"Enrichment 2.0: Gifted and Talented Education for the 21st Century"

Enrichment 2.0 focuses on the growth of opportunities in the classroom and the movement from pencil and paper work to a world where students have the opportunity to constantly collaborate with each other through Web 2.0 resources - "includ(ing) wikis, social bookmarking, aggregators, podcasts, collaborative documents, and blogs" (Eckstein, 2009, p. 60). The Enrichment 2.0 program utilizes these tools to create enrichment activities for gifted and talented students.

Included in the article are many web resources for teachers to utilize - del.icio.us, trailfire, diigo, etc. and a brief statement explaining the benefits of these sites. Also included are sites from which teachers can access podcasts - The Discovery Channel (http://www.discovery.com/radio/podcasts.html), The Education Podcast Network, NPR, NASA, National Geographic (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/podcasts), and History: Colonial Williamsburg Past & Present.

Eckstein, M. (2009, Winter). Enrichment 2.0: gifted and talented education for the 21st century. Gifted Child Today, 32(1). 59-63. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=10&hid=7&sid=27efc4ad-d6f9-442a-beb4-44db1e23b503%40sessionmgr4.

Blog Reflection Post - C

There are a plethora of ways that a blog can be used in the classroom. Students can be given the chance to respond or reflect on a question or topic. For example, in order to jump start a conversation about writing, a language arts teacher might ask students to respond to the question "What are qualities of good writing?" The class can take these ideas to expand on during the next class session. Teachers can also use blog as a tool for organizing resources for students to use when using the internet. While talking with a classmate on Wednesday, she commented that she teaches second grade and can't just send her students out to find information. She has to organize the sites into a user-friendly way for the students to access. By having students visit one site, this streamlines the process and allows for more productive work time.

Outside of the classroom, there are so many great blogs for entertainment purposes. Personally, I regularly visit two blogs - the personal blog of a friend of mine and Cake Wrecks, a website devoted to professional cakes gone wrong. I think that blogs offer a place for people to share aspects of their lives with their friends, share stories in order to help others in similar situations, or provide readers with sheer entertainment.

Teachers and students each have specific roles when blogging in the classroom. Depending on the type of blog being used, the teacher or student may be responsible for the creation and upkeep of the blog. However, if a student is responsible for the upkeep of an academic blog, the teacher has a responsibility of monitoring the blog for appropriate content and relevance of the blogs.

Examples of ways that blogs can be used in the classroom:

• I helped create and pilot a single-gender math program in my county. Many people ask questions, looking for answers to questions related to its implementation, processes, and success. A blog could be created to document the year, also giving students the chance to offer their own views through writing blog posts for the site.
• As an extension to a unit on persuasive writing, students could use a class blog to share examples of persuasive writing and persuasive media. Students could post their own persuasive writing - essays, editorials, reviews, etc. They could also use it to review examples of persuasive media or other persuasive writings, while linking the media/document to their blog. After students have posted their ideas or writings, they could comment on other student's posts, and the teacher could use these to propel classroom discussion.
• In order to have students think about vocabulary and the new words that they see in their daily reading, students could be required to post one word they they've come across, including definition and sentence, to the blog each week.
• Similarly, students often aren't sure when or where they'll be using math in their lives. In order to get them thinking about math in the world, they could be required to post bi-weekly the ways that they see math in the world. Other students would have to post their own responses to these posts.
  

Blog Reflection Post - B

I really liked the ability to share websites with other people. I tried to add websites that would be beneficial to other teachers, as well as myself. We come across great websites so often, and they are just forgotten. The blog provides a place to organize these websites for future reference. It also allows us to organize sites so that other people can use them. If, for example, your blog has a focus - i.e. math, language arts, single gender education, middle school, etc - other teachers interested in that subject could go to your blog, knowing that there would be sites of interest there. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to blog and see the blogs that others have created. I like the opportunity to collaborate and share ideas with other teachers.

Blog Reflection Post - A

I learned that blogging can be used in so many ways in the classroom. It can be used as a tool for reflection, to permit the teacher to see what the student has garnered from each lesson or reading - as used with this course. I also like the ability to use blogs to organize websites for classroom use. Rather than having to write them on the board or direct students to them, inevitably having typos and choruses of "Mine won't work!" to deal with, you could use a blog posting to corral all of these sites together. I used our group's blog as a site for participants to visit for links to copyright free music and images during the digital storytelling project.

As a learner, I was excited to discover the capabilities of the blog and the resources out there that can allow other documents to be incorporated into the blog. One site that I was led to by a colleague was www.shareslide.net, which allows the blogger the opportunity to embed PowerPoint presentations, documents, etc. without just having to copy and paste lengthy word documents (i.e.: proposals) into the blog. This is evident in my digital storytelling reflection post (blog 9).

I have had blogs of a personal nature before, so I was surprised with the ease in which a professional blog takes shape. I was concerned that this blog would become sterile, with none of my own voice showing through. However, I was surprised to learn that a little bit of me is hidden in there, among the academia.

Blog 11 - Project Based Learning Project

The project based learning project has been the most daunting of the projects in this class. Since the start of the project, I've felt as though I'm treading water, just trying to keep my head above water, unsure where to turn for help. Our original group, Techy Teachers, was unfortunately disbanded, and we were each placed into a different group. It's been tough since we had created a group dynamic that worked, and we were lucky to have a group of four committed students. We each did what we needed to, when it needed to be done. It would have been nice if we could have just volunteered to be project leader for a second project and stayed together.

In addition to having to acclimate myself to a new group, this project is a large undertaking. I do find it to be highly beneficial, however, to the learning of the students. Unfortunately, I am creating a project for a content completely unrelated to mine - project over 5th grade social studies standards, while I teach 8th grade math and language arts. I would have preferred to complete all of this work for something that I could actually use in my classroom.

In addition, I did have a family crisis in the middle of this module, and that has been an additional struggle in completing this project ... and completing it well. I look forward to seeing the end results for my group!

Project Based Learning Proposal, Including Rubric for Student Work

7464 Pblproposal Ecb

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Presentation Board for Proposal

7464 Pbl Displayboard1 Ecb

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PowerPoint of 5-day Lesson Plan (Taken From Proposal)

Bill To Law Powerpoint

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Example of Student Comic Life

Bill To Law

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Example of Student Poster

Law Poster

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Blog 10 - Emerging Technology That Supports eLearning

Being that I am currently involved in eLearning through this online class, this chapter really resonated with me. There has been a lot written about using eLearning opportunities in the public school. I know that our high school offers "eLearning (opportunities) for advanced study and remediation" (Egbert, 2009, p. 211) for students to use in order to recover credits or obtain credits for classses. Each time that I read about these opportunities, I am torn between my own interest in taking online courses and trying to figure out how my own students fit into the role of an eLearner. Egbert (2009) states that "eLearning ... often requires students and teachers to have different skills and understandings than face-to-face classroom learning does" (p. 207). I am not sure if the students that I teach have the dedication and structure to be effective eLearners. I struggle with getting my own students to complete their work when we are working in a face-to-face setting, so I do not know how they would get their work finished if I wasn't hanging over their heads, constantly prodding and reminding them to turn in their assignments. I would love to talk with teachers who've used these types of learning opportunities with a successful outcome.

Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.