Journal 2 Domain #2 and #5

What is the student body diversity and how is cultural diversity recognized in the school?
Highland School is very diverse and this diversity is seem everywhere in the school. District 68 is so diverse that within the 3 Elementary School that are associated with this district, there is a kindergarten classroom that is especially for ELL students. This classroom is not located at Highland, but there are several students in my classroom that came from the ELL kindergarten. Everyday on the morning announcements in February there is clues given and the students try to guess what famous black historian they are talking about.

Since last week was the Chinese New Year, we read a book about this holiday. Then the two Chinese students were asked to talk about their experiences, and if they celebrated the same way that the children in the story did. Not only was last week a holiday for China, it was also a holiday for Vietnam. The girl whose parents are from Vietnam explained about the holiday and talked about her families traditions, such as food and gifts.

The one thing that I found interesting in the classroom was that in the reading corner there were hardly any multicultural books. They were mostly about the typical American, that being Caucasian. Less then half of the class is white, so I find it very surprising that most of the books catered to them.

How are children involved in the classroom; how do they relate to one another?
Even though this class is so diverse the students get along great. There are really no cliques, like you see with older students. The students are encouraged to work with a whole array of different students on projects or group work so they will be exposed to many different individuals, and for the most part they all get along.

There are two students in the classroom that do not speak English very well. These students have trouble relating to the other students. The students mostly talk about American cultural things, for example Spongebob or Star Wars. These ELL students are not familiar with these trends, so they have trouble engaging in conversations with the other students because of their lack of understanding of the American culture.

How are the needs of students with exceptionalities met in the classroom and at the school?
There is one student who has a whole array of disabilities that impair his learning, we will call him Joe. Joe has the most problems with math. There is a special education teacher that comes in the classroom during the time the class is studying math. This teacher helps Joe with his modified math assignments. Joe also difficulty with fine motor skills, as a result he sees an Occupational Therapist once a week at school. He also sees the school social worker once a week to work on his social development. Joe, along with a few other students in Ms. Faith’s classroom also spends time in a reading intervention program. The students spend about 30 minutes a day with a teacher working on reading. Although none of the students in Ms. Faith’s classroom fall under this category, there is a special room for students who are in the gifted program.

How do teachers and other school personnel work together?
The teachers work well together. Highland School regularly has team building meetings, where the whole faculty and staff come together and do various activities to enrich their relationships. Two or three times a year the schools has teachers institute day. Each institute day has a different area of concentration for example; the upcoming one is about how to use a Smart Board. During the first half of the day all the teachers are together, then after lunch the teachers are separated into their different grade levels. The principal also communicates to the staff by a wiki. The wiki is updated every week.

How are families and other community members involved in the school?
Ms. Faith’s class has a “Room Mom”. Her responsibility is organizing holiday parties or projects for the students. Other parents are allowed to come into the classrooms on their child’s birthdays. The parents sometimes bring in treats and read a book to the class. The parents are also involved in chaperoning field trips.

How does the teacher keep track of student progress?
There are no grades in first grade. Ms. Faith keeps track of reading and math by monitoring the students at least every month. The students are asked to read a passage or perform a math problem without any help. If Ms. Faith sees progress in the students reading, the student is then moved up to the next reading level. She keeps track of writing by administrating a test at least 3 times a year. In the writing test, the teacher gives the students a prompt, and the students are given 15 minutes to write. She keeps all of the writing prompts and compares them throughout the year.


What extra duty tasks does the teacher perform? (meetings, bus duty, etc.)
Ms. Faith attends three different types of meetings. Once a month she attends a faculty meeting, where every teacher at Highland is required to go to. Meetings among each individual grade level occur a few times a month, although the first grade teachers communicate all the time, during breaks and after school. The school district that Highland belongs to has two other elementary schools, so once a month all the first grade teachers from all the elementary schools in district 68 come together for a meeting.

