Shakera+Griffin

===Welcome to my world of WIKI! My name is Shakera Griffin and I am a Junior Secondary English Education Major at Clemson University! Teaching is my absolute passion, I believe and will always believe that education is a fundamental supplement for living a successful and prominent life. As an inspiring teacher my goal and mission is to make a difference in each and every one of my students lives, so that they understand that they are unique individuals who have the ability to embark upon a journey of endless possibilities for success as long as they stay motivated and have a passion for learning. Aside from being a student at Clemson, I am also a Full-Time Sunday School teacher at House of Judah church, where I teach 3rd-5th grade students moral stories from the bible as well life lessons that they can apply to their everyday lives. During my free time I enjoy shopping (what girl doesn't), reading, writing short stories and being a full-time mommy to my 3 year old daughter who consumes most of my extra time! ===



===Since I have become a mom some of my favorite literary works have been children's books, which I enjoy reading to my daughter and also writing small reviews for a local newsletter entitled Mirrors and Windows. Some of those books are: ===

=Useful Websites for English Educators =

**@WWW.OED.COM **
==== The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is an extremely helpful dictionary that is regarded as an accepted authority on the English Language. It is the guide to the meaning, pronunciation and history of words from the past and present. ====

=WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF GLOG!! =

#|Glogster is a interactive multimedia poster that people can use to create blogs but using cool graphics, thus making them Glogs! I used My first Glog to display how animated and sunny I can be! I love the outdoors and especially spending time with my 3 year daughter. As a teacher I believe Glogs can be used as a tool to show creativity among #|students and literature. Often times students need to write book reports and what better way to simplify assignments by having students express what stories are about in blogs and maybe having a presentation. Glogster reminds me of Prezi, both tools are extremely sufficient when doing presentations, or small projects or assignments. media type="custom" key="24943194"


 * Remember the Mountain Bed **

** Billy Bragg & Wilco – Mermaid Avenue Vol. II **
Words: Woody Guthrie 1944. Music: Tweedy/Bennett 1999

Do you still sing of the mountain bed we made of limbs and leaves? Do you still sigh there near the sky where the holly berry bleeds? You laughed as I covered you over with leaves Face, breast, hips, and thighs You smiled when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes

Rosin smells and turpentine smells from eucalyptus and pine Bitter tastes of twigs we chewed where tangled wood vines twine Trees held us in on all four sides so thick we could not see I could not see any wrong in you, and you saw none in me

Your arm was brown against the ground, your cheeks part of the sky Your fingers played with grassy moss, as limber you did lie Your stomach moved beneath your shirt and your knees were in the air Your feet played games with mountain roots as you lay thinking there

Below us the trees grew clumps of trees, raised families of trees, and they As proud as we tossed their heads in the wind and flung good seeds away The sun was hot and the sun was bright down in the valley below Where people starved and hungry for life so empty come and go

There in the shade and hid from the sun we freed our minds and learned Our greatest reason for being here, our bodies moved and burned There on our mountain bed of leaves we learned life's reason why The people laugh and love and dream, they fight, they hate to die

The smell of your hair I know is still there, if most of our leaves are blown Our words still ring in the #|brush and the trees where singing seeds are sown Your shape and form is dim but plain, there on our mountain bed I see my life was brightest where you laughed and laid your head...

I learned the reason why man must work and how to dream big dreams To conquer time and space and fight the rivers and the seas I stand here #|filled with my emptiness now and look at city and land And I know why farms and cities are built by hot, warm, nervous hands

I crossed many states just to stand here now, my face all hot with tears I crossed city, and valley, desert, and stream, to bring my body here My history and future blaze bright in me and all my joy and pain Go through my head on our mountain bed where I smell your hair again.

