E-Portfolio Link

Attached you will find the link to my E-Portfolio.  It is a work in progress, so please enjoy and stay tuned for updates. 

Tiffthemediaspecialist E-Portfolio

http://tifthomas.weebly.com/

Portfolios - Website, Wiki or Blog? Decisions!! Decisions!!

Explore - When given the task to explore options for creating an e-portfolio for class, I went to my good old friend google.  After completing a search, I found so much information it was overwhelming, which is what I expected. My original thinking was that I wanted a site that would be easy to create and very user friendly.

Affordances -   I then remembered a website I used when teaching my students how to create a website and found it to be very easy to create and user friendly.  So, I decided to go with Weebly.  Weebly is a free site and if you are an educator you can add up to 40 student sites for free.   I have created physical portfolios back when I completed my first Masters Program.  Creating a physical portfolio was easy because it was a large binder that housed all the documents, certificates, and pictures.  We have progressed in this digital age, where creating a e-portfolio would take less time, paper, money, and resources than creating a physical one. By creating an e-portfolio its easy to add documents that you are already submitting for class. You can now attach, give a brief description and make public for all to see. The portfolio is a good reference for you to use when job hunting.  Weebly has a lot of tools to offer, you can include surveys, slideshows, video, and audio.  The amount of tools they have are amazing especially for a free site.  When looking at some of the other free portfolios, there weren't may tools that couldn't be utilized unless you paid for them.  Weebly also has a Pro section as well, but many tools are still available without that subscription unlike most other sites I researched.

Context - If I had the choice to select a program for my students to use, hands down this would be the site.  Its kid friendly and very easy to use.  Students would enjoy being able to have so much personalization capabilities that they would forget they are actually doing work.  This website can be used in multiple content areas.  I believe this will be a tool that I utilize with my 4th ad 5th grade students on the elementary level.  4th graders could use it to enhance writing and 5th graders could use it with a science focus.

Here is a link to my portfolio.  I started working on this so it is just a draft, but I added a page that links it to my blogger.  Enjoy!    Tiffanie Thomas E-Portfolio

Blogs!!

If I said the word blog to my students, they would probably look at me crazy.  So the first things I would do is have them define it.  According to Dictionary.com, a blog is " a website containing a writer's or group of writer's own experiences, observations, opinions,, etc., and often having images and links to other websites."  The blog was originally named Weblog (Web Log).  It was considered an online diary and we know people use diaries to record important information or events that happened.    The purpose of a blog is to share your own experiences and ideas with others.  This gives people a chance to follow you, share feedback, or make comments about a topic.  

In my new position as a librarian, I can think of a few ways that I as well and my students can use a blog.  For me I can use a blog to share information with students such as upcoming events, authors of the month, videos for the read aloud, booking information for teachers, and library resources for students, parents, and staff.  When in the library students can write reflections from activities or stories we read.  One focus for me this year is to assist with Figure 19 (reading comprehension). This is a standard that our school has consistently been low in.  After we have completed a read aloud or independent reading students will be able to answer questions using the blog that are directly related to reading comprehension.  Its one thing for a student to read, but a totally different thing for them to understand what they have just read.  Blogging support the constructivist theory because the content that the students create become apart of a wider body of knowledge. With using a blog, students can review each others notes/answers which in turn can assist with those who may have missed something important.  This also allows students access for years to come of this information.  

Blogs in the Library can be used for writing poems for poetry night when working on that unit.  It can also be used a process where they can document books they hope to read for the year.  With this process students can go back and revisit throughout the year to see if they are accomplishing the goal they set at the beginning of the year.  This also helps students feel responsible and connect more to the Library.  The main goal is to get students enthused about reading.  It is my goal to ensure students pick that passion for reading back up.  

The only major obstacle that I foresee for the students it having enough time to complete activities using the blog.  We are on a 45 minute rotation schedule and I only see the students once a week.    During that time there are about 15-20 students in which circulation is must.  It would be a must that I fine tune my stations and activities to ensure all students have enough time to blog.  I also think that I could try and implement an activity that they can do at home, but with the area I work in technology is very limited in the households other than a cellular device of the parent.  

References
blog, (n.d.). The American Heritage Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition. Retrieved September 6, 2016 from Dictionary.com website http://www.dictionary.com/browse/blog

Hein, G. (1991, October 15). Constructivist Learning Theory. Retrieved September 6, 2016, from http://www.exploratorium.edu/educaiton.ifi.constructivist-learning