Dear Infographics... I Will Understand You... One Of These Days

  Alright it is confession time.  It took me a long time to understand this thing we all call infographics.  While looking at other infographics that people have made, I was thinking that these things were one of the coolest ways to organize data ever!  I also thought that it looked ridiculously hard to do.  Therefore, I embarked on my journey to create an infographic of my very own.  My first finding, was that it was one of the coolest ways to organize data ever!  My second finding, was that this is one of the hardest things I have ever done.  I, personally, consider myself to be quite good with technology, so I couldn't understand why I couldn't figure this out.  I started by trying to decide what was the best way to make one, because there were so many options.  Well that took forever.  I came across one program that would allow me to do a simple venn diagram... easy right?  HA!! I had no idea how to even do that.  So honestly, I gave up for a little while.  Took me about two weeks before I decided to try again.  So i signed into http://visual.ly/ to give it another go.  I stumbled upon this one called the "Twitter Account Showdown, which I have seen a couple of times previously.  I really liked the idea of comparing Twitter accounts, so I gave it a go.  The hardest part of it was trying to decide who to battle against.  I looked across the table to the left, and across the table to the right.  The one on the left just started Twitter, and had maybe 4 tweets (hello Adrienne), and the one on the right I'm pretty sure only follows 6 people, with 0 tweets (hello Kristan).  So i decided to pick a celebrity, but a worthy celebrity.  When I mean worthy, I mean someone who is involved in education somehow.  So, I decided to battle Bill Nye The Science Guy (@TheScienceGuy)!!  So it was easy as signing into Twitter through visually, and clicking a button.  BOOM!!  Done!  The results were not shocking at all, and the winner won by a landslide.  Bill Nye dominated me in the Twitter statistics.  He tweets a lot more than I do, and he has way more followers than me.  I, however, follow more people than he does, and I also beat him in mentions on weeks 2 and 4.  Woot woot!

  Besides getting a super smackdown from Bill Nye, I also learned a few things.  Apparently a bulk of my tweeting takes place on Mondays at 3 am.  Maybe I sleep tweet I have no idea.  The tool of infographics is still very interesting to me.  I am going to keep playing around on them to fully figure them out.  Mainly because I want to eventually use them in a classroom.  It would be a way more innovative and fun way to present data with the students, and I am sure they would love it!  Go infographics!!! (Sort of).

  Until next time.... CHEERS!!!




create infographics with visual.ly

Web Based Courses + A Requested Recipe

  Welcome to a two-part post (I hope you like chocolate).

   This past Thursday we had Donald Girouard and Sophia Palahicky join us to talk about web based courses.  I have to be honest, I have never taken an online course or even a distance course, and have only known a few people that have taken them.  Personally, I like the face-to-face of the classroom style of learning, so that is why I have never taken an online or distance course.  We based courses are getting bigger, and they are becoming way easier to access these days.  I really like some things about them, but also have a few issues.  My first like of them is that it offers a student who may not be able to attend classes regularly, the opportunity to learn the material he or she should be learning.  One of my friends got his spleen crushed when playing hockey in high school, so was unable to attend classes for a good month.  He, was not given the option of an online course though, so he felt like he fell behind a lot.  If he had an online course it would have benefited him greatly.  Online courses would also be a great thing for someone in a situation where they may of had a teenage pregnancy.  Many young females in North America drop out of school because they end up getting pregnant.  An online course would allow them to still gain the education they need and deserve, while still being able to stay at home with her newborn.  Some schools just don't have the enrollment to have a lot of teachers on staff, so having an online course would be beneficial there too.  In situations like these, I totally like online courses.  Now, I don' like them for a few reasons (personal opinion).  I like the face-to-face interaction between student and teacher.  I would hate to get taught my grade 4 fractions unit over the internet.  There just seems to be no personal connection there.  I realize that you can turn on a web cam, but thats still not the same.  I also dislike them because they may eventually cause me to not have an available job.  If one teacher can teach roughly 80 kids at one time with an online course, that means that roughly 3 jobs could be discarded.  As an aspiring teacher that scares me.  Pretty sure I'm allowed to be scared by that.  Also, as a soon to be early years educator, I personally (and no offense) do not see a connection between early years and web based courses.  Young children need the teacher connection, and need that teacher to sometimes take their hand and guide them.  An online course cannot give a child that mentoring feeling, or that stable figure.  Let's face it, to some children their teacher is the most stable and constant person in their lives, and we need to show that we still can be.  Especially for the younger ones.  So to end this portion of the post, I have to say that I can't see myself using web based courses much.  It is a great idea, but for me I just don't see a place where it will fit.

