BLOG POST #7
Cyberbullying

Bullying is on the minds of all educators and an important aspect of the lives of our students. Multiple factors are at work, and I have always been curious about some of the causes of the increase in bullying. Has bullying really increased or are the number of occurrences the same but more people reporting instances of bullying? Developing a “thick skin” seems to no longer be the go-to response for bullying, and no longer do we say, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Reading through some of the material answers some of this in part. In the article “From the sandbox to the inbox” cultural differences may play a role in instances of bullying.  

The more feminine/egalitarian Scandinavian culture places greater emphasis on the quality of interpersonal relationships and, thus, leaves less room for conflicts such as bullying and cyberbullying. (2015, pg. 117)

This led me to believe that our society or our culture places less emphasis on relationships thus creating instances where bullying can occur. This did not help with understanding how bullying has changed over the years and verbal, or cyber bullying is on the rise. The research indicates that there is not much data on the subject prior to the 1970's. Physical bullying was the predominate form and verbal bullying was not really addressed or studied until the late 80's. This answered my question of the increase of bullying and yes, it is on the rise and the definition of bullying is being adjusted as well. A comment I read in a paper by Hyojin Koo really resonated with me. It was noted the "the attitude towards it has been changing; it used to be considered as a part of children’s growing up but now is considered to be a social problem which has to be controlled." (Koo, 2007) This made sense to me as to how our society or culture has changed how bullying is approached and handled.  

Awareness of bullying is no longer enough so how do we approach ending or reducing bullying? The simplest answer is teaching kids to be kind. (Faucher, 2015) This is repeated through many articles and personal experience. The biggest contribution an educator can make to help reduce bullying is education about the definition of bullying, encouraging kinder behaviors, and modeling correct behaviors. Educating our students about what behaviors are wrong helps but encouraging all students to change their behavior is hard and we must also help those who are bullied by educating them on ways to avoid situations where bullying may happen. A resource found on WikiHow could be a good way to help students develop ways to avoid or reduce bullying opportunities. (Lin, 2022) Bullying education cannot only revolve around changing bullies but also helping victims find ways to handle those situations and develop the confidence and understanding that the words spoken by others do not define us. 

 

Faucher, C., Cassidy, W., Jackson, M. (2015, August 27). From the sandbox to the inbox: Comparing the acts, impacts and solutions of bullying in K-12, higher education, and the workplace. Journal of education and training studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.11114/jets.v3i6.1033  

Koo, H. (2007). A timeline of the evolution of school bullying in differeing social contexts. (EJ768971). ERIC. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ768971.pdf

Lin, N. (2022, September 23). How to avoid being a victim of bullying. WikiHow. https://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Being-a-Victim-of-Bullying

Graphic of a student bent over holding a notebook. 

Students in the background are whispering to each other. 

 

        For this assignment I have decided to create an Instagram account for the library I work in. I chose this because there is not an account associated with my school at this time. This is popular with kids and adults in my area and will be a wonderful way to reach those audiences. Instagram will help me promote new books as well as the projects the library students are working on. Instagram will increase interest in library programs and help the community to be involved with some of the activities in our school. Jan Wilson’s article listed eight ways to make your library more visible. The creation of this account fulfills numbers, one, two and eight. Creating the account will encourage more picture taking as well as more student involvement. (Wilson, 2017) 

        My plans for this tool are to increase circulation by posting book snapshots and new releases. Using this space to post library activities and events is also a priority. Showing the students and community the activities of the library will hopefully increase student involvement. In the future I hope that students can use this format to talk about their favorite books and share their reading journeys.  

 

Resources 

Wilson, J. (2017, December). Make your library more visible. School Library Journal, 63(12),16-17.  

Blog Post #5 Adaptive Technolgy

 The assistive technology that I would like to share this week is a new discovery for me. While doing some research on adaptive technologies, I found some links to a website called Bookshare. Bookshare is a Benetech Initiative that makes millions of books available in ebook format for the visually impared. No copyright laws are violated and in most cases, this service is free or costs as little as a dollar a week. 

Bookshare is a great resource for those with low or no vision, dyslexia, and other impairments the availability of textbooks as well as most books found in your public library.  Some of the features include font and size adjustability with text highlighting capabilities, different voices can be chosen to read the text as well as varying read back speeds.

Visual impairment is a concern for many and the costs of providing large print books or ebooks can be considerable. Public institutions have funding for additional services but public schools run on a much smaller budget. Financially it is difficult for public schools to purchase a variety of interesting books for the few students who would benefit. This program is a great resource for teachers, parents, students,  and librarians. 

Bookshare is FREE or low cost for anyone with a qualifying disability. This is a great resource and I am very excited to see about introducing it to some of the students I teach. Check out Bookshare at the link provided.

Promethean Boards for your Classroom

Promethean Boards

What are they and how can I use them in my classroom?

    The technology I chose to examine is the interactive white board, the Promethean Board. This is a universal tool that can be used at any grade level and in any subject. An interactive white board as defined by Whatis.com is “An interactive whiteboard, also known as a smartboard, is an interactive display in the format of a whiteboard that reacts to user input either directly or through other devices.” 

    A Promethean board fits into The R.A.T. model by replacement and serves as a different means to accomplish the same instructional practices. Educators can use promethean boards to replace worksheets and encourage interaction within the class to learn that material. The promethean board also replaces traditional DVD delivery and allows the vast array of videos accessible on the internet to be played for the class to view. The videos available on the internet enhance instruction. 

    The promethean board also fits into the amplification aspect of the R.A.T. model. The promethean board also replaces a traditional whiteboard and allows educators to prepare the information that would normally be written on a whiteboard (time consuming, and some have questionable handwriting) as a Google slide and streamlines the teaching process. The promethean also amplifies presentations, students can collaborate and share presentations digitally. The promethean board also amplifies differentiated learning by accommodating tactile and visual learners. 

1. Here are some digital resources about Promethean Boards and Classroom use ideas 

PowerPoint games to be used with Interactive Whiteboards like Family Feud, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune 

http://bestteacherblog.com/powerpoint-game-templates/  

 

2. This is a PDF list of recommended apps and interactive websites 

https://learn.prometheanworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Recommended-Apps-and-Interactive-Websites-for-Your-ActivConnect-OPS-G-and-ActivConnect-G.pdf  

3. There are also a large number of resources available on Teachers Pay Teachers 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:promethean%20board  

References

 

Cox, J. (2019, October 6). Technology in the classroom: The benefits of smart boards. TeachHub.com. https://www.teachhub.com/technology-in-the-classroom/2019/10/technology-in-the-classroom-the-benefits-of-smart-boards/ 

 

Hughes, J. (1999). Replacement, amplification, and transformation: The R.A.T. model. Tech Edges. http://techedges.org/r-a-t-model/  

 

Promethean. (2021, November 8). How to use an interactive whiteboard in the classroom. Retrieved September 26, 2022. https://www.prometheanworld.com/gb/resource-centre/blogs/how-to-use-an-interactive-whiteboard-in-the-classroom/ 

 

TechTarget Contributor. (2017, May). Interactive whiteboard. Whatis.com. Retrieved September 26, 2022. https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/interactive-whiteboard