Scenario

I have wanted to be a teacher since I was very young. When I was in second grade, we did a musical about what we wanted to be when we grew up and I knew exactly what I wanted to be. So, I borrowed a pair of my mom's glasses and made myself a nametag: Ms. Ehmke-Teacher. Since that second grade musical my path to finding my passion has had small deviations, but I have always come back to my desire to be in the classroom. I really feel like the attributes I have are those that would help me to be successful as an educator. First of all, I am passionate and excited about what I want to teach. My concentration is English and I feel like there is a certain magic that comes with that subject; it truly has the ability to transcend time and geography. I am personable and enjoy being around and talking to different types of people. I feel like I'm fairly creative, which will help me to come up with interesting lesson plans as well as give me the ability to help differentiate my teachings to the different types of learners that I will undoubtedly have at one point or another. I'm a quick learner and try to stay up to date on the happenings in my content as well as with the educational realm in general. Finally, I love being around students. They say that if you go into teaching with a love for the kids, that'll get you through the majority of challenges that come your way.

However, I understand that there are challenges that I will have to face as a future teacher. My subject is one that can very easily become boring based on how it is taught. It will be a constant challenge for me to present the information in a way that is new, fresh, and in such a way that will relate to my student's lives. I am the kind of person who had a hard time delegating or asking for help so I will need to make sure that I am constantly and consciously using my co-workers as resources for advice and ideas.

Everyone has an idea of where they would ideally like to be in their teaching careers at certain points. Ideally, my dream job would be teaching English back at my high school, Frisco Centennial High School, in Frisco, TX.  I was lucky enough to have an amazing high school experience there and I feel like the staff and administrators all have the same ideas about how they want the school to be. Frisco ISD is a great school district and I realize that to get there, I will have to make sure I continue to do well in finishing my college education and really taking advantage of all the lessons I will learn when I student teach. I will most likely have to sub for a couple months when I move back there after I graduate and hopefully that will help me to get my foot in the door there and closer to my dream job at my dream school in my favorite city.

 Technology is something that is quickly becoming a major player in curriculum's around the globe. With the kids who are in schools today, technology is a major player in their everyday life. The International Society for Technology in Education recognizes that there are different standards now concerning education than there were even ten years ago. They know that societies and expectations are changing, teaching is changing, and that educators must lead the way. As an educator, I understand that it is part of my job to make sure that I am keeping up with the changes and growth in technology so I can relate to my students. Integrating that technology into the classroom will not always be an easy task. In my college career, I took an Education Technology class taught by Cyndi Danner Kuhn. The way that she taught the technology were learning about is the way that I would introduce it into my classrooms. She would give us multiple examples of the tool before we even started and would then help us, step-by-step, to create a practice product in class. For homework, it was our job to create a different product from the tool in a way that would relate to our content. I feel that the way that she did it was easy to follow and ended up being fun to use when we got to create our own projects using the tools. I feel that if I followed her  recipe, hopefully my students would come out of my class with multiple new tools in their belts like I did with her class. I learned how to use so many different tools in her classroom. The few that I feel the most comfortable with are VoiceThread, Google Docs, Prezi, and Animoto. However, there are different applications that I knew before this class that I feel would be helpful in "going global" with technology in my classroom. For instance, if we wanted to conference with a writer in another state, we could do it via Skype. Applications like Skype give them a first hand learning experience as well as a look into other cultures. It's these types of tools that would prepare our students to be "21st century ready" as The Partnership for 21st Century Skills states. I'm also familiar with Apple products including the MacBook Pro, iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad.

One of the amazing things about technology is that it is incredibly versatile. As a teacher, I understand that I will have all different kinds of students that will all have different types of learning styles to which they'll respond. I might have students who shine best when they are allowed to be creative and express themselves in a way that is different than just an essay. For these types of students, I could give them the option to create a presentation using VoiceThread or Prezi as opposed to writing an essay. Technology also gives me the ability to reach the students in my class who might have special needs. Using a Text to Spoken Language feature on a Mac could allow students who have a harder time reading to complete the assignments with more ease. I know that technology didn't have that big of an impact on my education because the teachers in my schools were not as up to speed with the different types that were available. We did use a clicker system for tests and quizzes but that was about as advanced as our technology got. I want to make sure that, especially since technology is so prevalent in society today, students that I'll teach learn how to use it in my classroom so they can then move onto using it in the real world. I think the easiest way to do this is integrate things that students use on a daily basis into the classroom. For example, almost every kid today has some kind of cell phone that can take pictures. I could design an assignment where they have to go on a scavenger hunt around the school, take different pictures, upload them, and create a presentation from them. This way, I'm not fighting the kids on using their cell phones, I'm molding using them to my lessons. This way, they aren't a distraction, they're part of the lesson. This is only one example of how easily technology can be integrated. Hopefully, showing the different members of the staff how integrating the technology works better than banning it will encourage them to use it in their classes as well.

My Wow Moment

 At the beginning of the semester, I was very intimidated by this class. I would consider myself a pretty tech-savvy person, but I wasn't as familiar with some of the new programs that had come out and I was nervous that was something that was going to hurt me in this class. However, as we began working, I discovered that I was not as far behind the learning curve as I thought. Most of my classmates were in the same boat that I was, which made me feel MUCH better and allowed me to relax and soak up all the information I could. My WOW moment was about halfway through the first part of the semester when we had really started to design our websites. The fact that I had a website PERIOD was something that I was really impressed with but my WOW moment was when I found that I really enjoyed working on it! It was so gratifying to be able to see all of my hard work out there for the world to see. I began showing my website to EVERYONE: family, friends, etc. I used iWeb to design my site and because I chose that program, designing my site was easy and fun. I never imagined that I would really enjoy my homework from class but I did from this class! So, my WOW moment took place when I finally realized that I was getting to work on something for a class that I was really proud of and really enjoyed working on!

