Week 7- Facebook Is Going To Start Tracking You Even More Closely

I recently posted about a blog I found on the Read/Write feed entitiled, "Facebook Can Now Spy On You Surroundings Via Your Phone's Microphone" written by Selena  Larson. The article discussed a new Facebook feature where they can now automatically identify TV shows and music you are listening to in the background when updating your Facebook news feed status.Well I am back to discuss another way Facebook will be catching your personal information!

A blog posted 4 days ago entitled, "Facebook Is Going To Start Tracking You Even More Closely," again posted by Selena Larson shows that Facebook is at it again. According to Larson, "the company will now be tracking your browsing and activity on third-party sites and applications to serve you up even more personalized ads." Users will receive a notification as seen below. Facebook has always produced ads based on the pages you like or share, but now they will actually produce advertisements based on websites you visited. Can we say another invasion of privacy?

If you are not interested in Facebook being able to track the websites you visited, there is a there are do-not-track settings available on iOS and Android devices. However, Facebook does not honor the do-not-track settings that you can place on your web browsers. "According to a Facebook spokesman, the company doesn’t honor do-not-track requests from browsers because there is no set industry standard" (Larson, 2014).

Larson,S (2014, June 12) Facebook Is Going To Start Tracking You Even More Closely. ReadWrite. Retrieved June 16, 2014 from http://readwrite.com/2014/06/12/facebook-tracking-websites-ads#awesm=~oHlY1C99a95zwf

Week 6- In the Classroom: Helping Children Speak about Death and Loss

Any individual dealing with the loss of a loved one whether it be a parent, sibling, grandparent or pet is extremely difficult. However, there is just something more difficult about seeing children experiencing the emotional pain attached to death. All teachers, at some point in their career, have to deal with students who experience a loss. The blog written by Maurice Elias entitled, In the Classroom: Helping Children Speak about Death and Loss points out that "we live in a culture that does not always encourage or support expressions of loss and, frankly, expects people "to get over" grief fairly quickly. So educators may well have their own issues with personal losses. And they may also feel that are not capable of handling the raw emotions that might emerge if a door is opened to emotional expression" (Elias, 2014). I have to say I was a little taken back by this statement because I feel most teachers would not be teachers if they were not caring, compassionate, supportive and understanding. I felt this blog gave teachers little credit for the constant support we offer students. Many times we are the only support system these children have and would do anything to help ease a child's pain and suffering. At the end of the day we have children's best interest at heart.

The blog did point out that "carrying around these strong feelings is not easy and can serve as a barrier to learning. It might also affect children's relationships with peers (and teachers) as they might be pensive, anxious, or angry. without it being obvious from what is happening around them"(Elias, 2014). I do agree with this statement and think that a teacher should always be prepared and have methods of dealing with death within the classroom. The article suggests allowing students to express themselves through a range of modalities and to include activities that can help honor and remember the loss of a loved one.Visual arts can include songwriting, painting, sculpting, or collages. This can be done individually or as a group. The blog suggests that this will allow students to process and express their emotions, but also listen to and support the feelings of their peers. All individuals deal with death differently, and bottom line is that way we help children deal with death is going to vary child to child. As teachers, we can be supportive and do what we feel is appropriate to have the best outcome for the child.

Elias, M. (2014, June 6). In the Classroom: Helping Children Speak about Death and Loss. Edutopia. Retrieved June 10, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/helping-children-speak-about-death-loss-maurice-elias

Week 5- The End of the Year is Near: 4 Fun ways to Leave

Now that the school year is coming to an end, it is a great opportunity for teachers to reflect on their year. We often think about lessons that went really well, implementations that did not go so well and new things to focus on for the next school year. What better way to reflect on your teaching experiences than to hear from the students themselves. The blog entitled, "The End of the Year is Near: 4 Fun Ways to Leave" by Dr. Richard Curwin, offers clever activities for students to participate in at the end of the year that at the same time helped the teacher to "understand what students learned and how they felt now that the year was close to ending" (Curwin, 2014). I really enjoyed Curwin's ideas because they were quick, easy and informative at the same time.

One of the ideas presented was an end of the year interview with the students. First, divide the class into small groups and have the students think of 3 questions they want to ask the teacher about the past year. They could be questions such as, why do we have to do homework, what is the best part about teaching, how do you fairly grade my paper? Let the students come up with their own ideas. Then you, as the teacher, will come up with questions you would like to ask the students within each group and have them answer fairly. For example, were my tests fair, what was your favorite activity or project of the year, what is one thing I could have done better? Conduct this as an end of the year interview and give students the right to pass if needed. this is one great way to find out your effectiveness of assessments, materials, activities and so forth.

Another idea I really liked and would be fun, yet informative for the end of the year was having the students role play as the teacher. The blog suggests having students divide into small groups, providing each group with a scenarios, and having the students act out each scenario using your behaviors and mannerisms. You should then do the same. Example scenarios might include, teacher giving a lesson, teacher getting students to line up, teacher getting class to quiet down or on the other end, students giving excuses as to why homework was not complete, students asking silly questions or students taking a test. This should be humorous, yet not offensive, and yet gives teachers a glimpse into how students see their behaviors through their eyes.

Read the blog below for other ideas.

Curwin, R. (2014, May 28). The End of the Year is Near: 4 Fun Ways to Leave. Edutopia. Retrieved June 5, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/fun-ways-to-end-year-richard-curwin