Altenberger 4/1

In my class right now, the students are reading a book called, "Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit." It ties into their unit of what do animals do when the seasons change. Some of the words that follow the three tiers from the book are: wooly, thick, winter, gather, melted, bloom, spring.
Some of these words help students understand the season the story is referring to while others are describing words. In first grade a lot of students are focused on seeing the pictures in stories. I would have the students look through the book at the pictures to make an education guess about what the words mean. I would later have them work with a buddy to talk about what they each think the word means and how it is used in the book. As a class I would listen for student input on what they think each of the words mean. I would read the page that word was on for each one and ask the students if the context seemed right. If there was a disagreement on the meaning of a word, students could go online or look at a Thesaurus to see synonyms. After the students understand what the words mean, they would have to write sentences using each of the words correctly. Students could use more than one word in a sentence as long as it was used in the right context.

Barnes Video

Choral Reading:

Strengths: Modeling first but having the students following along with their own book. Each student has their own book to follow along. Students are reading with more confidence since they are reading the same time as their peers and are not put on the spot.
Weaknesses: Students are told the name of quotation marks instead of asking them if they remember the name and what they mean. Students are all reading so it is difficult for the teacher to hear each student to see if they are all participating and reading correctly.

Shared reading:

Strengths: Students are discussing the text together so they can collaborate.
Weakness:Teacher is calling on students and not asking students that aren't raising their hands. Also, it is difficult to give individualize instruction when they are all reading and answering questions together.

Stacey's NLP reflection

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My conceptual understanding of literacy has changed a lot since the beginning of this class. I used to think of literacy as just the “ability to read and write”. This class has helped me see that literacy expands much more beyond that and I have become aware of literacy all around me. When first defining new literacies I viewed a presentation, which said literacy is “the ability to use digital technologies to identify questions, locate information, evaluate the information, synthesize the information to answer questions, and communicate the answers to others.” This definition does not even begin to capture what literacy even is. I was focusing a lot on how technology plays a part in literacy without thinking about environmental, political, cultural, visual, etc.  Since we had to pick a new literacy to research, I chose visual literacy. I honestly didn’t realize how much visual literacy is used in everyday life and how much it can enhance a classroom. Visual Literacy involves interpreting, recognizing, creating, and evaluating images to create meaning and communicate. It takes visual literacy skills to read signs, symbols, logos, and even one another’s emotions. We are surrounded by visual literacy and we use it everyday! How would we find our favorite restaurant, a women’s restroom, or a new place if we were not able to recognize logos, signs or even read a map. Visual literacy involves visually looking at something and extracting meaning, creating meaning, and even relating it to something you know.  Visual Literacy is also used throughout all of the subjects in school. Graphic organizers such as concept maps, Venn diagrams, flow charts, timelines, outlines, etc. can either trigger our skills and help us recognize what to do (compare and contrast with a Venn diagram) or help us represent information in a new way. A high percentage of learning is now visual and this helps both ELL and ESL students as they can interpret images with little linguistic skills. Visual literacy can overlap with several of the other literacies as ones culture can affect how images are read, but these images may also portray emotion.

Literacy can involve using technologies as technology helps students interact with images, videos, songs, links, etc.  The growing world around us requires a great deal of skill in new literacies in order to participate. We need the ability to communicate in various different forms, technologies, circumstances, and places, whereas the more traditional definition of literacy involves only the skills of reading and writing. Using technology can enhance one’s digital literacy skills. As I created a Prezi about visual literacy, I was really able to organize my thoughts and ideas I learned about this literacy. As I mentioned earlier, my original thoughts about literacy were very constrained. I now believe that because of the growing and connecting world we live in today, to be a truly literate person, you must have knowledge in the various types of literacies and not just print

After exploring different types of literacy I am more aware of literacy in different places and this is important as a future teacher. For my students to understand the importance of diversity within literacy, I must understand diversity within literacy. It is my job as a teacher to expose my students to various types of literacy whether it be cultural, environmental, social, visual etc.

