Power Down Day-November 26, 2010

        Before doing my Power Down Day I thought it was going to be extremely easy, but I was so wrong. I did not realize how much technology I used every day. I decided to do my Power Down Day over break so I would have a variety of things that I could do, but I still thought I was going to go crazy without my cell phone and my laptop. It was not until the Power Down Day that I realized how often I will randomly get on my computer to check my email or to check my Facebook. Without being able to do these things I thought I was going to go crazy and I felt as though I was “out of the loop”. Throughout the day I found myself doing a lot of cleaning that did not need to be done and I also went on a walk with a friend to try and pass time. I felt pathetic because I just wanted the day to be over so I would be allowed to use my phone and computer. During the day I ended up getting caught up on homework because I did not have the distractions of the television, music, and the internet to get me off topic. Once my Power Down Day was over I had 9 text messages, 3 missed calls, and 12 Facebook notifications. I did not realize how much I relied on technology on a day-to-day basis. It’s amazing how much technology has impact the lives of society.

The President's Back to School Speech

Above is a video of President Obama's Back to School Speech that had taken place at the Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In his speech, President Obama talks about how students need to take their future into there own hands. He stated that if they stay focused on school and fight for everything they believe in they will be able to accomplish everything they put their heart and soul into. Obama also stressed how important education is and how the further you go in scholl. the further you will go in life.

President Obama also talked about how it takes everyone in the government to make sure that the students are getting the right teachers, advisors, principles, and parents to make sure they are pushing the students to the limit and encouraging them to succeed. Going off of this, he also told the students that they had a part in helping education. Their part was to make sure they study and get involved to gain more knowledge and raise their likelyness to succeed. Students of America need to put in the effort and become serious in their studies because it will effect their future dramatically.

University of Mount Union's Education Seminar

This photo was taken at the University of Mount Union's Education Seminar on September 25, 2010. The seminar was based on the 3 C's of the 21st Century Educational Partnerships which are creativity, collaboration, and community. The seminar started out with a keynote speaker, Chelonnda Seroyer, who spoke about creating a customized and highly effective classroom management plan. In her speach she shared her own personal experiences and stressed how important it is to maitain your classroom. Another topic that Chelonnda discussed how how vitally important it was to know your students and your students parents on a more personal level because this will help you build a strong relationship.

After Chelonnda Seroyer's keynote speach, everyone had the opportunity to attend any of the 24 Breakout Sessions that featured University of Mount Union candidates, faculty, and area educators. Some of the sessions offered were Learning Through Fun, The Benefits of Authentic Homework, How To Get Down, How To Get The Job You Really Want, Integrating Arts and Academics, Goal Setting and Collecting Student Data, and many other options.

I felt as if this seminar was very beneficial. It made me realize the importance of having a classroom management plan and how necessarry it is to have a strong relationship with students. Having this bond lets the students know that you are not just their teacher, you are also their friend. I look forward to attending the next seminar, because being and education major, all the information and help I can get will help me become a better teacher in the future.

Web 2.0 Tools Can Be Used To Do Many Things.

When looking at the Web 2.0 Tools I found them very interesting and beneficial in many ways. I personally thought the Mobile Tools were very neat. They had a variety of thing you could use, such as, PollEverywhere, Drop, Phone, and Jott. Out of these tools I found the Jott Tool the most interesting because it has a variety of things you can do. For example, you are able to transfer whatever you say into text. You are able to leave a voicemail with Jott and it will then begin to transfer your voice into text. The program works through a certain process. The voice recording is sent to Jott's automated speech recognition engines where they are transfered to text and is reviewed and is never seen by a specialist. Your message is then gets delivered back to you and anyone that you have chosen to send your message too.

  I feel as if this could be very beneficial in many aspects of education. Students in high school and especially college could use this to record lecture in class so they are able to refer back to the information when it comes time to study for the test. Also, with recording the lectures, it would be beneficial for the teachers because they could post there lectures online that way students who are unable to attend class are able to refer to and online site where the lectures are located. This would help teachers save time and would help the students focus more on the speaker than on writing down notes. Overall, I feel the Web 2.0 Tools could be very useful in education.

Life As A Middle School Student

        The link that I had found was brought to my attention by one of my professor from the education department. The website, It's My Life-PBS Kids Go!, is extremely beneficial for students, parents, and teachers because they're able to see what some middle school students deal with on a day to day basis including friends, family, school, their bodies, their emotions, and online and face-to-face bullying. One of the main things that caught my attention was the online bullying link on the website. It shared how students even in middle school are using the internet to bully other students. Students are using social networks, such as, facebook, myspace, e-mail, and instant messenger. Students are using these resources to target, threaten, and make fun of students. It shocked me that students that are still using instant messaging, are using chat rooms to gang up on other students. With this happening in and outside of schools, it is proving that technology is not always as great as it seems.
        In my opinion, I do not believe that online bullying is all because of technology. I believe that parents should be supervising what their children are going and what kind of social networks they are using. It is ridiculous that children in middle school are already getting addicted to these networks. It would not be a problem if the children were using the networks and technology for education and research, but children are using these sites for bullying. Parents should watch what their children are doing on computers because i can almost guarantee that many of these young children's parents do not even know that their children are connected to any of these social networks.