 To get to the second part of my post, a classmate asked me to add the 'Death by Chocolate' recipe to my next blog post, so here you go Tiffany!

Ingredients:

• A baked chocolate cake
• 1 container of Cool Whip (light or regular it doesn't really matter, but let's be honest regular tastes better)
• Roughly 8 Skor bars crushed up in a ziplock bag (can use other chocolate bars too)
• 3 packages of instant chocolate pudding

Directions:

1. Basically get a really big and deep bowl, because you are going to need the room.
2. Bake a basic chocolate cake.  (Not going to lie, I just used one of those Betty Crocker cake mix boxes, because I cannot bake)  If you can make your very own chocolate cake from scratch then that is awesome and it will probably work out better.
3. Prepare the pudding.
4. Cut the cake so it looks like a 5 X 2 grid.  Then, you will want to take the pieces out, and cut them all in half so they aren't as tall.  
5. Now I don't use actual measurements at all for these steps, so please just bare with me.
6. Lay some cake at the bottom of the bowl to make one layer (don't put them on top of each other, just try to make it a flat, single layer).  Follow this by scooping some pudding on top of the cake to cover it completely.  Next, make a layer of cool whip.  Follow that by sprinkling some skor pieces on top of the cool whip.  Finally, add another layer of cake, and then repeat until the bowl is full.
7. It is usually best to end with cool whip and skor pieces at the very top (more of a looks thing), but it doesn't really matter.

I find that it works out to roughly 4-5 layers of each ingredient.  This is my all time favorite cake.  On my birthdays this is what my Mom makes for me.  I also ask for it every time I decide to go back to my hometown for a weekend.  If you make it, hopefully you enjoy it!  Until next time... CHEERS!!!

Don't Take Away My/Our YouTube!!

Dear Diary......

  Just kidding, I wouldn't do that to you.  YouTube is huge.  There is no denying that.  If I could go back in time I would invent it and make the millions off of it's sale.  However, there is no such thing as time travel (yet), so I'm just going to have to either wait for that moment in history, or just enjoy it, and use it for it's many educational and personal uses.

  Youtube has been banned, and blocked off from the servers in some school divisions.  In ways I understand this choice.  First, there is some inappropriate stuff on YouTube that children should not see.  Second, some students may watch videos when they are supposed to be doing some other type of work.  These reasons make sense to me.  This is now the time where I sort of go against what i just said.  Yes, those reasons are valid.  However, I do not think they are valid enough reasons to completely block it from schools completely.  Why?  Ever watch a YouTube video that taught you something?  I still would be clueless as to how to tie a tie without YouTube.  Ever watch a video to help you get through something?  I would still be playing Batman: Arkham City if it wasn't for YouTube walkthroughs.  Ever watch a video that made you laugh after a day that just got you down?  I always watch YouTube after a tough day (good ol' Epic Rap Battles and Kid Snippets).  Ever watch a video and feel inspired to do something?  I have, and lots of other people have.  Many great things have begun on YouTube such as awareness for worldly events (Kony 2012), careers (too many to mention), and classroom projects.  There is too big of an educational advantage to YouTube to just not allow it.

  There are a few different ideas that I have gained from YouTube videos, that I would love to incorporate in a classroom.  "Oh hey now, those aren't touching on curricular outcomes?" says the guy at the back of the room."  Listen guy at the back... students working together to create a unique classroom experience, that promotes creativity, community, and inquiry, is in itself an outcome.  It should be the most important outcome.  I'm going to stop now, because this post isn't about outcomes (maybe I will touch on that some other day when I have a job).  Anyways, I have always loved stop motion.  Stop motion films such as "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is one of my favorite movies, and one of my favorite TV shows is "Robot Chicken' (for the record I would never ever show a Robot Chicken clip in the classroom).  I would, however, show many other ones.  I have always wanted to do a stop motion short, but have never done one, because I have never owned a good camera.  Now with technology, stop motion can easily be done using an iPhone.  I will want to do one in the future.  Below is a video made by a student, which was actually a classroom project (it is about copyright infringement):



I would maybe show this particular one, depending on the age of the class (mainly because of the dog pooping part).  There are many others available out there to use, and some people on YouTube dedicate their time recreating movie trailers... like this one:



That particular video is very high quality work.  Anyways, having students do a project that involves using stop motion would be amazing.  Pick a topic, any topic, and students could do a quick stop motion video on it ranging from habitats to anti-bullying.  I probably have lots of lego around my house still from when I was a kid, so I could easily just bring it all to school one day.

