I Dream of Media Literacy

Both traditional and current media literacy stress the importance of finding valid and dependable information. Currently, digital media literacy expands beyond lessons on normal propaganda learned in a history classroom. Modern digital media literacy skills include knowing a valuable source of information against a convenient source of poorly reviewed material. New research projects designed to learn from the internet is a way to teach media literacy on the web for students because it creates a library of valid sources of information for the minds of students. I believe this lesson plan strongly encourages proper use of the internet in the classroom.  I specifically like the use of the Martin Luther King Jr. video because this provides a great source (as opposed to Wikipedia) for a research project on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Teacher Magazine

Chemistry is More Than "Science".

This is a short digital story that includes various reasons to learn some chemistry!

Digital Research

When considering the idea of substituting research papers with digital storytelling, I have a neutral attitude. On the optimistic side, I believe this tactic is a fun and meaningful approach to research; however, negative responses to this method are sure to arise. For example, in a college chemistry classroom students will be expected to know the format for a research paper. Citing sources, properly using the information acquired, and transcribing this information into methodical sequences is very important!!! It is absolutely not useful for national documents and reserach by specific organizations to have digital stories. Digital storytelling on a professional level would definitely cause for a misinterpretation and absence of important information, so I believe teaching students how to right a rudimentary reserach paper is an important content standard. However, tt wouldn't hurt to ocassionaly alter the strict rules of a research paper into a fun digital project! Perhaps, digital storytelling could be a side- assignment to the research paper. For example, create a digital story in effort to brainstorm a topic or to present the research paper to the class as a whole.

Texted, texting, had texted, txting, Are these even words???

An article from The Washington Post suggests that text messages and instant messages have no effect on a child's ability to spell, which I completely agree with. Basing my judgement on personal experiences, I would mostly agree and find most of the information as facts. On the otherhand, the article presents and argument that I strongly disagree with. According to my experience with text messages, there are no known rules to spelling a word. For example, the article suggests that students always use "wanna" instead of "wanta" or "wana". Predictive texts, which are programed on the devices, register the word wanna instead of the other options; however, I know many friends and family members that use any derivation of a word. I've seen "wana", "wanta", and so many more slang words to represent this phrase. Texting follows no specific rules, instead I believe texting is a way of expressing your personality. By spelling a word in a certain fashion, your friends and family members can understand your moods and tones as if you were literally having a face- to- face conversation.

How does this article adjust my thoughts on technology's influence on literacy?
I don't really know... I am not sure if my thought about literacy is developed enough to make a judgement. I think the best answer I can supply at this junction is that students who wish to prevail, will prevail. Students who have apathetic feelings about there education..... well its my goal to inspire them...

I think the following video closely resembles my current thoughts because it shows how students can choose to use texting as a resource for learning.

Spelln' it out...

By a follower of my blog, I was asked to react to this interview.

My reaction to the majority of the interview included side- splitting laughter! The author being interviewed is very comical!!! One specific example, she claims that Russians quickly learned their grammar and spelling skills compared to Americans learning English. Although this is probably a fact, the comedy evolves with her comment of how Russian's lacked a victory in the Cold War with all their free time.
For the most part, I agree with the author's comments. The author states that "bad" spellers are labeled as creative, which I strongly believe is true! After reading the interview, I am interested in reading her book. If you get the chance, then please check out the interview!

Techno Toleration

Now a days, I believe literacy expands far beyond the ability to read and write. Comprehending a message is more important than actually reading or writing one, and sometimes the messages may include visual clues without words. However, I feel it is very important to sufficiently display literacy through the means of traditional language. As an aspiring chemistry teacher, I know that suffixes, prefixes, root words, and LANGUAGE are very important tools in understanding chemistry. Chemistry is almost another language on Earth, and being a fluent speller with strong grammatical skills is vital in chemistry communication. I fear that excessive texting and relaxed sentence structure through digital media will hurt a child's growth in science. In order to demonstrate my point, I am going to write a formidable sentence from a lab report...

The solid compounds, trans-chalcone, benzoic acid, and naphthalene, were dissolved in dichloromethane prior to the mobile phase.

Though you may not have the chemistry knowledge to fully understand this sentence, a student with strong writing, reading, and spelling skills would understand this sentence better than one who had poor skills. Someone with pleasant writing skills would understand that trans- chalcone, benzoic acid, and naphthalene were three SOLID substances. The reader may also be able to understand that dichloromethane has the prefix di- (which means two). The strong skills of this student enabled him/her to immediately learn a basic fact about 4 different chemicals. Now that the reader has a better understanding of the chemicals, the next time the student encounters these chemicals their chemical knowledge will grow exponentially.

Basically, what I'm saying is this: The modern forms of communication are great and fun!!!! On the other hand, chemistry classrooms can only tolerate a slight amount of relaxations.STUDENTS WHO WANT TO SURVIVE CHEMISTRY CLASSES~!~ Work on the Three R's, Reading, Riting and Rithmetic! : P

Let's take a CLASS VACATION!!!!! :)

Mummified Months

*Note: The votes for September are actually for October*

My Form

Results to the survey.

Survey Form

A Look At Government

Mr. Daly is a Government teacher in Charlottesville High School (VA). I enjoy his blog because it shows how a blog can be used for educational purposes. It's not too distracting, and I appreciate the simplicity behind the posts. I somewhat try to replicate this organized structure on my blog, but I do wish I could learn to visually embed a video about chemistry. Mr. Daly lacks videos, which is what gave me the idea to add flavor to my blog. As an experimental procedure, I am going to embed a video about the first element on the Periodic Table of the Elements. I hope you enjoy

Resume