3. Teaching 2.0

Recently in class, we have been taught how to use Edmodo. I was already semi-familiar with this site because in high school, we used it for a club that I was in called Key Club. The teacher in charge of the club tried to get all the members and all the board members (president, vice president, etc.) to use it but getting everyone to actually use it was hard and we never ended up gaining anything from it. Although in this situation Edmodo wasn't helpful, I believe that it could be very interesting and helpful to use in a classroom. This site helps teachers post things for the whole class to see and it also allows students to complete assignments online and teachers can comment on their assignments and give them feedback to help improve their work. This site could also be used for students to journal or blog and share their work with their peers. Parents are also allowed to look over their child's work and see how they are doing in school so the parent is able to be more involved. Overall, I think Edmodo is a very creative site that I will try to use in my high school classroom when I am a teacher. :) 
You can visit this site by clicking this link: https://www.edmodo.com/

I intend on being a high school teacher and I do believe that the internet is very important to involve in my classroom mainly because it is already so important to teenager's and adults in everyday life. In Chapter 9, we learned about a lot of applications and websites we can use to involve our students while also involving their parents. In high school, my teachers would use grade portals so students could know their grades and how they are doing in class and also their parents could stay updated on their grades. I will use this in my classroom because I believe it is important to have parents involved in students grades. I will also try to in cooperate Edmodo because I believe it is a helpful tool and classroom dojo. Even though classroom dojo is mainly for younger children, I believe I could use it in a high school setting just as well. Teaching students about digital citizenship lessons is imporant because the internet isn't always a safe place. Teenagers need to be taught that "netiquette" and that being mean online is never okay and just because you are doing it online doesn't mean it does not still apply to you. Also students need to learn that you can't share your information online because there are bad people out there. A lot of these lessons can be taught through video on http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents .

I have not yet finished my newsletter but so far, I am not really enjoying doing it. I am not the most creative person in the world and I know that doesn't sound right considering I am studying to be a teacher but I am more of a straight forward person and I feel like when I am a teacher, I will probably make my news letters to the point and less colorful. This newletter is teaching me some new tools on Microsoft word though and I know now how to make columns and how to add word art and banners. This information will come in handy for my future education classes, I'm sure. 

2. Microsoft Word, Plagarism, Teaching, Oh My!

Hello again, readers! I am going to discuss a few topics in this post that I find very interesting and I hope you do too. First off, Microsoft Word. I feel like Microsoft word is on almost every ones computer and is used by most everyone who is in school or has a job that involves a computer. As a student, I use it almost everyday to write papers. I've always seen teachers using it to write their syllabus and to write worksheets for their students. Teachers definitely use it everyday because its handy for anything that you'll be writing or passing out to students. Microsoft word can also be used for tests and quizzes. It has a ton of easy applications that help make footnotes and labels.

Copy write and plagiarism is a very serious subject and is taken very seriously in middle school, high school, and especially college. As a student, I am always careful not to copy anything from the Internet or books. This is because 1. Its illegal 2. I would get kicked out of college and 3. It is unfair to the person who wrote the information. I think it is good how strictly teachers in force not plagiarising. Teachers find other ways to use information and if they do use a photo or information from the Internet or a book, they use a footnote to cite their information. Teaching students how to make footnotes and bibliographies is very important and as a high school English teacher, I will make sure that students know how to cite the information they put in papers.

Twitter is a site I use everyday. I was very excited when we started using Twitter in class! Having this "school" twitter is helping me learn more about other students in the class and learn more about technology I can use in the classroom! When I graduate and begin teaching high school, it will be necessary that I am up to date on the social media and technology that my students are using because I think it is a great idea to incorporate things that students already use in their daily lives.