  Another idea I have come across on YouTube is Bill Nye the Science guy clips.  When I was younger, I thought Bill Nye was the smartest person in the world (he is probably pretty close).  His TV show was so good, and so educational!  The best part for teachers, is that he had the economic resources to do cool stuff to teach in an awesome way.  He had a whole production company to help him get his teaching across, so why not show it?  Plus, if we decide not to show an episode of his or even a quick clip, he can give us many different experiment ideas (one an episode at the least).  Another added bonus, is that on YouTube it is free.  A lot of schools have Bill Nye videos on VHS, but not DVD, because (last time I checked) the series cost roughly $1700!!!  Yikes!  Here is a great video of his (perfect for the habitats and communities unit in grade 4):



  Overall, the educational benefits of using online videos in classrooms is endless.  So much can be taught, and so much inspiration can be started.  Please, please don't block it from the school!  Until next time... CHEERS!!

This Week In #I4ED

This week was a pretty good week in our Internet for Educators class. We didn't have any presenters this week, but we went over quite a lot of things.

We discussed online bookmarking. Now, I just recently started to use the bookmarking function on my iPad's Safari app, and soon after vegan to use Diigo. To discuss the first of the mentioned, my bookmark bar consists of Future Shop (most used one), Dorkly (a video game comedy website, Apple.ca (obviously), and I think some lesson planning website (preservice teacher necessity). I also have a few folders, once of which contains all of my classmates' blogs (I did it this way because I couldn't figure out how to use the RSS feed thing yet), and a folder containing all of my resources for the current unit I am planning. I really like this form of bookmarking, but Diigo is something else. Diigo allows me to save websites, but then also share them with others. I find this pretty awesome, but I do I fully understand how to use it? Nope. Diigo is something I am going to have to continually work at over the next little while. It is almost as if I always forget it is available to use, so I never really add anything to it. I eventually will find myself using it more there is doubt about that, but it'll just be at slower pace.

This week we also dove really heavy into our group projects. The topic our group chose was cyber bullying, which is a very big, and important topic these days. The style of our presentation is a video (I am only saying this because some of our classmates saw us out side with a camera, so no real spoiler alert there). Now... I hate anything that is remotely involved with bullying. It is an awful and disgusting thing that has no place in this world. This being said, I am a little worried as to how people will perceive our video. I say this, because the way we approached it was in a satirical manner. I would just like to say right here and now, that we did not make the video to offend anyone, and that we made it in such a way as to show how some things (that are very serious and important) may get put into a different context by some forms of media. That being said, please, when you watch it next week, do not think that any of us agree, or are making fun of the serious problem of bullying. Everyone one of us is 100% behind its complete and utter extinction from society. I also do not want to give away too much of it, so please come back next week to see it, and to read me discuss it.

(Side Note: I am eating a piece of unbaked peach cheesecake right now, and it is delicious)

I am very excited to see everyone's presentations this upcoming week, because by the sounds of it everyone has been working very hard on them. It is also my turn to bring a snack on presentation day, so I hope everyone in the class likes chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, cool whip and skor bars, because if not then I have a lot of eating to do. Overall, it was a great week, and I'm looking forward to continuing the tech journey this week! Until next time... CHEERS!!!

Following "Stump The Teacher"

  In our Internet for Educators class, we were given a list of popular Edu-bloggers, and were asked to give a few of them a read as to expand our network.  I came across a few, read the blogs, liked what I read, and then added them to my reader.  Then I came across a blog name that just stood out, and that was "Stump The Teacher."  I added this to my reader before even reading anything, because the name was just so unique.  I saw it almost as a challenge: as in "try and get me on something," or "stump me... if you dare!"  So I finally went into the blog.  What I found out was this.... his name is Josh Stumpenhorst.  So, a very good play on words, and that more than got my attention.  He is a grade 6 teacher from Chicago, Illinois, as well as a techie, basketball coach, and a very big Star Wars fan (got to love the Star Wars).  Follow his blog at http://stumpteacher.blogspot.ca/.