Providing effective literacy instruction means to use tactics that each student is able to understand and benefit from. Providing effective literacy instruction to diverse learners is important when teaching students to become literate individuals. I learned that there are so many forms of literacy instruction, that it is almost impossible not to be able to engage students. Specifically with visual literacy, it is easy to work with English Language Learners. Using visuals, such as symbols and images, which are usually universal throughout the world can really help a student that is struggling with English. Showing students pictures with the associated words can help them learn how to read or become more proficient with English. Beyond that, some students are very visual learners. Visual literacy can help a student organize their thoughts by drawing charts and diagrams. Beyond that, visual literacy is applicable in all subjects. Students use time lines and maps in social studies, symbols and graphs in mathematics, flow charts, and diagrams in science and graphic organizers in language arts. Books with images are also used throughout the different subject areas.

Students and classrooms are becoming more diverse and this means that teachers need to find a more diverse range of techniques in teaching new literacies and technologies in order to appeal to them in the most effective means that are possible.  One way in which this can be achieved is through expressing information through a variety of new technologies.  In the world today, children are exposed with different technologies at increasingly younger ages, and therefore they are used to this extremely stimulating electronic based environment.  This means that some children may need this technology incorporated into their learning to stay tuned and interested in the information that they are learning. 

When teaching my language arts lesson I used the book, Voices in the Park and now after completing this New Literacies Project I realized how I incorporated visual literacy into this lesson without being fully aware of it. By this I mean I required the students to analyze the pictures and think about what they told us about the different voices. The students were looking at the colors, textures, use of line to help them interpret the illustrations. Emotional literacy was also used as the students again were instructed describe the different characters using the text and illustrations. The students found that one character was sad, depressed, un-hopeful, etc. but that after a trip to the park with his daughter he was able to be cheered up. Cultural literacy was also used as everyone’s diverse backgrounds played a part in how they interpreted these images. A fifth grade GLEC: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.7 says students will “analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).”

As a digital literacy learner, I had to step out of my comfort zone for this assignment. I had never done a Prezi before and in my original notes I was unaware of how to fully use this technology but after the hours put into this presentation, I find it way more interactive and interesting than PowerPoint. I usually always use PowerPoint because that is what I am comfortable with but Prezi allows you to have frames within frames, and create a frame around a sentence instead of having a whole slide, allows you to add YouTube videos and images. As a teacher I think it is important to work at staying up to date with the technology so students have options. I explored another New Literacies Project and the group used Popplet, I had never heard of this technology but could definitely foresee myself using this technology. This site allows students to create a concept map or a graphic organizer in a more interactive way. Instead of having the students use Word or just fill out a graphic organizer, having them use Popplet will allow for more creativity as images, songs and videos can be uploaded and the whole thing can be color coded. Using new technologies such as Popplet is also more engaging than just filling out a concept map on paper. The students can then search the web for more information on their topic, add pictures, and really be in charge of their own learning. When using any new technology it is important students understand what they are supposed to be doing, how the technology and the rules in case they are caught using it in a way they should not be.

Allison Altenberger New Literacies Post

When I began this literacies project, I used the definition, "The power of literacy lies not only in the ability to read and write, but rather in an individual’s capacity to put those skills to work in shaping the course of his or her own life" 
(http://www.edc.org/newsroom/articles/what_literacy). What I now note, is that that definition solely touches on reading and writing and they affect one's life. This project taught me that there are various literacies to know and implement in one's classroom. Even though my group just studied emotional literacy, by looking through the rest of the class's projects I learned a lot about other types of literacy. My understanding of what literacy is and the different types of it has definitely expanded since being in this class. 

Even since I was young I knew about emotions. Every day I feel different emotions. However, I never knew there was a form of literacy that involved the types of emotions and how to appropriately express those feelings. I knew there are books about feelings, but I did not realize that they would be classified as emotional literacy. By making a project using Photobucket, it made me understand emotional literacy better. By using photographs and text to help show what emotional literacy is, it helped me better understand it. Not only do I now know what emotional literacy is, but I know what it looks like, what the benefits are, and what resources can I use to help my students learn about it. Photobucket is supposed to focus on photographs, which allows viewers to see the six universal emotions. While we can state the facts about emotional literacy in words, the pictures seem to have greater impact. 

During this project I learned how to use Photobucket. I had never heard of it before my group mates decided to use it for this project. I know that there are many different types of emotions. What I learned though, is that there are only six universal emotions. What I have seen through my placement is that it is not just a parent's job to teach children how to appropriately respond to their emotions, but that it can be taught in school as well. Children can write about how to address their emotions and how to express them decently. Children can also read about their emotions in children's books. 

