Late Night Thoughts and Spider Man

I've been noticing lately that the Blog world is dying, slowly but surly. It seems more and more blogs I come across last posted something somewhere between a year to two years ago. So, since no one reads these anymore, why not write something that later I can stumble across and go "oh yeah that was the night I was really board and decided to write something."
So, here I am. Sitting with my family watching Spider Man. It's fall break and I've been needing to sit and clear my head, but haven't had time. Seeing as I'm board anyway, why not??
Spider Man is an interesting movie. I had the experience of seeing the second one before the first, talk about confused. Even though they stand pretty well on their own I wasn't familiar with the story to understand how Peter Parker turned into Spider Man, and the stories and people that haunted his past.
People and stories. Seems to be a reoccurring theme lately in my life. Everyone has people and stories that have influences their lives. When we allow people to give us a glimpse of their story we find out a whole lot more about them, and we find out why they are they way they are.Though it's hard to find out about a complete stranger just in passing, I try to remind myself that there is more to a person that meets the eye. We just see the tip of the ice burg, underneath the waters surface lies the culture, the morals, the values and people that have made this the person they are today.
Just like when we miss the first movie in a series or the season premier of a T.V. show, when we create the story of another person that we do not know, we tend to be lost and confused. IT is important to take the time to understand people and know their stories.
....Wow...and this from watching Spider Man, and it made no sense.
Haha oh well!

The River Strikes Back....

So there has been some excitement along the Missouri River these past couple of days. Due to mass amounts of water coming in from snow melts and rain the Corp of Engineers has decided to release water from the dam allowing it to continue it's journey down the river and into...the towns below...great.
I know that people could be really upset with me saying this, but I find this all kind of exciting and adventurous. So far, I am not one of the people that have had to evacuate though, and am grateful for that. This might have a lot to do with the excitement of everything. For one, I have never had the opportunity to fill sandbags before, true it is probably an opportunity one doesn't want to have, but I found it to be quite interesting. After two and a half hours my body is protesting though. Such is life.
Though this is a rather inconvenient flood, and the timing of the publicizing has not been good at all there has been a lot to be thankful for. For one, though there wasn't a lot of warning there was still warning, plenty in fact that many people will be out of their homes and have their belongings with them. And they have their families. My mom pointed out that like the recent tornado's in the South, people know where their kids and loved ones are. There has also been some great community spirit. People are all pulling together and working hard to help one another out. It was cool to fill sandbags with people that I haven't ever met and help out those who are in the flood zone.
The water is supposed to get higher over the course of the next week. They will continue to release more water but hopefully there won't be too much damage, though we are prepared for the worse. The hardest part is the electricity will be shut off for safety and that will affect more people in a different way. They say that this could last a couple of months. This has turned the whole city upside down, but it will be interesting to see how it pulls through.

City Lights

This is just a poem I wrote for creative writing class.
It's called City Lights.

These noises never sleep
Standing here at my window I peep
Out into the city night
As city lights drown out the starlight
A glow sits over the night sky
And I hold back tears trying not to cry
I feel so far away from home
Here in a city huge, unknown
They say everyone grows up one day
And that I was never meant to stay
I long for adventure but sometimes
My dreams look to scary and my heart cries
"You cannot do this, you are too small
What made you think you were able at all
TO step out into the world and love
TO follow the Voice that called from above?"
In times like there I lose hope
I want to quit but I mustn't nope
I must look to Him who is my song
For I am weak yet He is strong
And under these lonely city lights
I say a prayer and turn off my light
And give my life once again
To He who is greater that lives within.

Wordle

What I learned Post

This is the final post for my class Instructional Technology. I have really like this class and have learned A LOT form it. I don't think there was anything that I had really done before. For one I got to use Macs. I always thought Macs were really confusing growing up using PC's, but this class changed my mind. Macs are what everyone says they are. I am a believer! And you can do so much with them! We created video's and pod casts and play with garage band. It was so much fun.

