Develop websites for the university

Auburn Montgomery University. Trace Alexander. 1-334-244-3000.

Jacksonville University. Christy Sarra. 1-904-256-7000 ext. 7033.

Philanthropy

While our culture today openly admits that technology and gaming are beneficial to the classrooms and are an excellent teaching tool, it seems that those same people will give an eye roll at the thought of majoring in such a field in college. We know that in order to advance in the future one must study works from the past, which has led to Universities even offering "video-game-studies programs". Video games are only 30 years old and still not considered to some to be an art form worth preserving and archiving, which couldn't be further from the truth. This was proven by the successful open-house recently held that allowed modern day gaming students to take a trip back in time and play old school games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., etc. They said they there were problems however, but the issues involved the kids playing too long and not taking turns. This is all the more proof that these games should most certainly be maintained somewhere, if nothing else so that we can someday show the next generation just how far we have come in regards to the gaming industry.

Helpful Classroom Websites

Boom writer: "engage students like never before" Teachers create a "story start" and students complete the story with their own twist, endings, etc. The students then submit their work and the teacher either approves or ask them to complete revisions. Once the story is finished, the students submit the story to the rating stage. Students are able to then access each others anonymous work and rate the stories. After voting, winners are announced and stories are then built upon to ultimately create books that can be read online or even purchased in soft cover form. This will encourage star students to perfect their writing, while engaging struggling students in writing creatively and independently. The site is free and available for all ages.

Classtell is a website designed especially for individual classes to create their own space. When accessing the site, students can check their homework or foresee future assignments. Students can even subscribe to the site, so that each time you make a post, they are notified via email. There is a blog, discussion form, calendar, place to upload documents, etc. If desired the teacher may even require a password to access the site so that people uninvited cannot see what is posted. This site is designed to make it especially easy for teachers to create a page for their individual class. The service is free with up to 1 GB of  space.

Boy Culture

Boys' culture isn't working in schools today. We have this stereotype of what we believe genders should be and are most interested in. The 100 girls statistics compare the number of girls with learning disabilities, emotional disturbances, and behavioral problems to that of boys. The number of boys with each of these issues was consistently and significantly higher than the number of girls with the same problems. Why are boys facing these issues in staggering number compared to girls? First off, teachers seem to have a "zero tolerance" policy that doesn't allow boys to express themselves in ways that most interest them. Teachers seem to believe that boys interest in blowing things up, rough housing, and guns deems them to be inappropriate and in dire need of psychological help. Secondly, there aren't any men teaching elementary school children. Boys do not see men in their classrooms and ultimately conclude that it must not be a place for boys. Lastly, we have a compression of curriculum that requires students to learn in Kindergarten what they used to learn in second grade. The pressure that is placed on teachers doesn't allow active students to express themselves....at all. So what can we as future teachers to help this crisis? We need to throw ourselves into boys culture! First, we can design better games that will rival those that boys are interested in. We need to change our zero tolerance policy and allow boys to be boys in order for them to not lose interest in classwork. Gaming shouldn't be looked down on by educators, but embraced and used as a tool instead. As educators, we should do everything in our power to reengage boys in school, and to do so, we MUST embrace boy culture...and not ignore, deny, or belittle it for one more second.

Movie Maker

When I read the directions for our Movie Maker project and discovered that we were supposed to tell a story, I decided to share a little bit about my short lived career as a pet groomer. While the process isn't rocket science, it is an art form that requires an essential order of things. Secondly, I'm sure that most girls in my class have a dog and half of them probably have their dog groomed, so here is a sneak peek of what your pampered pooch will endure at each visit to the doggy groomer. Enjoy!

Webpage

https://sites.google.com/site/msrushings1stgradeclass/home

Cyberbullying

In today's society it is far to easy for people to cowardly sit behind a computer screen and "diss" other people online. Being able to bully someone without consequence has become easier than setting up the account in order to do so. While there is so much emphasis placed on blocking children from online social networking sites, there is little attention paid to teaching them how to use such sites appropriately. While cyber bullying, children may not understand how negatively their comments may be effecting others. They should be shown stories of tragedies that have taken place simply because of this new way of bullying. Without being held accountable or shown why cyber bullying is such a terrible thing to do, children will unfortunately continue to bully and be bullied online.