Building Connections for Personal Growth

The Next Steps! As an educator, I know I want my students to be well-rounded in every aspect when they leave my classroom. At the beginning of the semester, before I delved into the research on social literacy, I thought that literacy just focused on reading and writing. I thought I was just supposed to have word walls and encourage my students to write within the math classroom. This project has allowed me to really reflect on my literacy degree and my current teaching practices. Social Literacy has taught me in order to be socially literate, my students must successfully use interpersonal collaboration, cooperation and become familiar with cultural norms. When connecting thinking about social literacy within the math classroom, I discovered many tools that can benefit the students both inside the classroom and outside the classroom. A few tools I found helpful in enhance social literacy within my classroom are blogs, wiki classrooms and e-pals. Blogs offer the opportunity ...

Taking Social Literacy to the Global Aspect Now that we have covered students reflecting and questioning the material they are presented through blogs; collaborating with peers both within their class and across multiple classes through the aid of a Wiki Classroom... How is it possible to take Social Literacy any further!?!? As I began this research on social literacy both withing my classroom and outside the classroom, I was looking for something where my students could learn from students who are not necessarily in the same building as them. I wanted them to see how the content they are learning corresponds to the content another student may be learning in another building, state or country. e-pals  E-Pals fulfilled my aspirations of my students connecting with other students about the content they are learning. E-pals is a website for our students to be able to connect with students in other states and even in other countries. When you enter the main page of e-pal...

Online Classrooms to Heighten Social Literacy Blogs... that's all we can use to use our students strengths and likes to teach them social literacy in conjunction with our content!!! If I have a blog in my classroom, would I have each student create their own blog... would I have one blog per class where students can comment on the material that I post!? How can I take the essential skills of social literacy to a new level and have my students be in the drivers seat of the curriculum they are learning? Sitting here thinking about myself as a graduate student... How do my professors use social literacy and technology within my classes? Wait! We have e-class!! We are presented the material online and of course we have forums on the online classroom where we get to demonstrate what we know based on our educational growth, we get to reflect on the material and we get to pose questions to each other to help guide us to understand this material. So as graduate students we are usi...

Blogging to Enhance Social Literacy  As I am presenting social literacy to you now, using a blog is a way for our students to communicate outside of the classroom about the curriculum they are working on during school hours. The video above gives you a little sneak peak into why using a blog as an educational tool can be beneficial. In my previous posts, I have discussed that social literacy can be used to enhance our students' interpersonal connections through collaboration and appropriate interactions. Blogs allow our students to post questions, reflections, misconceptions, ideas and thoughts about the content they are working on. Not only can they post their thoughts and ideas, but they can connect with the peers outside of the classroom and comment on each others questions, concerns, or ideas about the material they are trying to master. This form of technology offers an avenue for our students to express themselves and their feelings about the content and connect w...

What does social literacy look like both inside the classroom and outside the classroom? In my experience in the public school setting, I seem to get a push from administrators on engaging students in technology both inside the classroom and outside the classroom. With this push, I made a goal for myself for this school year to find new ways to have my students use technology both during classroom activities and at home This project has offered me the opportunity to work on my professional goal of researching technologies to help enhance social literacy into my classroom lessons. WHAT CAN I DO TO INCORPORATE SOCIAL LITERACY INTO MY CLASSROOM ROUTINE!? Social literacy offers the opportunity for our students to work together and enhance their interpersonal skills, cognitive development and expand their social circles. Not only does it touch on the basics skills our students need to become active citizens, it also aids our students in becoming familiar with a variety of cult...

What does it mean to be socially literate?!  As I began my new school year teaching eight grade math both in an integrated setting and self-contained setting, I find myself questioning how can I bring a new dynamic into my classroom? How can I tie literacy into a math classroom? As I took the first few classes to really get to know my students, I discovered that as pre-teens, they are social butterflies and get most of their inspiration and drive from their social lives. With this in mind, I decided to research social literacy. As I researched what social literacy is, I found that social literacy is, "the ability to make socially productive decisions." Upon my research, I discovered that when incorporating social literacy into the classroom, it is not about just guiding my students to understand the interpersonal cooperation. Social literacy is  also about becoming familiar with their peers cultural norms. As I begin my research, I am questioning how can I incorp...