In this class we also all had to present on topics, though I do remember mine some the ones that stuck out the most were the discussions we had about cyber bullying and how people need to be careful, and teachers especially, of what they post online. These are issues that I hadn't really thought much about, but will have to face in the future regarding my teaching career. It was good to hear about these issues and know how to handle certain situations and such.

Another thing I learned in this class was about copyright stuff. Super important to know as a teacher what you can show in your classroom and cannot. We also did so many fun little projects like WordClouds and Voki's. We saw how to work with Prezi, Gloggster and Animoto. These I all things that I not only incorporate in to my future classrooms, but use right now as I'm learning to be a teacher. I can use these projects to see what works best and what I don't like to use.

Into the Future

Just yesterday I was introduced to "swipe texting" Yes, now with the motion of ONE finger you can send texts to anyone. You can check the news, your facebook, e-mail, twitter what every you do to connect with people, without your laptop or desktop, that's right you can do it from your phone. Bord sitting at the bus stop? Well just whip out your handheld device and play hundreds of games that will entertain you for hours. You can do a number of pointless yet, kind of cool and sometimes handy activities from you cell phone. Such as SkyMap, which tells you where stars, planets and constellations are located in the sky, even in the daytime.

Oh, and this is all with just a cell phone, not to mention the research and advanced technology in medicine and health, rockets and military uses.

Technology is always advancing and to be honest I'm not one who keeps up very well. But regardless if I'm ready or not, technology will always be moving forward. I really don't know what the future of technology is, but it appears that the possibilities are endless. I think that though technology is helpful and really fun we need to be careful not to get distracted by it and remember why we are here on earth. To worship our Creator, not what we created.

My video

Here is a video I made using animoto. They had a wide variety of good Christian music which was pretty cool. These are just some pictures of animals and a couple of me and my dog. It was fun and easy to make.

http://animoto.com/play/PhepeshupbQRLrN9pXn0tQ

This is the link to my Voki, for some reason I could not get it to get directly on the page. I will work on that. But this is a very small part of the "Tear Down This Wall" speech by Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately, Voki's only allow you to say a very limited amount so I was not able to get a good portion of the speech, but here is a little bit of it. Hope it works!


http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=3812885&height=267&width=200

Lately we have been discussing a lot of the importance of online etiquette and how it is important to be careful when you using the internet. Here are some ways that I personally keep myself accountable to what I post online.
1. Don't post a lot.-especially stuff about other people or your emotions. I often feel like places like FB are places to post things that are supposed to get peoples attention. Sometimes you just have a bad day, and things come across the wrong way. It is better not to post anything if it is going to be misinterpreted.
2. Remember who is going to see this stuff- if you post pictures or statements online it is important to remember that your parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, Jesus, the little kids you baby sit, and the grade kids that watched you play basketball in high school can possible see them. Up hole your reputation and character for these people.
3. Make sure when you do send messages they are clear and understandable. This one is difficult for me. I might know what I am trying to say, but the reader may not and be confused. Use the little smiley faces and other things to help interpret your meanings.
4. If you have a problem with someone, don't be rude and post it over the internet. Just because you can hide behind your computer screen doesn't mean that you can go off about how some people are not like you and have differences that you feel are irreconcilable.

Now that I just broke all of those rules, i'm going to go find something else to do. But keep these things in mind when your tempted to be rude to someone over the internet.

CyberBullying.

Cyber bullying/ harassment is a growing problem that has become a huge ordeal over the past years. Cyber bullying shows the "maturity" and self centeredness of the American culture. Though we could discuss this in further detail, I am just going to give a definition of cyber bullying and some website to help students if faced with this issue.

Cyber Bulling: when a person,a child or an adult, uses technology to target, make fun of, and emotionally hurt another adult or child. This can included, sending mean messages to a child, breaking into and child's social networking accounts and sending rude messages to others, sending mean messages under another child's name, degrading another child through the use of texting, networks, etc.

These are just a few examples. The reason that people chose to do stuff like this over cyberspace is because it is harder to get caught. Here are a few websites that assist in fighting cyber bullying.

