I’ve said it before…

And I’ll say it again: It’s not fair to regulate what an 18 year can view on the internet based on what is appropriate for a 5 year old. Not only is it not fair, it’s not allowing teachers to reach some of our TEKS (state objectives).  I am sick and tired of having people who have no idea WHO I teach, WHAT, I teach, or even HOW I teach it.

Babynames.com is now open at school, but I have serious problems when I teach Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno. My head spun when I tried to have my students go to http://www.hellpizza.co.uk to examine the pizzas and try to identity the allusions in the pizzas (did they come Inferno, Paradise Lost, or the Bible?) – the students were blocked. We weren’t given a reason why – just the white screen on censorship.

And please don’t tell me to write a Help desk ticket – I’ve done those before, and (if they ever get allowed), the teachable moment is gone. even if they get it approved for the next day, I might already be in another unit – I *am* on an accelerated schedule, you know.

I was told by one person that I should have my web page requests turned in at least 32 (preferably 48) hours before I want to to use. Cute. There are two issues here sparky, that I’d like you to consider:

1. When my students do research, I have no idea what webpages that they will stumble upon and read. Sure, you could say that I could take all of the extra time to determine a set number of appropriate webpages and only allow students to go to those webpages, but that is ridiculous. Since when is it appropriate for teachers to constrict learning? That’s like saying we will ONLY use the textbook to learn from. No workbooks. No experiments. No demonstrations. No field trips. Nothing. Just the textbook. Also, it’s not in line with the College and Career Readiness Standards. Do you think NetTrekker prepares high school students for internet-based assignments in college?

2. There is NO WAY for teachers to determine what webpages are restricted to students, so even if I wanted to comply with #1, there is really no way for me to, unless you want me to send IT a copy of every webpage that I use instructionally?

Argh. Anyone out there have any tips dealing with the censorship of the internet?

Edmodo/LMS/Techie Stuff

Anyone use Edmodo in the classroom? I’m worried that my students will be able to create teacher accounts and then create groups and use the computer to basically IM their friends all day.

I think the assignment feature is great – but since I use Angel LMS on campus, I don’t really need that feature, but it would be AWESOME for schools that’s aren’t at a 1:1 campus just yet in our district.

Blackboard bought Angel a few months ago, so I hope that means we’ll be getting more features in the future. Oh, wait. We already have lots of features – it’s just my district turns them all off.I can fully understand why we don’t want the students to IM all users, but why can’t staff have it? Why can’t students IM their teachers?

<snark> I’m very frustrated right now. I have all of these huge goals that just keep getting stopped by IT. And it’s not like I haven’t been patient – this is my fourth year waiting on IT to meet the needs of a 1:1 school. Let me clarify – to meet the needs of a teacher who actually uses current technology in the classroom. I’m trying to be nice, but I get cranky when I get told that “no one else has this problem” – that doesn’t always mean user error- maybe that means NO ONE ELSE IS USING THE PRODUCT TO GET THAT ERROR! </snark>

Until 4:00 today, the filter was blocking every single web page today. And people wonder why I don’t take my computer home!

Ok. End on a good note.

Goals this week:
1. Use PollEverywhere this week in both classes
2. Promote my mailing list for parents
3. Figure this edmodo thing out (is it blocked at school?)
4. When is Cricket going to get with the program and do SMS?

Day Two

Well, I was going to blog about this class again like I did yesterday, but the filter has now blocked WordPress (among other pages that I use), even though we were promised that the only things that would be blocked were porn sites, gambling sites, and YouTube. I’m really disappointed. Blogging about my PD was a great way for me to internalize what I’m listening to and doing. I can disagree and develop my own ideas. It’s a way for me to talk without talking, without being loud and distracting others. Even now, S. is talking about intrinsic motivation with M., which is totally on topic, but still is pulling my attention away.

Even just writing in Word isn’t doing the same thing. I like being able to publish it immediately.  WordPress is now open after lunch, but I still can’t access “social networking” sites. Well, duh. This is how I network with other teachers.

Another site that I am battling over is www.urbandictionary.com. It is categorized as adult and I do agree that there are lots of adult words on that site. However, how am I supposed to understand what my students are talking about. A few years ago, for whatever reason, I used the phrase “chicken head” in class. I had been using it for about a week when a student (from another teacher’s class) came up to me after class one day and whispered “Miss, do you know what that means?” Obviously, I didn’t. I’ll let you look that word up Today at the table, one teacher shared her story about how her students used “neck” as a negative word. As in, “that’s so neck” followed by giggles. We still don’t know what that word means.

One last pet peeve: don’t tell me that we are going to lunch and then say “Whoah! Sorry! One last thing!” and then hold me in for a few more minutes. You’ve lost me already. How many times have you accidentally released students early and then try to get them back into the classroom? Good luck.