs but they are used solely for those three classes, not accessible by other classes. It's sad really, the lack of technology in the schools. Still, Thinking Maps and that sort of tool do not require technology, so critical thinking skills are not dependent on technolgy but could be greatly enhanced by technology if the resources are available.

Which Resource out of my Resource Collection will I use/integrate the most? Why?

I really like the Dipity site and the multimedia timelines and flipbooks you can create there. I want my students to create a timeline of the steps they need to follow to reach their dream job. Alternately, I really liked the Scrapblog site. I think my students would truly enjoy it. I thought about just throwing them into it, telling them to figure it out and then write instructions on how to use it. This type of activity is rare for them, but I feel this type of learning is so important.

Where am I with my project?

So far I have not come as far as I would like with my project. I have my big ideas and a solid preplan, but I have much to do as far as implementation goes. I definitely want my students to explore a career choice and use technology to research it, plan out a career path, and present the information to the rest of the class. This project will be very appropriate in November as we do our Career Day that month. I'd like to make a DVD of all the presentations so all my students can watch them. As for right now, I'm a little nervous and unsure of myself, but I know if I just buckle down and tackle this I'll feel so much better!