  I began to read his posts, and I immediately became intrigued.  The first one I read was called "A New Hope," which obviously grabbed my attention (it's the first Star Wars movie title: first movie made, 4th in the series if you want to get technical).  His post was on the topic of empathy and compassion in the classroom, and how it seems that there is a growing concern for how it looks like it is disappearing.  He then mentioned how he still sees evidence of its existence, and that he as a "New Hope," for it.  I believe that there is still compassion in the classroom, but we just only hear the bad stuff.  So often we see the good things in a classroom, but no one talks about it because it is the expected norm.  Everyone always hears about the bad stuff because (in a sense) its a conversation starter.  People would rather talk about a bad thing a student did over a good thing a student did.  There is more intrigue in that right?  There is a problem with that.  If we miss talking about the good stuff, then the notion that there is no compassion in the class is just going to grow.  We need to make an effort to acknowledge the good.  I'm not saying that every time a student says thank you or is nice to someone they get a cookie or a hall pass, but we should let them know that we appreciated the kind behaviour.  This will only spread the word around and make it known that students do actually care for one another.

  His other posts have included thoughts on many things: public education having to make it's first change at the university level; does asking questions make someone a troublemaker?; and a very heartfelt and meaningful post about the horrible shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  His thoughts are amazing, and his style is classy and sometimes humorous.  Please, please give him a read.  You won't regret it.  At least follow him on Twitter at @stumpteacher.  Until next time...  CHEERS!!

Technology in the Classroom Isn't For Looks

  We recently had Clarence Fisher join us via Skype from his position in Snow Lake.  The conversation we had was brief, but awesome.  He talked about how we need to teach proper digital skills to our students.  Digital skills are very important, much like how reading and writing is.  I'm not saying reading and writing isn't important, I'm saying that digital skills are becoming increasingly important.  Teaching a student how to use technology to gather information is essential.  Teaching a student how to separate the real information from the garbage is also important.  I have written many essays in my short time on this planet, and I have sure come across a lot of junk in terms of information.  It is really hard to know what is good and what is bad.  I wish I would have been taught how to filter it, because I have probably loaded an essay with some awful stuff at some point.  If my knowledge was better at the time, I probably would have known what was good and what was bad, but my awareness was self taught so it took awhile.

  We also discussed the actual, physical use of technology in the classroom.  Many teachers have technology in their classrooms, but don't use it, or don't use it right.  A smartboard isn't something you just slap on the wall and say "Oooooooo....... pretty."  It is also not a glorified projector screen.  It is an educational tool that students can interact with, which can greatly benefit their learning.  An iPad just isn't a really slick, amazing, gorgeous, sexy and crazy awesome device; it has purposes that are educational and surpass everything I previously stated in this sentence.  Yeah it checks email.  Yeah it tells you when the Toronto Maple Leafs just scored a goal (which last night was plentiful I must say).  Yeah it tells you the weather.  However, if these are the only reasons it is sitting in your classroom,  take the thing home, because you are just teasing the kids with the notion that they may get to use it.  I use my iPad for a lot of assessment.  Evernote is an amazing tool for the computer, iPad, and iPhone.  It allows me to take antidotal notes, take pictures of students' work, and tag names and assignments so they are all organized.  It is just too awesome.  Anyways, use it if you have it, and use it right.  Let the kids use it.  IPads and smartboards in classrooms should be smeared with fingerprints. 

  Great presentation, and great information!  Until next time... CHEERS!!


PS - This is the album I have been listening to while doing homework today.  "Koi No Yokan" by Deftones.  Awesome stuff, so give some of the songs a listen on YouTube if you like a mellower heavy metal sound.

This is the audio video for their song "Tempest."  Enjoy.

Move Over Facebook.... The Sequel to "The Social Network" is Going to Be About Twitter.