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org

http://www.focusonthefamily.com -type in cyber bullying in the search engine and they will take you to a few places on how to treat cyber bullying.

http://www.stopbullying.gov

As a future teacher this will be an issue that will need to be researched and discovered. We need to teach children how to behave over cyberspace just like they would anywhere else. We as adults should be a good example to students how you treat your friends using technology.

Honestly....

Academic honesty, is something that is not very well promoted in schools today. Sadly, students are not the only ones who participate in dishonest dealing in schools. Many times the student is supported and encouraged to cheat, plagiarized and copy school work dishonestly by parents and even teachers!This is the influence of our society. In order to get things done we do it hurriedly and take short cuts so we do not have to spend time on "hard", tedious, meaningless tasks. Sometimes when a student is struggling in school and needs good grades for certain activities or sports, dishonesty in their assignments is the easy quick-fix.Parents and teachers encourage it by giving answers and looking the other way.

When role models in students lives are allowing a student to slack in their honesty in school, it is going to overflow into other parts of life. And when an adult does nothing about it, they are giving permission that it is acceptable to be dishonest. Honesty if very important. If one can not be trusted in what he says he will eventually become distrusted in everything he does or says.In life one can not cheat in his job, he would get fired. There are consequences for being dishonest in life and if you continue to do dishonest things in life they will eventually have to pay the consequences.

Teachers and parents need to set good examples in life so that students learn that dishonesty is an unacceptable behavior. In my high school, a person got it very big trouble for cheating, and plagiarizing usually led to rewriting an entire assignment, with a low grade. These may be considered tough rules, but this is a very important lesson to learn. In order to teach my class to be honest individuals, I will expect quality and original work from them. It is important that they clearly understand what is allowed in the assignment and what is not. Also I will need to exemplify honesty in my own life. If I do not hold a high standard of honesty, there is no way they are going to listen to my encouragement to be virtuous and honest citizens.

Teacher Citizenship

Teacher Citizenship is student citizenship times ten. Because teachers have very important role in educating students not only in academics, but also life and social skills, they need to be a positive role model for their students. Their etiquette, netiquette, moral beliefs and values are always on display. A teachers character should portray a positive example of what a citizen should look like. In order that these students understand the importance of being a good citizen, it is important that the people who are teaching these skills uphold good moral standards. Children, especially teen-agers, will not do something that their parents either do not demonstrate themselves or do not address as something they should not do.

It is especially important that a teacher is careful about how he portrays himself online. This generation knows all about technology. They use it. When a teacher talks about a student online or posts information about themselves that is not appropriate students are able to see stuff like that, and this reflects a bad image of not only the teacher, but the school and teaching that they represent. Many teachers have gotten in trouble and fired for such behavior. Because teachers are a very important factor in a students life it is important that they have high standards for themselves to portray what good citizens, online and in real life look like.

Citizens of the Internet

I did not know what digital citizenship was. I have now learned that digital citizenship is basically using manners while on the internet. Teaching students 'netiquette' as it is called, is very important because what we put on the internet reflects who we are as a person. We should maintain a professional composure as we write, communicate and discuss issues over the internet. Some of these rules are using good grammar, complete sentences and correct punctuation, something that everyone could work on! Other rules are not creating fake identities, being polite to others in out writing, credit or cite work that isn't your own. Always remember that hundreds of people, that you may or may not know, can see things that are done over FaceBook, Blogs, and other websites on the internet. Think before you post things, and remember that you are reflecting Christ in all that you do.

It is really easy to take what we see these days as accurate information and truth. But very often what we see is not actually true. This is especially easy to do when using the internet. When doing research or looking stuff up, we take for granted how quickly information can be sent to us wherever we are. But we never stop for a second to think if the information we are getting is accurate. Anyone can make a website about anything they want, and they could either purposefully or accidentally put invalid information.
Some ways to make sure to get good information is to stick with websites that are widely known. Professional sites usually end with .gov, .org, .mil,etc. Check to see if the website has a credited author. Look to see if the author is well known in the field he represents online or if there are titles or degrees given. Also because it is the internet it is easy to hop around and look at at other sites to compare the information that they all have. Also make sure that the websites are up to date.
These are just a couple of ways to check the validity of websites on the internet.