Teachers do not have bus duty, which is reserved for teacher’s assistants. Ms. Faith is responsible for making sure all of the walkers get picked up after school. She has to wait by the door until all the students have been picked up.


The text talked about the importance of making each student feel like a part of the classroom. To demonstrate this, Ms. Faith set up a mystery backpack. Every week a new student puts a personal item in the backpack, and judging by the clues that have written down; the rest of the class has to guess what’s in the backpack. The students put personal things in the backpack. For example last week a student put in a pair of handcuffs because he when he grew up he wanted to be a cop. This backpack provides the students with help in expressing themselves.

Photo Editing Review

http://fotoflexer.com/


This one was my favorite, and also happened to be the first website I came across. I really like not only the various photo editing options this website has, but also how easy it is to navigate the website itself. You can do minor editing, like retouching blemishes and red-eye correction, or get into more serious things like layering images and distorting them. I find that it's simple enough for a beginner to use, but offers enough options that it wouldn't leave a seasoned graphic designer wanting more. Another great feature of this website is the ability to use photos from flickr or Facebook at the click of the mouse, or to upload them from your personal files.



http://www.pixlr.com


This website is a more advanced online editing software. Like Photoshop, it requires much more knowledge of the types of tools available and what they can do. It is obvious that this website used Photoshop as a template for their website, which is nice for those who feel comfortable with the Photoshop software. The website is also available in a wide variety of different languages, which makes it very accessible to everyone.




http://picknik.com


This website is my third and least favorite choice. It's a little cluttered with advertising, which could lead to a novice feeling overwhelmed. There aren't as many features on this website as the first two listed, but it has the feature of uploading your own pictures from other websites as well as your desktop, just like the other two. Once you are in the throws, of editing, however, the functionality of this website is very quick and effective.

Blogs, Wikis, and Nings

Blogs, wikis, and Nings are very common in these modern times of technology. All of these modes of technology will be helpful in the classroom. These three elements will help in the communication between students, parents, and educators.
Blogs are ways of communicating emotions, ideas, or any other personal information that one choose to share with other people. It is pretty much a journal that many different individuals can read. It might be useful in a classroom because the students can make a blog and are given new prompts to write about every week, like we are doing this course.
From what I understand a wiki is similar to a blog in that you express different facts and information, but someone else can go into your wiki and edit the information posted. This is not the case with a blog, the only author and editor is the person writing the blog. It might be an interesting idea to have students use a sight like Wikipedia, create information and have the students edit it.
A Ning is a little more private then a blog and wiki, you can get to choose who you want to read it. It is a social network that can be created by anyone but the members all have a common interest. This would be helpful in the classroom because the educators and students can post information that will only be seen by the members of the classroom.

ISTE Standards

Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
This standard means that the teacher develops essential skills that prepare the students for the future in progression of technology. We practiced this standard in class by working with Microsoft Excel, by creating a mock grade book and compared statistics. In the classroom Excel can be used to help the students learn mathematics by using the program to make multiplication charts and graphs for comparisons. This will help the student in the progression of knowledge in modern technology through interactive mathematics.

Standard 3: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments Standard 3 means that educators and students worldwide are able to communicate. The blog is a perfect example of displaying this standard. Dr. Hansen is enabling the students to communicate to not only individuals in our own class but students and educators worldwide. In my own classroom I would probably set up on own blog. This will help in letting the parents know what the curriculum is. This blog will also help in getting and receiving ideas from other educators.

Standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
The teacher is responsible to know the laws that are required when using technology. This standard can be used in a classroom through Powerpoint, Excel, Blogger, or Word, when dealing with plagiarism. When using these applications, or any other program, it is extremely important to cite information from another source. By practicing this, the students are not violating academic dishonesty and learning ethical behaviors.

Within You Without You / Tomorrow Never Knows

"Within You Without You/ Tomorrow Never Knows" --The Beatles

This is one of my favorite music videos.