Alright, so way back in the day I joined Facebook, mainly because all of my friends were on it and I didn't want to be the odd man out.  I used it to see what people were up to these days, and to also remember birthdays (which people get mad at me for forgetting, but seriously its hard to remember that stuff).  I would post photos, videos, and status updates, and just thought that this was the best thing in the world.  Time went on: seasons changed; classes came and went; more movies kept getting released but none got better than "Scarface"; and my receding hairline receded even more.  After this time passed, I started to get bored with this Facebook thing.  I found myself checking it religiously, especially when I had other important stuff to do.  So I sort of went away from it.  Then a movie came out called "The Social Network," which was about the creation of Facebook.  So, being the movie addict I am I bought and watched it, and thought it was quite good.  So then for some reason I liked Facebook again.  I still don't know why a movie did that to me, but I guess I sort of went back to McDonalds after I saw "Super Size Me" (before you say anything... yeah, that movie made me want McDonalds more, and I have no rationale for it).  Around this time, I started noticing that a lot of the TV shows or hockey games I was watching would have this number sign followed by words at the bottom of the screen.  I soon found out that it was something to do with Twitter, and just though "Oh pfft."  So I paid no attention to it.  Then, while watching Sportscenter, I started noticing that when the broadcasters name would come up, it would be followed by an @, followed by their name.  Alright, so it was then and there when I decided that this was getting ridiculous.  Why do I care what this person's @ thing is?  So I tried to pay no attention to it.  Then, after more seasons changed, my buddy told me that this one broadcaster would tweet all of the underground information on the "NHL Trade Deadline" (yeah, it is that important that it gets treated like a proper noun).  So... I signed up to this twitter thing for that reason.  And so it began....

  Since starting to use Twitter, I have barely used Facebook.  I realized how easy it was to use, and I found many other benefits as well.  First benefit (I found) was that now I didn't have to read all of these drama filled posts anymore (you know EXACTLY what I mean by this, so no need to explain), because there is a character limitation!! Best...... idea..... ever!  Plus, someone could follow you, and you didn't have to follow them!  I also really enjoyed the hashtag (it is the legal name change from number sign).  The hashtag makes it so easy to find information.  Just use a certain hashtag in a post, then see what others have been saying, or search a certain hashtag to find information!  It cannot get anymore perfect than that!  I started to follow educators and classmates, and we could share a lot!  I have tweeted a fair amount since joining (not as much as other people, but I try).  I have tweeted educational tweets, and funny tweets.  The one thing that I am always torn between is how to tweet.  I say this because I started using Twitter as a personal account, and then it slowly evolved into a personal/educational profile.  When I am in the process of writing a tweet, I usually stop and question whether or not the educational followers would appreciate it or not.  I never tweet inappropriately, but i just don't know how the educational followers feel about non-educational tweets.  The educators have followed me for the sole reason that I am also an educator.  If they kept getting their home page filled with tweets about losing awfully in NHL '13, or my play-by-play of the 2013 Superbowl (which I really did do, so I apologize to all, but that blackout was ridiculous), would they get frustrated that I am not tweeting what they are expecting me to?  I always wonder about that: to tweet serious, or tweet funny when appropriate?  I don't want to offend the followers who followed me by not always tweeting educational information, but I also don't want abandon my original purpose of joining the network.  I have considered getting separate accounts, but then I always come to the conclusion that I am me, and that I have nothing to hide, so why separate them?  As long as I am not tweeting inappropriately then what is the problem right?  Some might say to tweet only educational, and may chose to not follow me if I don't do that.  The same could be said from the other side.  Some of my friends may not want to see educational resources and links posted all the time.  Tough call, but my final decision on it is... "If you don't agree, then don't follow."  I'm going to tweet both.  It would be nice for both sides of the network to see both sides of me: those being my personal side and my professional side.

  Twitter, in my opinion, is THE social network nowadays.  More and more things on television are displaying usernames and hashtags for Twitter, and less and less are showing Facebook page links.  If another movie was ever made about the creation of social media, it would most likely be about Twitter, because of how it connects people.  Don't get me wrong, Facebook connects people too, but just in a different way.  Twitter is simple in a big way.  It has an easy to use interface, but so much can be done through it.  It doesn't change its layout every 2 months, and I have not read one tweet that was filled with drama.  Those two points are enough reason to join Twitter.  Overall, if you do not have Twitter, then try it out.  You may actually find yourself tweeting more than 'liking' things, which is great because it is your voice.  Until next time.... CHEERS!!

Be Personable, It is the Best Meet and Greet

  This past Thursday we had George Couros join us in our Internet for Educators class from Edmonton via Skype.  We previously had his brother speak to us, Alec, so it was pretty interesting to have them both give us some insight. I really enjoyed his bit about what he did when he spoke to an audience, of how he showed an inappropriate tweet that someone had sent out a couple days prior.  People need to realize that that the profession of education demands a higher level of professionalism than other jobs.  We don't have the ability to tweet or post things that many others do.  We work with kids, and we need to show that we have the appropriateness to work with them.

