Participation in an Online Community

This was a great assignment which challenged us to find an online community we find useful and contribute to it and write a response about our experience. My experience has illustrated the lack of great online communities, and I struggled to find any online community worth the time it took to find and participate in it. First I joined ProTeacher.com which turned out to be for grades K-6, and then I looked into Teach-Nology.com which is a site my host teacher uses. Teach-Nology might be a great resource and forum for discussing classroom management and other teacher issues, but you have to pay $30 a year in membership fees.

The site I found the most helpful was the Alaska Teacher Placement website. This website provides good information through a forum on how to get jobs in Alaska, something very important to me right now. The negative is that I had great deal of difficulty signing up and getting my password, and then a week later my password was not working. These kind of irritating set backs are what lead me to the my conclusion.

My conclusion is that for tips and discussion about teaching the classes I have to teach I find it much more useful to talk with the more experienced teachers that surround me. As far as what I get out of a personal mentor relationship versus random questions with dissatisfying answers on a blog, it is far superior to simply talk with someone face to face. Online Blogs have their time and place but so often create a distraction instead of a solution.

A link to the Alaska Teacher Placement website is provided here http://www.alaskateacher.org/doku.php

Digital Story Board

For my digital story project I created a story that would fall in the genre of historical fiction. I would ask the same of my students. The story of Meriticles is fiction, but the story of Justinian I and the Nika Revolt are fact. I used Meriticles to explore and explain what happened during those tumultuous times in Constantinople. You can find the video on youtube here http://www.youtube.com/user/bpautzke . My story board is presented below. And my rubric is posted here http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dcsmq5nm_1gd5rphgp&hl=en.

When I use this project in the classroom I will make some modifications. I especially did not like that my story was not completely factual, for a history class it would benefit the students more if the story was factual. When I was creating the story I was too caught up in following the story board model which called for anticipation and climax and so sacrificed the factuality.

Digital Story Board: Meriticles

By: Brian Pautzke

Beginning- Meriticles’ life as a child, what his parents were like: a loving household.

Problem/Call to adventure: Reforms instituted by Justinian I creates tension among the people. Nika Revolt begins.

Middle: Destruction of the Hajj Sophia. Nika Revolt at its height. Slaughter at the stadium Hippodrome, Meritcles’ parents are killed and Meriticles vows to avenge their death.

Solution: Meriticles joins the army and rises through the ranks to be a top general. Uses his military prowess to take power through a coup d’état.

Closure: Meritcles rules for the next 30 years.