Welcome!

Welcome to my CURR 550 blog!

My name is Leah, I am a high school English- ESL teacher at Cranston High School East.  I enjoy Martha Stewart, early 90's West Coast hip-hop,  Vegetable gardening,  and living vicariously through PBS's Rick Steves.  I am looking forward to the next two weeks and hope to find new and engaging ways to incorporate digital media literacy into my high school classroom.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog #3

Image
I enjoyed Boyd thoughts and position on the “digital native” because it not only discussed important key points, but I believe that it also helped me understand why I couldn’t commit to being “digital native” or “digital immigrant” in my previous post. According to Prensky I fall into the “digital native” category being born after 1980, but I still don’t feel that way. Yes I can easily navigate the web, prefer graphics to standard simple text,  and grew up in the ‘right’ decade, but  I still believe that I straddle both digital labels because despite all my tech fluency I still do not understand HOW my computer actually works. That is why I go running to the school IT teacher when I click too fast and accidentally download something that I believe to be detrimental to my computer (OMG! Is it a virus!?!). Boyd said,“[t]echnical skills are increasingly important. Few teens have a basic understanding of how the computer systems they use every day work.” If teens are the d...
Read more

Turkle & Wesch

Image
Wesch is an advocate for allowing students to find a genuine meaning in their education. The idea of students doing just enough to pass, or memorizing only what they will be tested on is not a new phenomenon. Honestly, I get frustrated when my students ask questions like, "Will this be on the quiz?" or "Can't you just tell us which words to study?", but then I remember my own experiences as a high school student and how I am guilty of the same thing. It's not that they are bad teenagers or students, but they have been conditioned to learn in this way- and I think Wesch would agree. While Wesch's idea of allowing students the opportunity to find meaning in their education in their own way through technology, that can be hard in a high school setting. The process can be time consuming and while I am lucky enough to have a lot of flexibility with my curriculum, my students already loose SO much class time to NECAP, PARCC, and ESL ACCESS mandated testing...
Read more

Blog #4: All things Disney

What is your relationship to Disney and animated children’s culture?  What role did these texts play in your life as a child, if any? In that of any children you share time with? How do your memories challenge or reflect Christensen’s claims? How does Frozen meet or challenge your memories of princess culture? I grew up loving everything Disney and other popular animated movies/TV shows. Besides owning practically every Disney movie on VHS, I also owned and enjoyed cartoons like Fern Gully, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Gargoyles. There was no bias when it came to cartoons for me! I loved watching  princess movies (Little Mermaid was a personal favorite) but I never wished to pursue a career as a princess. I would have much rather play basketball with my older brother, but I do admit that at some point I probably planned to find a Prince Charming of my own.  Another thins from tonights reading that was a valid point is the blatant racist depiction...
Read more