  I agree 100% with what George said about getting to know the students first, then teach curriculum second.  When I did my very first student teaching placement, I picked a school that consisted of students that I knew, and who knew me already.  I did so because I was very nervous about my first stint as a student teacher.  Also, I knew that if I already had a good foundation with the students, that I would be able to have a smoother transition into the teaching aspect of it.  It worked.  The kids responded to me very quickly, because they knew who I was as a person already.  Of course, this is not the case every time you step into a class, but it sure helps.  My cooperating teacher in my second placement also knew the importance of getting to know the students, especially the ones outside of the classroom.  He knew that one day there was going to be a little boy coming into his classroom, that would most likely cause a lot of commotion in the classroom.  So ever since that boy was in grade 1 (this teacher taught grade 4), he made an effort to chat with the boy once in a while on the playground during recess duty, or if he saw them in the hallway.  At recess he would discipline him if necessary, so that this boy would become accustomed to how he was as a teacher.  He built a relationship for three years before that boy entered his classroom, and when he finally had him in the class..... no problems.  The boy became to respect this teacher, because he had put in so much time with him prior to being in the class.  This boy knew that his teacher actually cared, and therefore, he gave him his respect.  It is very important to do this, because a single classroom may be a community, but it is a community within a larger community.  A teacher needs to be a player within each.  

  In my third student teaching placement, I taught a grade 3/4 split class.  First off, I loved it!  Secondly, I decided to help coach the grade 7/8 volleyball team.  Why?  To connect.  I spent school hours inside the grade 3/4 all of the time, so those students got to know me really well.  I wanted to know everyone because then there wouldn't be that awkward blank gaze in the hallway that everyone gets once in awhile (as a side note: Ever meet someone in the mall or in a store that you haven't seen in awhile, and talk to them for a little while there?  Then, after you say your good-byes to each other run into them again about 10 minutes later and its all of sudden really awkward?  Weird how that works).  It really helped me get to know the older kids, who in ways you can joke around a little bit more with.  

  Overall, awesome presentation!  I took away so much from it.  Put yourself out there (in a good way)!  Meet the kids!  Don't be the gremlin teacher who hides in the classroom and only leaves when the clock strikes 3:30!  Connect!  An apple a day keeps the doctor away!  Now back to some Super Mario World!  Until next time.... CHEERS!

Welcome To Controversy, Tech. Population: Infinite.

  This week we were very fortunate to have John Finch join us in my Internet For Educators class. This was the second time that I have heard John talk, so I was quite excited to enter the class for the presentation.  To me it seemed like we talked about a lot of controversial topics surrounding technology and education.  What do I think about controversy?  I love it!  Not the celebrity life controversy, or mainstream controversy; real life controversy.  People hear the word and think "Uhhh..... maybe we should just stay away from this subject," or "I'm not going to touch that with a ten foot pole."  Many do not realize the benefits of (some) controversy.  Controversy starts conversations, and ideas (to an extent).  It can sometimes lead to questions being answered, which can lead to the solution to a problem.  Not all controversy is good though (please don't think that is what I am trying to say).  It will always turn heads, and it will never disappear.  I find that there is a lot of controversy in the educational field.  Like cyber bullying; as bad as we think, or has it been inflated due to external factors?  Should a teacher be able to go out and have a drink once in a while, or should they only do so in the privacy of their own home, with the blinds down, hiding underneath a blanket?  Use sites that download educational you tube videos at schools with low internet accessibility, despite terms of agreements, or don't?  So much controversy, so little room to type about it all.  More on this later...