This project also informed me that there are emotional IQ tests that children can take. I had honestly never heard of one until researching for this project. I think it would be interesting to see what students emotional IQs are. By knowing the state of my student's emotional IQs, I can better know my students. I definitely plan on having emotional literacy present in my classroom and children's lives. 

I think the definition of literacy should be broader. I think people have a black and white definition of literacy and just see it as the ability to read. I have learned that there are many types of literacies and that they are all important. I have also learned that there are resources that can be found to go along with the different types of literacies. The various literacies can all affect one's life different. I will no longer look at literacy as "just literacy." My knowledge and view regarding literacy has significantly increased. 

In language arts students can be presented material about the different types of literacies. Not only can they read about them, but write as well. For example, if using emotional literacy in the classroom, students can read a book about someone being sad and then write about how that book made them feel. 

To provide effective literacy instruction a teacher touch use all of these different types of literacy in his/her classroom. Their students should be presented material that involves different types of literacy and students should be given the opportunity to explore them. Teachers should have material about the different types as well. A teacher should model how these types of literacies work and students should have the opportunities to explore and discuss them. Based on their life experiences students will perceive this information differently. That is also why it is important to discuss the material with students. Students should be given the opportunity to have visuals, hands on, and auditory information about each type. 

It is really important for teachers to use the different types of literacy in their classrooms. After seeing all of the projects today I saw various ways to have students see and work with the topics. A goal for teachers would be to have their students be well rounded with seeing the different types of literacies. Teachers need to be able to also have resources that teaches students about literacy. Plus, the more engaging, the better. That is when the different technologies come in. Students would enjoy working with some of the technology our class presented. It is important for teachers to stay up to date with the options that are available. I hadn't heard of half of the technology our class used and took notes on the ones I liked. I hope to use them in my classroom. It will be important for students to know how the technology works and the features of it. It will also be necessary for students to know how to research and use the technology appropriately vs inappropriately. I would hope to give my students as many resources (depending on their age) as I could find to help them understand better. It is good for students to see material presented in different ways, so I would try to have a variety of options. I also think it is really important to have discussions with students about the material, which I would plan to do. 

This project really opened my eyes to the different types of literacy and technology that are out there for myself and my future students to explore together. 

Kayla's New Literacy Reflection

Through doing this new literacies project I have been able to realize that literacy is all around us. I have been learning and interacting with literacy before I even began to read. I was learning cultural knowledge from my parents, visual images have surrounded me since I first opened my eyes, and many other forms. At the beginning of this project I thought that new literacy was simply going to be about viewing text with technology. Even through my definition of new literacy I focused on the digital aspects and not all of the different literacies. I now realize that literacy is not only text focused. Although we interact with text very often, we as learners, interact with lots of forms of literacy that do not involve text. With the increasing use of technology my students are interacting with literacy in more ways than I was able to at that age. They have more resources. As a teacher, I think it was important for me to realize technology as a great resource for students to interact with literacy in new ways. Technology can not only help students learn facts through text but they can interact with images, emotions, society and much more. There is no way for me to become efficient in all of the technological tools that are around today. However, I think that simply working with technology on a regular basis and continuing to try to learn about the different programs will increase my own digital literacy. Having strong abilities to work with and learn about new technology will help me teach my students in many different ways.

I am more aware of what skills it takes students to interact with the many forms of literacy. Being able to interact with images, emotions, environments, etc is so very important in many aspects of life. For example, I had no idea the implications of not having sufficient cultural literacy knowledge. This could drastically change the way a student is able to communicate in society. A huge purpose of traditional text is to communicate information and students will be losing out on important information if they are only skilled in traditional text and not all forms of literacy.

By searching through many of the new literacies projects I learned that there are a lot of ways to “effectively teach” these new literacies. I think that the most effective way of teaching are for the lessons to be individualized to each classroom/student. Although all the groups did a fantastic job giving ideas and examples of how to teach new literacies in the classroom I think that each lesson would need to be altered to fit in each classroom. However, I do notice that a lot of the example lessons are student-centered which I think is a great way to keep students interested and learning. I think that effective teaching is done through multiple modes of learning. For example, the lesson can incorporate technology and traditional text. By exploring my peers’ websites,  I think there needs to be an appropriate balance been written text and images, videos, technology for the students to interact with. All of our projects were very interactive which gives the learners more autonomy for their own learning. I think this is an important aspect of student-centered learning. Students need to be able to explore and interact with the knowledge they are learning in order to fully conceptualize the information.  The article K-2 Children’s Use and Understanding of the Internet by Dodge, Husain and Duke helped me further understand the importance of students interacting with technology at a young age.