All this day long I linger here and on in through the night My greeds, desires, my cravings, hopes, my dreams inside me fight: My loneliness healed, my emptiness filled, I walk above all pain Back to the breast of my woman and child to scatter my seeds again

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=**My Voice Thread**= media type="custom" key="25026786"

=**Paper for EDF315**= Shakera Griffin May 1, 2014 Edf 315 Robert Visser

 Twenty-first-century literacy embodies student’s ability to master digital content while manufacturing, creating, and evaluating information from a wide variety of subjects and sources. 21st Century literacy oriented teaching offers additional benefit to students, allowing them to incorporate the technology they increasingly use in their everyday lives, in which they will need to master in order to find success in tomorrow’s workplace. Literacy exemplifies a method for teaching that connects content to skill. Skills, allow students to recollect details, and expand their educational experiences. 21st-century learning dissipates the dichotomies between Content and skill.  Traditionally, "Literacy" was determined by estimating the percentage of people who could read and write. As Technology progressed, and computers became vital in the workplace and trickled down into the school system, "computer literacy" entered the curriculum. In the 1980’s, people soon realized how useful computers had become for consolidating and retrieving information. This coined the term Information Literacy which was defined as having the ability to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. Literacy in other words required more than vocabulary and awareness, but it also required critical thinking. Since then the term literacy has been applied in many different contexts; one reads about visual literacy, media literacy, textual literacy, numerical literacy, technology literacy, and network literacy. In each case, the word "literacy" is used to suggest a complex of skills, including investigation, analysis, calculation, production, and application. Simply teaching reading and writing is no longer sufficient; although those are certainly the foundational skills upon which all other, literacies are built. In this age of Technology, it is important that teachers foster 21st century literacies in the classroom. Students should be capable of purposefully accessing information from a variety of sources, analyze, and evaluate information, and integrating it to construct a personal knowledge base from which to make intelligent decisions. To foster these capabilities, educators must reassess their course work and teaching strategies. They must distinguish and accept the fact that knowledge is continuously changing and no traditional curriculum can sufficiently supply students with fact-based learning needed for the challenges they will face. They must teach the students the skills to continue learning independently long after they are out of school. In order to implement 21 century literacies, teachers should adopt a system like the big 6 for information literacy. The Big 6 skills supply an organized strategy for effectively meeting needs while developing critical thinking skills. By using the Big Six skills as a foundation for the information that student, need to access when using 21st literacy programs and software students can gain a sense of digital citizenship. Teachers can also collaborate with Library media specialist incorporate the Big 6 Skills approach in any assignment or project that requires accessing, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing information which is required in most technological endeavors. Many teachers do not realize that library media specialists have the training and skills needed to implement information-and technology literacy skills in the curriculum. The traditional library school provided instruction in cataloging, selection, conducting reference interviews. As electronic access to information proliferates in schools, library media specialists can teach both faculty and students how to use the Internet, social media, and other equip technologically that foster learning such as reading, writing and more. Since there are also many different programs and software’s that can be used for specific assignments teachers can slowly integrate technology into the lesson plan and class objectives. An example would be if one day the teacher the teacher set up his or lesson plan to spend 30 minutes or so to explore the use of Prezi or video recording. If for the entire day or for a designated amount of time the teacher showed the students how to access and work these programs, he or she could give the students a mini assignment such as create a 2 minute video and present it to the class today. On the other hand, the teacher could also say create a presentation on a topic by the end of class to present at the end of class. By allowing the students to play around with the programs, they can become more familiar and comfortable with the functions of the software. Therefore, later, the teacher can present a bigger assignment that requires the students to create some sort of project that would require the use of Prezi or video recording.   