New Media and New Literacies

Getting along with my students? Easy! Now finding common interests between my students and our classroom community… NOT so easy. I find it incredibly hard to even put on a movie for the students that even HALF of them agreed on. Finding interests in our classroom is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Now combining our classroom, myself and the community around us = quite the challenge. In my classroom… and I'm sure any fifth grade classroom, we struggle with getting along. My students have been together since kindergarten so they all know each other very well. I have done a positivity project and second step in my classroom in HOPES of helping them get along. Do you think it worked? NOPE! I think for this project that will meet the interests of all our needs would be something to do with animal shelters. Syracuse is full of animal shelters that all have animals in need. In this project I will ask students to use their Chromebooks to make digital flyers for donations as well a...

Throughout all of these articles, there has been a lot of information to take in and use in the classroom. Not only do they tell you ways in which you can incorporate learning online and in the classroom, but they also encourage you to do research online and use that in the classroom. One thing I took away from the readings was that there are right and wrong ways in which your incorporate it into the classroom. As for designing and supporting activities beyond the screen, I wasn’t always the most comfortable with this task. Due to being a ‘newer’ teacher I still find myself learning the curriculum and taking data when needed. Data is something that my school is very big on right now. If a student isn’t meeting the standards, my school wants to data or ‘proof’ that they aren’t meeting the standards. In my classroom, each student has a data binder in which they categorize their work. Math goes with math and so on and so forth. Anything that we do that is linked to a standard, we will pla...

I would like to say, as a younger teacher, I am probably more apt to incorporate digital literacy in my classroom than those who have been working in this field for a long time. I would like to say I am 80% confident in my ability to assign something online with the intention of it being an extension activity NOT a ‘time-filler’. So many times, as districts, we have a plethora of applications we can use for our students but we use them as a time-filler rather than an opportunity for them to learn about the online features. I am lucky to have the librarian in my school… who I use regularly. They are always willing to show us new websites or applications that students have access to. They also provide a ‘library FYI’ page where students have access to all KID appropriate and AGE appropriate research tools to help them as needed. I found it interesting yet appropriate when Aguilera stated, “To invite students to engage more deeply with these behind-the-screen conversations, we can focus o...

I decided to choose “Improving Digital Literacy for Practices” and “Digital Literacy” as the two articles I looked at. As I reflected on the two readings I noticed a lot of similarities between the two. One common trend that I was noticing was the admiration of digital literacy from the younger generations. Both articles discussed that they acknowledged that the younger generations use social media and their electronic devices more than the past generations. This has created an increase in the use of technology, including digital literacy, in and out of the classroom. One thing I found interesting was, “For example, an English classroom may explore social justice movements by looking at the rhetorical structure of hashtags in social networks, or a social science classroom may use video editing software to support student-created documentaries tied to the history of the school’s community. In both cases, the digital tools are secondary to the teacher’s literacy and learning goals.(ILA, ...

Blog Post for New Literacies: Digital Literacy is one of the most up and coming topics in the education department. Every time my school has a staff meeting our IT department comes in and gives us a new literacy tip or trick to help enhance our teaching or to make things easier/shorter. We even had a meeting where they discussed Magic School AI and how we should be using that to shorten our planning down. I am going to be honest, I haven’t used it for much. I typically use it for topic based word problems in math. Example: Multi digit multiplication but then having the word problems be about football. I find this engages the students and makes learning fun. A lot of what we read during Professional development is online through a link or PDF. As a younger teacher, this doesn’t come with any difficulties for me. I do have some teachers who have been teaching for years and they find it difficult to navigate a computer, much less learning online. I found it interesting when NCTE Position ...

Hello, My name is Fallon Morris and I grew up in Baldwinsville, NY. I still live in Baldwinsville and love the cute town it has to offer. I taught at an Oswego,NY elementary school last year where I taught 4th grade. This year I decided to teach closer to home. I accepted a job 15 minutes away at a tiny school called Cato-Meridian. This was such a difference from my last school. They start in Pre-K with one another and go all the way up to senior year with the same kids (There is only one elementary school). I have been teaching for two years so I am still learning the ins and outs of teaching. I have an extremely difficult class this year where I have anger aggression kids as well as 8:1:1 kids that push into my room for science, social studies, and ELA. I received my bachelors from Keuka College where I was dual certified in both General Education and Special Education. My college was very tiny BUT it was on a really beautiful lake. I played soccer in college which allowed me to mak...