Another article that I found very helpful was, Kymes teaching online Comprehension Strategies Using Think-Alouds. I think this article had a lot of good ideas on how to help students interact with technology and build their digital literacy. There needs to be an appropriate balance between students working with technology alone (exploring) as well as receiving the support that they need to be able to extract the appropriate information from the technology. For example, in my classroom I would want to go over the different aspects of the website or tool that I want them to explore. As a class we would go over the important and useful aspects and then I would let the students explore on their own while walking around and answering any questions they might have. I might also try to point certain aspects out to the students as I walk around to point them in the direction of helpful tools.

As for visual literacy in the classroom I think the students need to be taught metacognition. Students have been interacting with images since they first opened their eyes and I would want them to be able to notice how they interact with images so that they can strengthen this skill. For example, I would show them images that create positive feels and then show them images that would create negative feelings and have them discuss, as a class, how these images portray this emotion. Students need to figure out these relationships on their own but will need support as they go. The support that I would provide would be giving prompts and asking discussion questions but not interfering with the discussion. I would not try to explicitly teach megacognition but I would ask questions that would get students thinking about how they are interpreting the images.

Stacey Fisher's NLP notes

Being visually literate encompasses a large majority of my classmates’ definitions as to be visually literate means to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, images and symbols, natural or man-made, that one encounters in the environment, and the meaning can be comprehended or communicated from reading visually. One colleague even said, “  If you can read a map, draw a diagram or interpret symbols like (insert bicycle symbol) or (inset no dogs allowed symbol) then you are visually literate. Visual literacy is the reading and writing of visual texts. (http://k-8visual.info). “ Reading maps, using diagrams and interpreting symbols is a major part of visual literacy. Everyday we use our sight to determine which door to enter or exit, which bathroom to use in public, how to find a destination by using a map, to help us drive in an orderly fashion (stopping at stop signs, following the speed limit), how to interpret graphs, take meaning from an photograph or piece of art, etc and even communicate with others. We are surrounded by images that speak to us and ultimately control our life so visual literacy is more than just the ability to read and write it is about using our vision to extract meaning and use this to inform our life. Several definitions also included the use of technology and the part it plays in literacy. We as humans now read on laptops, iPads, tablets, kindles, cell-phones, etc. Again, visual literacy can be applied as the font, use of CAPS, information presented on the internet, pictures, and videos all play a part in technology. Again, VISUAL LITERACY IS EVERYWHERE! It can be applied across all other “literacies” as well. In geo-literacy students are using maps, reading maps, creating maps, exploring the water cycle and ecosystems, which can all be visually represented. Additionally, in emotional literacy a person’s emotions can be visually interpreted. If someone is crying one often attributes that with being sad, if someone is laughing and smiling one often attributes that with being happy. Furthermore, cultural literacy includes knowing about different cultural groups. One can use pictures and their ability to read to inform themselves as well as communicating with people from different backgrounds. So, the traditional literacies play a huge role in becoming visually literate. We use our eyes to read, help us write and read or interpret writing, speak (using body communication, sign language, emotions, gestures) and mainly view the world around us. The one traditional literacy element that is not necessarily used in visual literacy is “listening”.  Many aspects of visual literacy do not include listening. For example, reading a sign, symbol, logo, price tag, caption to a picture does not require any sound. In fact, those who are deaf use sign language to communicate but require vision to see and comprehend what is being communicated. Also, one could watch a performance or movie without sound and understand what is taking place either through body language, emotions, use of props, actions, or even captions. While hearing may help in this literacy, it is not a crucial element.

I am learning how much of the world around us revolves on having vision as everyday we use visual literacy. Before starting this project I understood that literacy was reading and writing but never realized how much images played a part in life.