Social Media is a huge catalyst for the move to 21 Century literacy. Social media networked digital media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and wikis, which enable people to socialize, organize, learn, play, and engage in commerce. The part that makes social media social is that technical skills need to be exercised in concert with others: encoding, decoding, and community. Social Media focuses on five social media literacies: Attention, Participation, Collaboration, Network awareness, and critical consumption. Together all of these literacies create a culture for 21 century literacy. Communication has also been instrumental in the growth of social networking. With the introduction of Internet and the cell phone, a lot of social interaction is captured through email and text messaging. Today there are a lot of online social networking sites where individuals share information about themselves and their social networks. Social networking allows people to interact with one another, a seemingly new trend. Recently internet browsers have adopted web 2.0. Web 2.0 (or Web 2) is the general term for advanced Internet technology and applications including wikis, blogs, and social bookmarking. One of the most significant differences between Web 2.0 and the traditional World Wide Web (Web 1.0) is greater collaboration among Internet users and other users, content providers, and enterprises. Traditionally, data was posted on Web sites, and users simply viewed or downloaded the content. Progressively, users have the ability to contribute to Web content and in some cases exert real-time control over it. For example, dynamic encyclopedias such as Wikipedia make it possible for users to upload content and or comments to articles about specific topics of a worldwide information in multiple languages. There is no clear-cut differentiation between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0 technologies, hardware, and applications. The distinction is, largely, subjective. Increasingly, online social networking sites embody the web 2.0 phenomenon. It is a place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects the user to other users engaging at least tens of millions of Internet users a day. Online social networks are ideal for exchanging ideas and views although, these are restricted to the users of the social network. Popular social networking sites, like Twitter, Instagram, Snap chat, and Facebook are changing the educational scene. In order for students to stay engaged, the teachers have to appeal to a generation of students who learn in a generation where technology and interaction caters to technologically savvy individuals. Social networking is continuously reaching phenomenal growth. Not only has the network expanded it collaboration abilities, but it also appeals to older people and help them to achieve a broader objective like job search. It allows artists, and music labels the ability to upload share and sell their content to a community of users with interests in the particular media. Technology as a whole is moving toward the ideal of annihilating space and time. It allows us to get things done at a faster rate as well as staying in touch with people despite their geographical distances. Social networking is important as far as an individual’s personal and professional development is concerned. The social networking or social media has emerged as a powerful and effective means for people to not only link and get linked but to use these services as effectively as possible. When determining how effective we use these sites it’s important to consider etiquette, which in turn is known as digital citizenship. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Digital citizenship refers to a person’s response to membership in a digital community, More precisely, the self-monitored habits that sustain and improve the digital communities. This makes citizenship far more complex than a simple matter or way of governing one self, but rather one that consists self-knowledge, interaction, and intimate knowledge of a place, and its people. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Digital Citizenship should begin when any child, teen, and/or adult signs begin to interact with any electronic function since becoming a digital citizen goes beyond simple Internet activity. In order for students to become responsible digital citizens, they must, understand the cultural, ethical, and societal issues relative to technology, practice liable use of technology systems, and information, and develop positive attitudes toward technology. The world is continuously moving towards a more technology-based society and many children and teens are often misusing technology. Digital citizenship is the concept in which to prepare everyone. It includes nine key elements that teach and require the proper use of technology. One of the key elements of Digital citizenship is Digital Etiquette. Digital Etiquette is one of the areas where most problems occur for it possesses the electronic standards of behavior and technique. The problem is not that no rules or protocols exist, but that they are constantly created and no one is teaching the digital citizens. It is extremely importantly to enforce digital citizenship. Since much of digital life takes place anonymously, it is constantly becoming easier to participate in unethical behaviors. It is up to Teachers and Parents to follow certain guidelines and standards that outline the purpose of social media and how it should therefore not be abused and or manipulated to hurt, and or cause harm to anyone at specific time.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">In conclusion, 21st Century literacy is only going to move to the next level as Technology as we know it today is increasingly improving. Unlike some critics who believe that the 21st century is not spanned on technology, it is because of the generation that we live in today. 21 century literacy embodies all the elements of reading writing and simply communicating across the globe. As society moves forward, so will literacy as a whole. Traditional roles of reading and writing are still the foundations for this progression but just like all things change, so is this. Factors such as social media and digital citizenship all help embody the many elements that helps shape the change in literacy. Just like most literary concepts that possess rules and guidelines and have reasons for development. Social media and digital citizenship serve as that framework. As a future educator in the future, I also plan to take part in this technological savvy move since I too am a product of the generation of kids that grow up in a society that embrace technology and the cool ways of learning associated with it. This literacy movement should not only start at home but begin with educators too!