Smolnik

 My name is Heather Smolnik and I am a 7th-8th grade Learning Support English/Itinerant teacher at Muhlenberg Middle School. I enjoy using technology in my lessons. I think it is important to expose my students to academic related technology as much as possible. I would love to have a Smart Board in my classroom!

Here is an great interactive website to use in your classroom with a broad range of topics - Click Here!

I think Facebook is much less cluttered as well as more simple to use than Myspace. I also like that Facebook does not allow as much spam and advertisements. Myspace often displays things are are slightly tacky.... I enjoy using Facebook to keep in touch with high school classmates and current friends. It costs less than talking on the phone and is much easier to communicate on. I also like that it seems to be more private than Myspace.

I would use blogging within my classroom as a way of keeping my students up-to-date on all tests, quizzes and assignments. I would also use it to assist my students with homework help as well as study skills. I think blogging is a safe way to communicate with students so they can have assistance from home, for example if they are out sick or over the weekend. One downfall is if the student does not have internet access from home; however I think if students have study halls or other opportunities to be on the internet it could be a great way to discuss academic-related stuff as a group. 

Netiquette...
 * 1) Do you agree with all of the items covered in this Bill of Rights? Why or why not? I agree with the iems covered. I think it is thorough and clearly identifies the rules of the internet for all users.
 * 2) What do you disagree with? I disagree with a statement in Article 1, number 3. There is no possible way for everyone to be informed before or even after something personal is posted about them online. In theory I think it is good to have included, however I feel it is impossible.
 * 3) Do you plan to abide by these guidelines? Why or why not? I abide by the guidelines to the best of my knowledge. Obviously, ignorance of the "law" is no excuse though!
 * 4) Do you think they leave out anything important? Why or why not? Everything I can think of has been covered. The most important area I believe is about education. I also strongly agree with the fact that institutions need to develop, implemant and maintain security for their electronic community.
 * 5) W hat's not covered that should be? I think that they should update their policies due to the explosion of social networking sites that have recently come about.

Viruses! Worms use different networking systems to propagate: email, instant messaging, file-sharing (P2P), IRC channels, LANs, WANs and so forth. Classic viruses are a class of malicious programs covers programs that spread copies of themselves throughout a single machine in order to. Trojan Horses are a wide variety of programs that perform actions without the user's knowledge or consent: collecting data and sending it to a cyber criminal, destroying or altering data with malicious intent, causing the computer to malfunction, or using a machine's capabilities for malicious or criminal purposes, such as sending spam.

Email Hoax: Emailers can receive a laptop from Sony or Dell if they forward the email to 8 people. ARE YOU SERIOUS?!  Internet Ethics <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">__**Scenerio**__ - Brad has posted a note on his class newsgroup stating his (highly unflattering) opinion of a new teacher. He wants to know what others think. Some of the responses that follow say nice things. Other comments are quite critical; a few are personal. __**Response**__ - This goes against the school Computer and Network Usage Policy; System Security; Inappropriate Language; c) You will not knowingly or recklessly post personal attacks, harassment, or false or defamatory information about a person or an organization.

<span style="color: #ff0073; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;">**Google Earth** is a fantastic way to get students involved in an almost real life setting without having to leave the classroom. The tools you can utilize on this [free] application are priceless and it is amazing how students can use this for various reasons. I love the fun activities for students that they probably do not even realize are academic-related!

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #ff0073; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 150%; text-align: center;">5 Steps of the Writing Process Step 1 - Pre-Writing [See video below for examples of frequently used graphic organizers] Created using Jing

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<span style="color: #ff0073; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: center;">Classroom Commercial media type="file" key="Classroom Commercial.wav" width="300" height="50"

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<span style="color: #ff0073; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Here is a faculty morale boosting video created in Room 134. media type="file" key="new muvee 001.wmv" align="center" width="300" height="300"

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> This link will take you to my classroom Wiki ... http://misssmolnik.wikispaces.com/

<span style="color: #ff0073; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Video Conferencing <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The video conference experience we had in class was both informational and fun. I was amazed at how clear and "nondelayed" the video and audio was. I would love to incorporate this into my English classes at some point. I think this would be an awesome experience for my students to see how far technology has come.

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