Visual literacy offers advantages to all students in the classroom as Venn Diagrams,

concept maps, outlines, flow charts, diagrams in science, graphs, manipulatives, and pictures can help all students organize, synthesize, analyze and ultimately understand the material. ELL students can definitely benefit from visual literacy and sometimes using images can be an easier way to help convey information. Also, younger children love pictures, as the colors, textures, and elements within the illustrations help them make sense of what is going on. Furthermore, younger students are just learning to write so drawing a picture may be a better way to represent their thoughts and ideas. While they not be able to read a book, some can tell you that a green light means go, waving can symbolize saying “hello” or “goodbye”, and the golden arches represents McDonalds, etc.

I believe most students in my classroom have become visually literate. Although some students were born in another country, may speak another language and may even express themselves differently, they seem to be accustomed to the norms here in the United States. By this I mean, even the student who is a refugee from Africa, has not had more than 3 years of schooling and speaks another language could indentify several symbols, logos, gestures and extract meaning from photographs. While students may have difficulty using a Venn Diagram, using a timeline or flow chart and creating or interpreting graphs, they can still be considered visually literate. Visually literacy is a never-ending opportunity to learn as different cities, states and countries may represent things differently. In Michigan we have deer crossing signs, in South Africa they had baboon-warning signs, and we represent our distance traveled in miles and in other countries they represent their distance traveled in kilometers.

The students in my classroom are in fifth grade and this type of literacy is already present as visual literacy is present in their everyday lives outside of the classroom as well. Even when teaching my language arts lesson a few weeks ago I required the students to be visual critics of the book Voices in the Park. The students used their visual literacy skills to examine the illustrations, make predictions, inferences and analyze the different characters. The students are also using this type of literacy in social studies and science. There is definitely opportunity for new learning experiences with this type of literacy, as many students probably do not realize how much we rely on the images around us to guide us through our every-day lives.

The technology that my group decided to use was Prezi. This technology tool is similar to PowerPoint but more interactive and engaging. This technology is useful for teaching because themes can easily be established, images, sounds, and YouTube videos can be uploaded directly to the site to make it more interactive for the students. Also, Prezi can be used to help organize thoughts and ideas like a concept map, graphic organizer, flow chart, etc. For example, a slide may be more broad then it can zoom in within that frame several times to explain the several details of this big idea. Prezi begins to take presentations to a whole new level as there are layouts and backgrounds for several subject areas and they have even began producing 3-D layouts! Prezi helps communicate the ideas because it is all visual and therefore is appropriate for our project. As a group we have never made a Prezi before and every time we use this technology tool we are discovering new, exciting things about it.

Throughout the Prezi presentation several pictures have questions or comments that lead into the next idea. For example, a picture of logos is included and the viewers are asked, “how many logos can you identify” to elicit students thinking about this literacy. Prezi is a good way to get the viewers involved and make this a more interactive experience. However, there is no way to retrieve feedback, as Prezi does not allow for viewers to post questions, comments, or thoughts.

We are using reading, listening and viewing in different ways when using this technology. For example, our colleague’s will be asked to read logos, signs, gestures, photography, listen and view a video or two, view the several ways that visual literacy is incorporated in school and ultimately view the presentation made. Writing is involved within the presentation and one can see how the

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written can also be visual and in some cases convey information or meaning.
Prezi is still a bit challenging to use for me because I have never used Prezi before and it is a lot different than PowerPoint. I have found it challenging to add a new frame in the middle of the presentation and have it appear in the correct order and not last. With Prezi, just because the slides may be in a certain order in the left hand tool bar does not mean they will appear in that order, rather you have to manipulate the order by dragging the lines/arrows within the whole presentation. There is probably an easier way but again this is a new technology and some of the basics have proved challenging and time consuming.

As viewers the students need to understand that the text may be non-linear, they will be expected to “read” or analyze images, and that it is not necessarily like reading a traditional book as they will click a next arrow and not turn a page. When clicking this arrow, the screen may move with the transitions, the frame may rotate, zoom in, zoom out, etc. As authors some of these students may need help, as they unfortunately do not have much experience using computers. Several of the students from Africa have difficulty typing, finding valuable information and then synthesizing or making sense of this information.