We learned about Fair Use and Copyright a couple of weeks ago in class, and it surprised me that there were so many rules and regulations and exceptions. I thought that copyright basically meant that you couldn't copy things right out of books and download music and movies off the internet. But boy was I wrong!! A copyright used to last only a few years, but now it is a lifetime plus some and even longer for corporations. I can understand not wanting people to steal your product, but wow. There are lots of rules about using things for education. Most of the time when something is used for education it is ok to use. BUT this dose not just mean that you can show a movie in class then. And if you copy papers, students can't keep them.

The copyright issue is so deep it's hard understand, but as a Christan, I still need to obey these laws no matter how inconvenient and annoying they may be. It is really easy to just let it slide and to plead ignorance, but now that I know some of these laws now, I can't just let them slide. Thankfully if you want to use something most of the time all you have to do is send an e-mail and get permission, and thankfully people are pretty nice about it. And if you don't know, e-mailing is easy enough that it won't hurt just to ask. So in the case of copyright laws, it is easier to ask permission than forgiveness.

A Christian's Worldview

A worldview is how a person perceives his world and what he believes about his interaction with the world. According to Dr. Noble a worldview is like a lens that a person looks through in order to interperet his world. A Christian worldveiw is seen through the lens of the Bible. This is sometimes difficult for people to understand because first of all, one must first believe that the Bible is what it says it is. If you don't believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God like it says in 1 Timothy 3:16, then you probably aren't going to take what it has to say very seriously. I for one, believe everything the Bible says, so I therefore base my worldveiw on it.

The Christian worldveiw is not that if your a good person,obey God, pray, and are nice to people that your life is going to be all dandy and you'll get to go to heaven. The Bible teaches that as a Christian you are saved by Grace, not by the things that we do (Ephesians 2:8). A Christian worldview isn't about what man can do, but what about God did. Because God has made a way for man to have fellowship with Him for eternity, Christian's base what they believe about God, His Son Jesus, other people, sin, government, law, marriage, the family, and other areas of a worldview on what He has given us through His Word. This again is hard to understand because we as humans tend to contaminate this worldview by the world around us and our own experiences, and sometimes we don't like what the Bible has to say about certain issues.

This probably seems crazy, and it is, but I myself can testify that though my worldview isn't "politically correct" or may not seem "tolerent" it is not me whom you will have to speak with. It's God. He made it this way, and it's perfect. If you hate me for it, it's ok. Jesus said that you would, but guess what? If you hate me, you hate Him, and if you hate Him, He still loves you. Isn't that kinda cool?? This is the lens I choose to look through.

Wordle

For our first blog we are supposed to talk about how technology can be used in education. Well technology has broaden the horizon of education. One doesn't even have to go to a classroom anymore to go to class. He can take classes online, communicate with other students and teachers. But there are so many more ways that technology can be used in the classroom. As we have been learning in class, pod casts, video's, and fun creative things like, wordles, and websites like prezzie can open a whole new dimension of ways people can learn. We can use these things to teach, present, or give then as assignments to be worked on and created in class.

Technology is important in education because it is a tool to gain knowledge. It allows one to search as much as he would like about a subject where without it he would be limited by books, and the knowledge of others. People can be creative and resourceful in the use of technology. Though there are also some downfalls about the use of technology in education when used wisely can be a real benefit to education.

Number One

My  name is Erica and this blog is started for a college class that I am taking. Yeah! I never thought of myself as a blogger but I have a feeling it is going to catch on real fast. I am studying secondary education with an endorsement in History. This maybe a selfish reason but I love learning and they always say that you learn the most when you teach. I also love history so by puting the two together I think it will a fun experience.  Also teaching runs in my family and it seems that I was doomed to teach. But I am excited and looking forward to the adventure!
Some ramdom facts about me are I love pickles and I love Kit-Kats, though not together...I also like to travel and have been to Mexico, and the Ukraine as well as several states in the U.S.