My Big Campus

                My Big Campus is a free online tool that any educator can sign up for and benefit from. This online classroom can be accessed from your laptop, computer, phone or any other technological device so that learning can be extended beyond the classroom. This website is 100% safe from pop-ups and ads, and also lets parents go on and monitor the progress of their students.

               The website has many features that are great for classrooms. For example, there is a profile section where students come up with a profile and talk about themselves so the other students in the class can get to know them better. There is also a Library section where students can look up scholarly articles that they can use for things such as research papers. Educators can use the Groups function to put their classes onto one page, and can even be used for sports teams and clubs.

This website helps you create a virtual classroom where students can interact with each other and you as an educator. Teachers can create tests and quizzes and the students have to take it on the website. They can see their results right away and the website keeps track of their progress. Also, you can see where the students did well and need improvement, which helps you focus on all your students’ needs.

Many educators and students have already started using My Big Campus, and for very good reason. This website is great for all students, and helps them get a more interesting and exciting education. Most of the students who have started using this website really enjoy it, and it is definitely a great tool to have in your classroom.

Canvas Remix

At first I had a hard time coming up with a canvas I could remix. However, once I saw the title “The Struggle Between Good and Evil” I knew I had finally found a canvas I could actually incorporate. Because Hamlet talks a lot about good and evil, and making bad decisions, this was a perfect canvas for me to remix. I added pictures that showed decisions in Hamlet that were not good, and also a video of Hamlet killing Polonius to show one of the worst decisions he makes, and how his judgment was so clouded by hatred for Claudius. I did not have to remove anything from the original canvas because it did not carry over to my new canvas. Overall, I think these two units would work very well together. Using Art and Music along with English is always really interesting and really exciting for any student; I also found a few standards that still aligned with the lesson.

Remixed Canvas

Kidblog In a Classroom

Because it is vital as educators that we use technology in our classroom, we must always be aware of the evolving and changing technologies that we can utilize to make our classroom as enriching as possible. One website I found that would be great in a classroom is Kidblog. Kidblog is a free website teachers can use in their classrooms, and students can also join for free. The website does not make students give any personal information and there are no ads. Because it is safe and reliable, many teachers use it to get their students more involved.

                Kidblog is a free blogging site all students can sign up for free of charge. Once on the website, they can blog from anywhere, including their phones and iPads. Teachers can use the website to start discussions and have the students answer, whether in class or for homework. They can also create presentations and display them on the website; overall, this is a great tool to have. In an English classroom this would be great because you could start a discussion in class, and then have the students complete it for homework.

                This website is a great tool to help students be more engaged in a classroom. Almost four million students have already joined, and that number will likely continue to rise once people realize how amazing this site really is.

Unit Plan Canvas

At first I did not know how to create my canvas, because my lesson plan was an introduction to all Shakespeare. However, I wanted to put a more contemporary feel on the lesson, so I decided to introduce Hamlet. The lesson includes gathering background information of the time period the play was written during, and then creating a commercial for a product they would have used. It also focuses on trying to get students to think about Hamlet in a more contemporary way, because it gets harder for teachers to do that. By comparing life in the 1600’s to now, they will get a feel for how different the time is, but by watching a very contemporary version of the movie Hamlet, they will see that it is still very much relatable. By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to relate to at least one character and an experience that character had in the play, and be able to relate it to a life experience he/she has had.

Unit Plan Canvas: Hamlet 

Who is the SAT Essay Really Helping?

The SAT is a standardized test that is almost a rite of passage for any student in high school. Even though it is aimed to a small percentage of students who will actually do well, colleges demand that the tests be taken. We spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars prepping, hiring tutors, studying and cramming, but in the end most students will not do well at all, and colleges will not accept them regardless of their grades and extracurricular. However the one section that people deem completely unnecessary is the writing portion, or the essay.

            In the article, “We Are Teaching High School Students to Write Terribly” author Matthew Malady argues that the essay is the most unnecessary part of the test because of the many flaws it encompasses. Because essay graders have a maximum of 2-3 minutes to read the essays, they will never actually read and make sure it is coherent and cohesive. Also, graders tell students to “make stuff up” if it will make you sound more interesting. It has been reported that students have even made up fake deaths to sound more interesting and garner more sympathy. And because graders do not have more than a few minutes to grade, they have no time to check historical accuracy of facts or even look up unfamiliar words, which could very well be made up.

             With all of this information, it makes it hard to see the purpose of the SAT essay. Students are rushed to write about an event they might not know happened, and are graded based on whether or not they use big words. Because of this, other tests like the ACT have made the writing portion optional to students who think it will benefit them. Writing this way is not helping students grow as writers and really is not helping. This unfair grading process, which only helps a small percentage of students, should not be mandatory.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2013/10/sat_essay_section_problems_with_grading_instruction_and_prompts.html

Technology and Pedagogy

I chose this lesson because I think teachers have such a hard time teaching Shakespeare because the students simply do not want to read it. I think that this lesson plan is really interesting and fun for students, and because it uses so many forms of technology it will capture their attention. There were some gaps in the standards and how the lesson actually fulfilled them. For example, there was a standard that said the students would learn how to write a research paper, but there was no assignment in the lesson plan that would fulfill that. Therefore, I had to create the research assignment so the standard would actually be fulfilled. Also, there was some research to be done before the assignment, but not about the things people used in this time period, it was more of researching that time in general. Being more specific would definitely help. I think creating a commercial is a very important thing to be taught. Not only do you have to film it, you then have to show it to all of your peers, which is a very bold thing that I think students need to learn. Also, I think the research is essential before starting Shakespeare because some teachers try to jump right in, and it never works out in their favor. Students need to have some background before starting these texts. I do not think there is a better technology that would help fulfill these goals because researching and making a commercial can only be done with a computer and video camera.

Are Scantrons More Effective Than Other Grading Methods?

For last week’s blog I decided to use Scantrons as the technology I thought was interesting and wanted to learn more about. After much consideration, I believe Scantron machines are both useful, but are also sometimes more trouble than they are worth.

            From a teacher’s standpoint, Scantrons are great. They can grade tests for you, and it takes only a few minutes. That means that because they do not have to take the time to grade tests, they can dedicate more time to coming up with intriguing lessons. Also, it is great for the students, because they take a test and can have the grade by the end of the day (depending on the teacher.) For this, these machines are great.

            However, they can also be a huge hassle. Students have to use pencil to take the test, so if they forget they automatically cannot take the test (unless the teacher is nice enough to provide a pencil.) Also, it is hard to keep track of what bubble you are actually on, so if you miss one question you can throw off all your answers for the entire test. In terms of teaching English, Scantrons are not always practical. Even though you can give multiple-choice tests once in a while, the majority of the work should be assignments like essays and readings; obviously Scantrons cannot grade those.             And even though Scantrons are machines, they can also be wrong. If a student fills in a bubble wrong or not darkly enough, it could take points off as an unanswered question.

            Scantron machines are a great help to many teachers; they make grading and testing easier. However, it is not always practical to only have Scantron-based tests, considering the many negatives that could occur. There are many positives and negatives to these machines, and for now teachers will continue to use them.