Kayla Visual Literacy

The best definition that I found for Visual literacy was “Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of a written or printed text. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading” (Wikipedia). I felt that this definition encompassed the many aspects of visual literacy. Becoming literate in visual literacy includes becoming familiar with images and how to interact with them. This involves a lot of practice, especially in a classroom. Students can often read images before they can read words and this skill needs to be reinforced as they continue on with schooling. An important way to enhance this skill is through the use of speaking and listening. Discussing images will help students see other perspectives besides their own and learn a lot from what their peers have to say. This is also engaging to students when they do not seem interested in images. Having text with images is a helpful strategy to get students thinking about what pictures are saying however, sometimes words can stump student’s imagination. If they read a caption they may not try to read the image. However, if there is an explanatory caption and the students still discuss the image together this will show students that there are more to images than simply their captions.

As I continue my research I am becoming more familiar with the different types of images and activities that can go along with the images. There are many different strategies to use while reading the meaning of an image. I had no idea how much I did as I read images but now that I am learning the strategies I realize what goes into evaluating an image. I was surprised how important of a skill this was. So many important messages are within images.

The students in my second grade classroom see images everywhere they go. However, they do not often discuss or evaluate them. I think it would be great if more image evaluation could be done within the classroom. They are beginning to read longer books which often do not have many images if any at all. The teacher reads chapter books to them. I think it would be great to incorporate a few picture books or graphic novels where the students have the ability to discuss the images and what they are adding to the story. This exercise would help them directly interact with images and learn from them instead of just finding answers within the text.

The technology that my group has decided to use is Prezi. No one in my group has ever used a prezi so we are using this project as a means to explore this technological tool. I have seen Prezi used in a lot of classroom settings in order to present information either directly to a class or as supplemental information for students to look at on their own time. I think it is an engaging way to teach a lesson and offers a more interesting way to present information. Instead of the traditional PowerPoint you can use Prezi which is more interactive. You can directly insert YouTube videos that will play in the presentation and add links that are clickable. Being able to put these resources directly into the presentation is a way to make the information more interactive.

This is a great tool to teach about visual literacy because it is completely all visual. There are images and text working together to teach. The images can move and be interactive with the student. The student will definitely need to read and visually evaluate the images in the presentation. There will also be listening involved since we are able to incorporate videos. However, I do find it challenging to make a two-way conversation. It is interactive since the student can be in charge of going through the slides however, we have no way to know exactly how they are using the information or get feedback from them. This is a limitation.

The way the text is written is very similar to traditional print/PowerPoint options. However, the way they interact with the images can be quite different since images are able to move on Prezi. My students are familiar with Smart Boards so using Prezi as a means to present information would be very similar to what they are used to. They would need to read the text as well as the images. However, if they had to work a Prezi on their own they would need more technology skills in order to move slides, play videos, click links, etc. My students are not very technology savy and would have difficulty with these tasks. We would need to have a lesson on how to use the computer. This could easily be done during their technology time where they each get a laptop at their desk. I would go through the various buttons with the students and answer any questions they might have. This would allow the students to work at their own pace through the lesson. Through using Prezi I am noticing how important images can be to learning in the classroom. 

