September 6, 2007

Use your blog to post your project Essential Question, such as it is at this point, then respond to someone else's.

Contract for Blogging

Click the link below for a Word document:

http://infotech.spsd.org/Docs/bloggers_contract.doc

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Essential Question Examples

Essential Questions for 2007
Write one essential question that you will use this year to guide some part of your teaching for a unit/project/semester.

Steve Koelker - How can Web 2.0 resources enrich instruction in every class?

Susanne's essential question for sophomore classes at beginning of year:
What is basic to all human beings? In other words, what do all of us need to feel good about ourselves?

Jennifer- Is any one culture superior over another?

Sara - we study new plants and plant life. I'm thinking of a question for my first graders that goes something like this . . .
How would our world be different without plants? (which would require the students to learn how important plants are
to our everyday lives, and then discuss what the lack of plants would be like for the world)
or How do our lives depend on plants? (which may not be broad enough, but could be for 6-7 year olds) To be honest I'm thinking of proposing creating essential questions to my first grade colleagues on the 30th when we get together for the full day inservice. We have 3-4 science/social studies units throughout the year, and if we could collaborate on creating essential questions used by each of us, that would be pretty cool.

Jeanette- Are you what you eat? 7th grade nutrition , food pyramid, food intake, nutrients, healthy snacks


Andee -How can technology enhance learning in the modern language classroom? (personal essential question)
Something like...Is learning another language necessary in the 21st century? (needs some refinement, but an overall essential question for my classroom)

Sandy How can I apply Big 6 process to short terms visual art projects as well as longer term tech oriented projects? (I know this is 2 questions in one: I'm inclined to be overly complex and wordy.)

Deborah - How do literary themes enrich the reading experience?

Carol - How does the novela we are reading apply to this quote by Francis Bacon? “Some books are to be tasted; others swallowed; and some to be chewed and digested.”

Scott - How can learning about America's past help us prepare for its future?

Dan - What reliable information can you learn from a survey? What reliable information can't you learn?

Kevin Farrell- How has the world's average temperature changed over the last 100 years?

Oops...I forgot to get something important from you!!

You've all created Google accounts and those will work to set up your blogs. Sooooooooooooooooo...I think we'll create blogs together, then I'll link them all to our main blog.

Sorry for the delay.

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Individual Blogs

We will start keeping personal blogs of learning during this class. Each of our blogs will link from this main blog page so that we can all read one another's blogs if we'd like to. I'll do the set up of the blogs. If you have started a blog of your own with your Google account (which works for Blogger), please comment on this post by telling me your blog name so that I can create a link to it. If you haven't created a blog yet, please comment on this post by telling me that you need your own blog. I'll set one up for you and let you know how to get into it.

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Session 1 prompt - David Warlick quote

"If all our children learn to do is read, they will not be literate." David Warlick

Has the definition of literacy changed? React to Warlick's quote with your thinking about "the new literacy."

To comment, click on the word "comments" below this post. Choose "anonymous" when adding your comment and be sure to add your name to your comment.

Welcome to our Blog!

Welcome to blogging in the Information Literacy class. This blog is a place for all of us to post some thoughts and reactions while we learn about one of the most important new sources of information available online. While blogs are most often public journals with a single author, ours will demonstrate how a blog might be used with a group of learners to share information.

To keep this one organized for the entire class, I'll be posting prompts from time to time to which you will reply or "comment." In addition, each of your individual "journals" will be attached to this blog so that we may share reflections on learning throughout the course. I'll get your blog addresses once you have set up your account and link them all from our main blog page.

It will be interesting to see how each of our "voices" comes out here even though we will be able to talk to one another daily.