Final thoughts....

When I first registered for this class, I was a little hesitant because the days seemed to change around constantly and I didn't know who Dr.D was. I'm always hesitant when taking a professor that I don't know because then I don't know what I'm in for. However I was pleasantly surprised by both the class and by Dr. D. At first, I had to adjust to not coming to class once a week and making sure I disciplined myself with my work. Once I got into the swing of things, I was fine. It was nice not having to drive to MSU and fight for parking.. Best of all, I like how I could do my work while in my pj's :).

Dr. D was great too--she gave us enough time each week to work on our assignments which is important since we are all working full time. Also, anytime you had a question or concern she was ready to help. Most importantly, she didn't make you feel bad for asking something.

Being my final class before I graduate, I'm very happy that I took this class. I learned a lot about new literacies and its connection to the world. I truly enjoyed the comic book creator and I'm looking forward to trying it with my students. Also, I liked the exposure to facebook, Myspace and Blogger. These are things that I might not have tried if it weren't for this class.

Best of luck to all, and will see you Saturday! It's been a pleasure!

:) Denise

Virginia Tech Shooting

I'm sure everyone was devastated and shocked to hear about the Virginia Tech shooting.. I can't even imagine what those poor people went through.. How scary is the world we live in? Never would I imagine that we could be in danger at school. To me school is a place where you would be safe. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims friends and family. Especially to the La Porte family who lost their only son Matthew. I taught Matthew's sister Priscilla and she is a great girl and I'm sure she will never be the same after loosing her brother. Please keep them in your prayers.

Rainy Day

It was nice to have off today but I hope everyone is safe and didn't have any flooding! They are using my school as a shelter since so many people had to be evacuated.. It's possible that we might have tomorrow off too!

YouTube

I love YouTube! YouTube is a free website that lets its users share videos and upload any video you want. You can find any type of video on this site-- from a tv show, a music video, a personal video and numerous types of movie and tv clips from all over the world. When I searched YouTubes main page, it is a little surprising to see what the top rated videos are. It shows what things people are interested in at the moment -- it ranged from American Idol, a Bill Cosby clip, to a dog on the David Letterman Show.

I must confess, I do frequent YouTube often. I am a huge Elvis Presley fan and I have seen numerous videos, tv appearances and concerts that Elvis appeared in. Here's one of my favorite Elvis clips.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Qo1eaWF8c

My brother Michael also has been appeared on YouTube a few times. He is a journalist in Washington D.C . and has appeared on a political talk show where they discuss current issues. If you want to check him out, here's the link.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiS1ZlM39WI

Hopkin Green Frog

After doing some searching on Google, I found a few sites about Hopkin Green Frog. The most informative site was wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopkin_Green_Frog

Here I learned that Hopkin Green frog was a toy frog that belonged to a 16 year old autistic boy name Terry. He got the toy back in September 2004 from a McDonald's Happy Meal. After loosing the toy, Terry made "lost" posters and hung them around his neighborhood. His posters were scanned and then was found on many Internet sources. A web site known as Lostfrog.org was created where information and pictures about this story could be found. Being a special ed teacher, I hope that people weren't making fun of Terry. Unfortunately, I'm sure some people who do not understand autism, did make fun of him.

Reading

Throughout my life my experiences with reading have varied. As a kid, my parents would read to us every night which was something I loved. Because of this, I loved reading on my own and really enjoyed it. As I went through school, I started not to enjoy reading as much as I did. It was more of a chore. Some of the books we had to read weren't exactly interesting. Occasionally I would be re inspired to read if I read something good in school. In high school and college, I really only read for school not for enjoyment. It wasn't till my adult years that my love of reading returned. I enjoy reading, it is something that relaxes me. Being off in the summers, I do a lot of reading especially when I'm at the beach.

When teaching reading, I try to choose books that will interest my students. When I first started teaching I used the reading textbooks with my students, but I myself was bored with the majority of stories in them. I then decided to use trade book instead. I try to choose a variety of books that I know will interest my students. I have found that my students truly enjoy using trade books and they often choose books that they want to read.

The activities I do when reading a book vary. I pull a lot of ideas from the concept of literature circles but I modify a lot of it since I teach special ed. I also do a lot of story mapping and webbing. Technology has impacted the way I teach reading because it offers a lot of different things my students can do while reading a book. My students love to create character webs, especially on the program Inspirations. I'm looking forward to learning about the comic book creator--I know my students will love it!

The Matrix

I never really had a desire to watch the movie The Matrix, but after watching it last night, I have to say I thought it was very interesting. It made me a little freaked out thinking that the idea of a virtual world is a possibility. It was interesting to follow Keanu Reeves character, Thomas Anderson, and his realization that world he is living in is not what he really thought it was. All the gadgets and computers in the movie were unblievable..It would be weird to think that one day these gadgets could be a big part of our reality.
When I searched for info on the movie I found numerous sites about the movie. Some sites were informational ones with facts and info about the movie. Other sites provided games and information about the movies sequels. Here is one site I checked out....

http://www.movie-page.com/1999/Matrix.htm