Allison Altenberger New Literacies Post

The type of literacy that my group is studying is emotional literacy. When doing research, the most common definition regarding it that I found is, it "is the ability to recognize, understand and appropriately express our emotions. Just as verbal literacy is the basic building block for reading and writing, emotional literacy is the basis for perceiving and communicating emotions" (Feel.org  http://www.feel.org/emotional_literacy.php). When I was looking through our class definitions of literacy, I really did not see ones that focused on emotions. There truly weren't any on becoming literate with emotions.
The main aspect of emotional literacy is about how to convey and understand emotions. People can see   emotional literacy in books. It is possible to use and teach emotional literacy in classrooms through children's books. When people talk about their emotions and learn how to express them, they are practicing emotional literacy. If someone is writing down their feelings or writing about how they feel about how someone else is feeling, that is using emotional literacy. If someone is conveying how they are feeling through speaking, then that is a form of emotional literacy as well.
I honestly have never really thought about emotional literacy, so I am learning a lot. I learned that emotional intelligence is similar form of emotional literacy. From that same source listed above I have thought about emotional literacy in a different context. There was a quote that I thought was interesting. It stated: "Emotions influence our thoughts and actions; they aspire our needs; they affect our bodies and impact on our relationships" (http://www.feel.org/emotional_literacy.php). I have learned more about how to teach emotional literacy. As someone to has babysat a lot over the years I have had conversations with young children about how to show their emotions appropriately or how to say how they are feeling. I can see how that can be needed in the classroom and the importance of continually setting an example to students of how to show and share emotions appropriately. I can also see the importance of telling students that it is okay to have certain feelings and provide them with ways of seeing those feelings shown in decent, positive ways. I loved a quote that I found from another source regarding emotional literacy in the classroom. It said, "Our emotions impact our readiness and ability to learn" (http://www.successpartnership.com/emotional_literacy.phtml). That statement also made me realize the importance of using emotional literacy at school, especially for students to be able to say how they are feeling during school and when learning certain subjects. Certain strategies that I realized were possible to teach this is to share how I was feeling in a positive, appropriate way. Or to have a scenario and state how it made me feel. If a student was not showing their emotions appropriately, then I could ask them how they could have shown their emotions differently or provide more positive words that would help them convey how they are feeling.
Another helpful resource that I found that I can use in the future is: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/35374_Bruce_Sample_chapter.pdf
The students in my class do a good job with stating how they are feeling in a decent manner. They are good with using their words to share joy, good news, disappointments or when they are sad. My MT says, "use your words," a lot, so the students have practice with staring how they are feeling. If they don't handle a situation as best as they could, then she will either say how they could have handled it better or ask the class if they had any tips for how the situation could have been handled. She also will read books where the characters have different feelings.  Learning about emotional literacy has made me realize the significance of it and to see how it can be found within classrooms.

The new technology that my group is using is Photobucket. It essentially is a place for someone to upload pictures and for them to be in one spot. Once uploaded the pictures can be altered to different styles. This program seems to be similar to other photo storage/share ideas, such as Flickr.
This technology could be used in the classroom in a couple of different manners. I see a couple of useful ways that a teacher could use it. One could use it to take pictures of their resources in class and upload it. For example, if a teacher writes a lot of material on their white board and they want to have it be the same the following year, they could upload the image onto Photobucket. Or if a teacher wanted to have final pieces of class work documented, then they could upload the images onto Photobucket as well. If a teacher put a lot of notes on the board, then they could take a  picture and put it on the website. What is useful is that if there was a class page then students could log on and see the picture. If any pictures are taken in the classroom, of teacher materials, student work, on field trips, anything, then it can be put on Photobucket. From there the teacher, students or parents could all view them if desired. One of the main keys though, is to monitor students who are uploading material onto the page. If it is a class page then it is vital that all images on there are appropriate.
The audience could be anyone who is "set" to view the material. If one has the ability to get to one's page, then they can see the images available. For a setting like that, the teacher, students and parents can all be involved on the page. Since this is a free tool, it also does not cost anyone anything to be part of this program.
If emotional literacy is being used in the classroom, then photos can be taken and uploaded to Photobucket to show how it is being used. Or, students could upload pictures of them using emotional literacy appropriately.
This tool allows people to upload images, alter and edit them. Besides storing them, there is not much else that can be done with the images on this tool, which is its limitation. The main sense for this tool is viewing since people look at the different images. It is possible to add captions, which would require minimal reading to take place.
It is quite straight forward with how to upload an image. Some might find the editing to be more challenging if that is what they would like to do to their images.
This tool essentially lets someone communicate through pictures, images and drawings. Illustrations in books also allow for readers to experience that same thing.
The students in my class are in first grade. I am assuming that many of them do not have their own cameras to post their own pictures on the site. Their computer skills right now are very minimal, so that is something that would need to be worked on first. They would then need to know how to take and use appropriate images. They would then need to learn how to upload the picture, which would require them to be able to follow directions with multiple steps. Realistically I can see my MT using this program more. Whenever they go on outings or have important moments at school she takes pictures. She could easily upload those pictures onto Photobucket so the parents can see those images. If I was in a classroom where the students were older, then there would be more possibilities for student involvement. Students could have some type of scavenger hunt and would need to post the images onto Photobucket. If they built something, then they could also post the images there. Any images of student work could be put on Photobucket to share. Any pieces of literature or writing in the curriculum that focuses on emotional literacy could have their picture taken of
(or with students doing it) and put on Photobucket. There are many possibilities depending on if one wants the teacher, students or both involved with the program.