***Teachers beware: The dark side of social networking***
Think only your friends can see your pictures on facebook? Think again. Harry Ess Belch, a school-based technology specialist at Union Mill elementary school in Clifton, VA, and writer of this article discusses the ways in which teachers can hold onto their jobs while still maintaining an active social networking life on the side. Many teachers are under the impression that what goes on in their own social networking life has no barring on their job. The incidents discussed in this article proved otherwise. Many teachers in fact have lost their jobs due to such simple postings of them holding alcoholic beverages to even more severe cases such as them posing in what they refer to as "sexually suggestive positions."
Harry decided to take matters into his own hands and stake out the laws for what is considered just an unjust, in these particular cases. "According to the U.S. Supreme Court, neither students nor teachers “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” This means that, teachers and students are to maintain their constitutional protections only within school grounds. "In the United States, every state has rules that govern teacher behavior outside the “schoolhouse gate,” but the legal protection offered to teachers often fails when the teacher decides to make his or her private life public through online social networking sites."
Teachers now have workshops to inform them in some type of training to learn about what is considered appropriate to post on a social network and what can cost them their job. The overall goal to make teachers aware that once they post something on the internet, regardless of private settings, they are setting themselves up for their "private" lives to become "public". 

Common Core Standards

Common Core standards were introduced within New York's school P.S. 124 for level k to 2nd grade in the subject matter of mathematics. Students here, are being introduced to math concepts where they are expected to not only figure out answers but also use their critical thinking skills in order to find them. These new common core standards promote both written and oral skills within math. One example shown, was when the students were to not only find out number answers but show the way in which they found them, This was demonstrated with them finding their conclusions by making charts and graphs. Such a demonstration allows for children to not only find an answer but gives them the opportunity to explain how they got there. This new method of common core standards is beneficial in that it helps the teachers see which students are struggling and which students understand which concepts. Often times some children will move at a faster pace then others, so the children that are struggling can now take time to internalize the information, so no one falls behind. These "domains" as they called it are the basis for kindergarten level thinking and include counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking, numbers and operations in base ten, measurement and data, and geometry. The domains change at grade level and are called progressions. These basic domains are being used as the stepping stones into the students career path. Teachers were in favor with these new types of standards, saying that they enjoy seeing their students having to think, while noting there are often times multiple ways of figuring out a problem.
The next set of common core standards were implemented in the elementary's 4th and 5th grade classes where children had to make observations and inferences about the characters in their books and then impersonate them in their own talk show. This method allowed students to become more organized by using their text to help them figure out their ideas. Responding to text is also included as part of these common core standards for language and visual arts as well as literacy in history/social studies, and science and technical studies. This type of preparation now is what will be used to help them later on in life...
When it came to the English language learners, they too were expected to work collaboratively with one another as they are considered to be at the same pace as their fellow students.
I personally see these new common core standards as a beneficial movement as it allows students to use their critical thinking skills, which in turn leads to academic improvement. The only roadblock I see, is keeping everyone at the same level. Because students learn so differently, these common core standards may be a a bit more challenging for certain students.

Computational thinking...A digital age skill for everyone

*What is computational thinking? Computational thinking according to publisher Janette Wing is "solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer sciences." Janette went on to note that computational thinking is not just for those into the sciences, but also can useful for those more interested in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
*How can we make CT accessible? "In 2009, the national Science foundation funded a project titled levering thought leadership for computational thinking in Pk-12". This project has been intended to make the concepts of computational thinking accessible for educators. Included are relevant and appropriate examples of computational thinking along with educational objectives and classroom practices.   Computational thinking can help identify most promising practices and has strategies for moving this way of thinking from concept to deep integration.
A few examples of computational thinking include....
*Formulating problems in a way that enables us to use a computer and other tools to help solve them.

*Logically organizing and analyzing data.

*Identifying, analyzing, and implementing possible solutions with the goal of achieving the most efficient and effective combination of steps and resources.

*Generalizing and transferring this problem-solving process to a wide variety of problems.

*How is CT different? " It is a unique combination of thinking skills that, when used together, provide the basis of a new and powerful form of problem solving". It is more tool oriented which can help with familiar problem solving skills. 

*Why is CT important you ask? "While the human mind is by far the most powerful problem-solving tool we have, the ability to extend the power of human thought with computers and other digital tools has become an essential part of our everyday lives and work. Students already learn so many elements in computational thinking skills in more ways then one. As educators we need to ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn the complete set of skills so their combined power is available to them.

5 steps to an accessible classroom website

I had the opportunity to read the article 5 steps to an accessible classroom website. Finely stated within the first few sentences it read "websites should be accessible to those with visual, hearing, movement, cognitive and speech disabilities." I personally could not agree more...but by what means can we navigate to such an approach. Step one: *Organize for easier navigation. Making sure you use headers to structure your website only seems appropriate, as it allows readers to identify new sections. Headers are like your front...they allow a reader to gain a perspective of what is to be expected. It noted also when in choosing how to set up your webpage to keep in mind the font and color scheme as it should be made appropriate for all audience types. Step two: *Navigation without a mouse. This steps focus was based on that of using the keyboard for all navigation purposes. It was said that the tab key should be used in replacement of the mouse. I think this is a great prompt, as I myself personally have a lap top and use my keys as my navigational guide to roam. Using the keys instead of a mouse is also a beneficial approach to those with visual impairments allowing them to feel the brail with their sense of touch. Step three: *Text explanations for Images. "provide text for every item that is not in text format, such as images, audio, animation, buttons, java applets and image maps." Including text will help the reader understand what is to be expected and leaving them with little to question. Step four: *Using text that makes sense. Let face it...everybody wants to know what they are getting themselves into to. It was noted to avoid using simple text such as "click here" but to rather use text that will engage the browser to continue in a more descriptive way such as using the link for a title attribute. Step five: * web validators. "Web validators evaluate your website according to various categories of accessibility." When it comes time for website evaluation, this neat little tool will help generate accessibility and make reports to locate any accessibility problems. Using these five steps will help provide you with a better and more accessible webpage.

cloud computing

When reading this article I noticed one sentence in particular that really stood out to me. Cloud computing, was said to have the potential to offer staff and students better services at a lower cost than the technology deployment models they're using now. Right there, I thought to myself, well who wouldn't want to use this method? Cloud computing was noted as having many advantages with its applications that rely on file storage and the internet itself.  This method allows for files and programs to be stored elsewhere, so the computer doesn't have to hold much on its hard drive. One positive aspect is that", cloud computing also makes it possible to use less-powerful computers, such as netbooks. A school district can lower its computing costs by using these inexpensive computers to access the cloud". It noted that many schools and universities are already using the cloud. 
Netbooks, according to Wikipedia, are "a category of small-sized, low-cost, lightweight, lean-function subnotebooks optimized for Internet access and core computing functions." This I feel is great for programs such as word processing and other document programs. 
One last aspect I liked in this article was the mention of google docs and gmail, as being intertwined with clouding. Google is a high networking source and gmail is my current emailing account. I can definitely contest and say that cloud computing may soon be the norm using in education. 

point/counterpoint

Blogging sites are a way for people to express themselves. Whether personal or professional, blogs allow people to share what they want to share with the people who want to listen. In a personal blog, one might tend to share stories about ones travels or personal life, whereas with the professional blog, co workers can become engaged as well. It was stated that adding professional commentary to a personal blog can actually be a positive aspect. 
I think blogging is a positive thing as it allows for a person to share, electronically their thoughts and allows for open ended communication. I agree with the following statement..."The nature of conversation revolves around offering and push-back, point and counterpoint. " Blogging allows for such conversation and enables everyone to take part.