LeeH

"I just met you, here in Easton, here's my wiki, call me maybe..." As so often happens to me, I cannot get this song out of my head and I start singing everything I am doing to the tune of the current melody running though my mind. My name Lee and I am a history teacher at Bangor Area High School. I teach World Cultures, American History II, and American Cultures, which is an elective I created that examines the diverse population and history of America. I am also a Zumba instructor and teach multiple classes a week. I am a mom to an energetic 19 month old boy who keeps my husband and I on our toes at all times. I love to read, to dance, and I enjoy all types of music. My secret wish is that my life was like Glee, just so I could break into song with background dancers and backup music to express anything I happen to be feeling at any given time. The breaking into song at any given time already happens, I would just like it to be more socially acceptable. I visit the PA Renn. Faire each year and have a soft spot for men in kilts. I have an irrational fear of snakes and I do not enjoy amusement park rides.

Toolbox #1 Reflection: 1. I found the fakebook and edmodo very interesting. I already have 2 ideas of how to use fakebook in my classroom. I like the edmodo as well, put will need to explore that more. I am thinking of using edmodo the first day with my classes. I can have them create an account, join the class, and then do an interest survey so I can learn about them and find out about their learning profiles.

2. This technology will make curriculum more accessible because it will hopefully engage students more. They are on social networking stuff ALL the time, and they do not email anymore, so the use of something like edmodo will give them an outlet to ask questions and discuss material with me and their peers. It will also give parents a window into what their children and learning in my classes, as most teenagers do not discuss such things with their parents.

Toolbox #2 Reflection: 1. I found Ted Ed, Wall Wisher, bubble.us, and cosketch really interesting. Ted Ed is just really cool and I can see a lot of uses for that, but in particular if I had stations going or had students who were going to compact out of certain content. It would also allow opportunities for enrichment and also remediation. The others are great for graphic organizers and brain storming across the board.

2. This technology will again, engage students. It will give them a way to network with each other and other sections of the class, and more ways to express ideas in graphic form. I would use this as a choice for students when making graphic organizers and also show them some of the collaboration tools so they can use them if they wish on group projects.

Toolbox time #2 Part 4: There are more and more virtual museums and exhibits appearing on the web all the time. I spent some learning about new ones and checking out some that I've wanted to for a while. There was a link to some on one of the CAST pages and that reminded me. VIrtual museums are great when you can't get to the real place because of money, time, location, and whatnot. The museums in other nations (I found a really cool one in Russia) are adding more and more virtual exhibits as well. Ellis Island and the Tenentment Museum have great online tools that I use already, but there is so much more out there. I very much want to further explore and use the Newseum site. They have some great stuff that can be used for almost anything. I've been to the actual Newseum as well and would love to go back with students, but that isn't always an option.

Toolbox Time #5 I learned that not all of these great sites are for free. That really, really, bummed me out. I looked at Class press and immediately thought of a GREAT lesson plan I could use. Students already are very interested in Tiannanmen Square when we do that in the China Unit. That occurred in 1989. The students and I always discuss how the technology we have now would have affected things during this event. The Chinese government shuts down the internet in China on the anniversaries of T-Square. I was thinking that I could have the kids write blogs as if they were there and then comment on the blogs as if they were young adults from other areas of the world. I will have to explore other class room blogs and see what is available. I found so many of these things interesting, especially Live Binder, and will have to spend more time exploring these tools. These tools will make curriculum more accessible in many ways. One example is that the kids are writing when they are blogging and they don't realize it.

Toolbox Time #6 I really liked the animated movies. I can have kids create them or I can use them as "hooks" and to keep interest.