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This is me!

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Hello Social Media Enthusiasts, My name is Carolyn.  I have one child and he is amazing! He has a great sense of humor and I try not to encourage it.  He's 23 years of age.  I don't have any grandchildren as of yet. My family is enormous in size. I enjoy traveling, reading, cooking/baking, technology, and spending time with my family. If you are wondering, that's not my son in the picture. The baby is my great niece. She was born on my birthday (December 2) and I was holding her shortly after she was born.   She is now 8 years of age and very intelligent. She get it from me. Yes, I'm laughing out loud. Her parents may not agree. Currently, I am a LBS1 Teacher at an elementary school on the far south side of Chicago. This school year I'm teacher 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade resource students. My students come to receive Special Education services for a pre-determine amount of minutes per week. They have various disabilities. For the past year, I...
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What a Relief to Relieve myself of Social Media for 48 Hours!

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Disconnection from Social Media, Wow!   It was empowering! I turned off my Facebook notifications on my iphone 8+ and deleted it from my Samsung Galaxy 8.  That first night, it was super quiet at first.  I actually slept without interruptions.  No buzzing sounds.  I even silenced my text messaging and phone calls.   Once I woke up in the morning, I went downstairs in my kitchen and turned on the news.  I enjoyed learning of the past nights horrors in the morning, instead as they occurred.  I had apps that provided notifications from most news outlets.  It was so calm in my bedroom that I could hardly fall asleep.  I drank my coffee and began reading a little bit from my Food Network magazine.  I found some interesting recipes to try for dinner.  I found a recipe for an enchilada casserole.  It was delicious.  Day 2 was even easier because I was so tired at the end of day 1.  By my second day, ...
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Why would someone want to spread rumors about themselves on social media?

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To what extent would you go to for attention from your peers?  In reading the cyber-bullying article, I was surprised to learn that there are individuals that would say negative things or spread rumors about themselves to get attention.  It appears negative attention, is better than no attention at all for some people. According to Yancey-Braggs, it has been reported that 6% of students between 12-17 years of age have committed cyber-bullying against themselves.  They have posted negative rumors using sites such as Tumblr and Formspring, according to Yancey-Braggs.  Officials state that a teenager committed suicide after sending herself a question anonymously through a website called Ask.fm.  Ask.fm allows you to send someone a question anonymously.  It was found that the messages were coming from the same IP address as her social media account.  Therefore, she was sending the messages or questions to herself anonymously.  There must have been s...
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Digital Literacy

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What's Most Important about Media Literacy?

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As I read Rheingold's article, I realized that all five areas are important.  I thought long and hard about them.  Looking back to teaching my students to research what they read on-line.  It takes me back to the commercial for the FOR EYES OPTICAL.   I always thought about the girl telling her friend that the goofy looking guy "she met on social media is from Paris" (he can't speak a lick of French).  Then she says something to the effect of "what's on the internet is always true."  We know that is not an accurate statement. Let's discuss Rheingold's first area of media literacy, Attention .  Students and young adult have learned so well to multi task, that sometimes they can fool you.  It's not always so obvious that their attention is somewhere else, until we ask a question and then we know their focus was not on the teacher.  It's the same with social media, they do not pay adequate attention to what they are reading and it affects...
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PRIVACY LAWS

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https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.KS6puttuF_jY7u_kOIDX-gHaE8&pid=15.1&P=0&w=255&h=171 CIPA/COPPA Are the current privacy laws enough to protect children?  Hmmm? I had to give this a great deal of thought.  When contemplating my response, I debated with myself over and over again.  I remember when my son first joined my space , my older brother was like a stalker on my son's account and never even looked at his own children's account.  I wasn't angry because at least someone was watching and monitoring other than me.   So, in reflecting on the CIPA (Children's Internet Protection)/COPPA (Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act) regulations for providing website that track children, I most definitely agree with the 13 year old child needing parent consent and not tracking them.  It's amazing that children find a way around almost everything.  The problem is this only benefits the honest children.  Dana Boyd m...
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My Digital Tattoo

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My Digital Tattoo This is a picture of me is during my entertaining days.  I'm sure this is a "Happy Hour" event at a former hang out.  I always hated my pictures because I appeared to be intoxicated.  This is a sample of my pictures on Social Media.  As soon as the light flash my eyes blink or close. Now days, I'm rarely on social media.  The greatest time I spend on any social media is on Pinterest.  I'm always looking for new recipes, anchor charts and Do It Yourself help.  As I search google, the first thing pop up was my Pinterest account.  I have a few followers on Pinterest. I'm sure if I looked up on of my friends on Google, I would receive plenty of information.  My friends let you know where they spend every moment of their day.  If you are looking for them, you surely can find them.  They have their location notification on and it gives the exact location. I remember about 8 years ago, I was teaching at Dy...
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Ms. McNeil-Smith Class Blog Consent Letter

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Higgins Warriors Ms. McNeil-Smith’s Class Blog Consent Greetings Parents and/or Guardians, Many of you know me from positive phone calls home or parent conferences, I am Ms. McNeil-Smith, your child’s Resource Teacher.  This semester we are going to focus on displaying our class work on our blog.  Ms. McNeil-Smith’s Class Blog will be shared with our school administration, staff, Network administration and the parents of the students in my classes.  Before any material has been posted to the blog, I will inspect it.  I will ensure that it is appropriate and edited to reflect your child’s best possible.  I would appreciate parent volunteers to assist with students blogging.  There will be training for parents to become volunteers.  There are a few requirements for parents to participate.  First, all volunteers must go through a District background check, 3 Professional Developments, signed consent and the willingness to help students....
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