Gearing up!

Well, my blackboard site is official and I am taking my first hour to the computer lab on Thursday to learn how to access and post on it. Kerry Townsend has been helping me get the site all prepped and I've learned how to use flaming text to create a heading banner and added all kinds of features to the site. I even created a glossary of all our vocab terms so far. I don't think it'll be too difficult to manage, but we'll see once kids start using it. I'm hoping to reveal the URL at parent/teacher conferences so my parents can use it to check homework and obtain copies of assignment attachments.

I'm moving into the technology era!

My digital literacy class, which I feel has been so eye-opening in terms of learning how important multiliteracies are at this point in time, and has helped me discover new tools and forms of literacy to begin using in my classroom has really challenged me to take action in my classroom.

I'm trying not to take too much on this first year but I am really getting excited at some of the new possibilities I am learning about. This week's article for that class is all about fanfiction. This is a concept I became familiar with in an undergrad class. Apparently, if you visit fanficiton.net you will discover a whole world of literacy that a majority of the population doesn't even know exists. Fanfic, as it's called my it's inner circle of writers, is taking characters who already exist in another book or media and rewriting the story from new perspectives or your own prerogative. The article challenges teachers to think about how they can use this literary experience to build on in their own classrooms. The article also pointed out that students who author fanfic usually consider these writings their best work, better than what they write for the traditional classroom.