  We started by chatting about a topic that has gained a lot of attention over the past year, which is cyber bullying. First off, cyber bullying is an awful and disgusting thing, which, like every other awful thing, should not exist. However, the awful truth is that bullying in some form will always exist. Despite how terrible cyber bullying is, that was not the main subject of cyber bullying in the talk.   John asked us if we thought that drama played a large role in cyber bullying. As much as I despise bullying... yes, yes it does. When I was a youngster, bullying existed, and it was present as much as it is today. Kids got pushed around and tormented on the playground and on the walk home after school everyday. Students were in the office daily for situations that happened on and off school property, and sadly it was probably the same in other schools. Something since then, however, has changed. I don't think it is the amount of bullying, I think that has stayed consistent over time. I think that it has a lot to do with what John said, in that drama's impact is huge. While working this summer to pay for my final year if schooling (hopefully), I had a conversation with one of my co-workers, who has 2 daughters aged 10 and 15.  He stated that there was more drama going on in his 10 year old daughters life than there ever was, or is going on in his 15 year old daughter's.  He said that the school has sent home newsletters and other things to address the problem of cyber bullying in the school.  He knows what goes on in his daughters' life, and even when she has said that she has been bullied, he sees the text or Facebook post, and does not see it as bullying in any way shape or form.  He thinks that students today, because of technology, are just being over dramatic with messages they receive.  I agree, and disagree with this.  The reason I disagree, is because there are many instances of real cases of cyber bullying, that cause real serious problems.  Whether or not in happens once, or a hundred times, it should be addressed.  I agree, however, because in a text or message there is no way to tell the tone the sender had at the time (a threat is obviously a threat though).  In addition, messages and posts stay there, and linger.  This makes them accessible, over and over again, which can just increase the problem.  This coworker does believe though that there is too much drama in grade school, and that it is skyrocketing the notion of bullying.  I also agree with John and his notion that the media blows many subjects out of proportion.  They really do that with everything don't they?  Always report on the negative the majority of the time, and rarely the positive, almost to scare people.  I don't know about anyone else, but it would be nice to hear an uplifting story once in a blue moon.  John just mentioning drama's role in the cyber bullying epidemic is controversy.  Good.  The mere mention of it starts discussion, and gets people looking at the facts and stats (which for cyber bullying, John said are fairly low).  John said that some administrators may start to limit the internet because of the cyber bullying problem.  This in turn could lead to many valuable resources in the classroom becoming extinct.  So by talking about it, we may just save it.  For the record, I am in no way for cyber bullying, I think it is awful, and it has no place in society.  I just think that we need to take a look at it, and truly talk with our students to see the truth, before we do something rash like ban the internet in schools.

  Have I used you tube downloaders?  Yes.  Do I think they are exceptionally amazing to use when a school has a low bandwidth?  Yes.  Do I think that students should see some of these videos because of the educational value they hold?  Yes.  Have I stopped using them, now that I know I am going against  the 40 page Terms of Agreement that I totally read when I signed up? ......*cough cough*...... (see previous responses).  This topic is controversial, as it should be.  Want to know what else is controversial that never seems to be brought up?  The Terms of Agreement.  I do not understand how websites, whose names or URLs I will not mention (I don't want to be controversial), can get upset with users when their Terms of Agreement are 40 pages long, and written in a language that only J. R.R. Tolkien could have created (he created many languages for his Lord of the Rings books; and I apologize if that reference did not make sense).  A website, or company, should only be able to complain about users breaking their agreements, if the agreements are legible.  I can honestly say that I have never sat down and read a full agreement before, because I know that it will not make sense to me even if I tried (I will however, if any superintendents or principals are reading this, without a doubt sit down and read my entire contract and duties list).  I will also read a Terms of Agreement if it gets to the point and tells me in less than five pages, in english, what I am agreeing to.  South Park had an episode based around this topic of Terms of Agreement, and though I will not get into the details of the episode, it made many very good points about how the length of them are just absurd, so barely anyone knows what they are signing up for (guilty as charged):



  As an aside, some people think that a pre-service teacher having South Park as their favorite TV show is controversial.  I was told that I should never watch that show because of the profession I am getting involved in.  If thats the case then no teacher should be allowed to watch a show on TLC (it stands for The Learning Channel, and I don't think anyone has learned anything from "Toddlers and Tiaras" and "Honey Boo Boo").  As a second aside I love Apple, but i still find it hilarious.

  Overall, it was awesome to have John Finch in our classroom.  He isn't afraid to ask the questions, despite the controversy that may be surrounding the topic.  Some people of course create controversy out of nothing, and then that can lead to bad things, but sometimes questions need to be asked.  Good or bad, controversy is here, and he (or she) is knocking on the door.  We can't keep the lights off and pretend we aren't home, in hopes that it'll go away and not bother us.  Sometimes we have to face it head on.  Sure, sometimes when we open that door we may get harsh words thrown at us, but sometimes we just may be lucky enough to open the door and buy a box of cookies.  Until next time.... CHEERS!