Podcast Favorites: Tech Chick Tips

Over the course of the semester, I listened to many different podcast. Some were very interesting, some were only mildly interesting, but I learned something new from all of them. I learned how to integrate different types of technology into my classroom including the use of cell phones, iPods, iPads, laptops, etc. With how quickly technology is becoming integrated into the curriculum around the U.S., this was something that I needed to be very familiar with. After listening to all of the different types of podcasts, I did develop a favorite: Tech Chick Tips.

Tech Chick Tips is run by two women from Texas (definitely hit close to home since I am from Texas!) They are both educators so they bring first-hand knowledge about using technology in the classrooms to their podcasts. Another great thing about their podcasts is that they discuss new and inventive tools that I probably wouldn't have learned about otherwise! The seem very passionate about getting kids involved in the real world and finding real world application through technology. One of the tools they talked about was Secret Builders. It's a tool that allows the teacher to create a virtual world for their student to navigate. The site combines the student's interactions with famous historical characters with different quizzes and activities. The majority of their tools they discussed in the podcasts that I listened to were a lot like Secret Builders: tools that were interactive for the student yet also allowed real world application.

One of the main things I learned from the different podcasts that I listened to over the course of the semester is that technology is always changing and getting better. There will always be a new tool or program that is available and as a teacher, it's our job to stay up to date on them. As teachers, we need to make sure we are doing everything possible to get our students the latest and greatest programs and technology. Listening to these podcasts in the future will help me to do this!

Semester Favorites: Google Docs, Prezi, and VoiceThread

Over the course of the semester, we've learned how to use so many different tools it was hard to choose my favorites. Each of the tools we used could be helpful in the classroom in some way. However, there are three different tools that I really took a liking to: Voicethread, Prezi, and Google Docs.

One of the first tools that we used was Google Docs. When my professor introduced it to us, I had never heard of it before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. However, once we got to tinkering around with the different tools, I realized that there are so many different types of documents that can directly be used in the classroom. I like the fact that the documents can be easily accessed by multiple users who are in different places. It would make group projects even easier because the different students could access the documents even if they are in their homes. The Forms application of Google Docs was one of my favorite things that came out of this tool. I think that it's great that we can make these quizzes, tests, rubrics, etc. right there on Google Docs so, again, students can access them where ever they are. Along with their accessibility,  the forms are incredibly easy to create. So, because of the accessibility and ease of use, Google Docs is definitely something I plan on using constantly in my classroom.

Prezi was another tool that I really enjoyed learning how to use. I was an adamant Power Point user and have been for years. However, I also didn't know that there were really any alternatives for presentations besides power point. Prezi is a new and fresh way to present information to students. While there are different aspects about Prezi that I am not very fond of, the pros definitely outweigh the cons. The final products from Prezi are presentations that will keep students attentions longer than a normal power point would because of the fact that the creator has the ability to have their presentation move in different directions. It's also much easier to upload videos and movies onto a Prezi presentation than it is to a power point; the movies will also immediately start playing on a Prezi which is a great time-saver.

The last tool that made the cut for my list of favorites is VoiceThread. VoiceThread is a tool that gives you the ability to create presentations or digital stories with pictures while being able to add your voice to them. We had to do a "Celebrate Kansas" presentation using VoiceThread, so we got lots of practice with it! (I was allowed to do a story about someone from my hometown because I'm from out of state.) VoiceThread also gives other users the ability to comment on different presentations. This would be an excellent tool to use in the classroom because I, as the teacher, could post a presentation online and have the kids leave comments as participation. This would also give them the ability to access it where ever they were which makes it easier on them. Overall, just like Google Docs and Prezi, the accessibility and ease of use are the two aspects of VoiceThread that I liked the most.

Podcast Reflection #12: Learning in Hand-Educational Applications

For my final blog reflection, I chose to do a podcast by Learning in Hand about Education Apps for iPod products. The main podcaster talks about how many different products and applications that Apple has come out with/is still coming out with. He talks about how there are different applications that can go along with your lessons. You can limit your search to only free apps too. He also talks about how there are people outside of Apple who have made lists of educational applications. For example there's EAR.org which allows you to pick  certain grade levels or lessons under Lockers. There's Recess Duty Blog that has tons of apps for iPod touches. There are even sites that have apps that can create digital storybooks that can be shared online. He discusses how there are different apps to make movies like Movie Pop. However, some apps are not free and can have certain limitations and quirks that can be troublesome. Overall, I enjoyed this podcast, especially because it had video along with audio. I am a Mac user, so any applications that I can use in my classroom will be especially helpful.

Podcast #11: Moving at the Speed of Creativity-Integrating Podcasts

For this podcast I chose to listen to one from Moving at the Speed of Creativity. This particular podcast is about integrating podcasts into the classroom. He first discusses a conference held in KS and this is where he got the idea to do the podcast I listened to. The discussion was titled "How to integrate podcasting into the classroom using Moodle".  Both of the presenters had a long list of accolades and had been involved in the education circuit for many years. For the presentation, they discussed the different aspects of how a podcast can be used in class and how it will help the students. They talked about how time is so of the essence in schools and how simple this kind of tools is for them. It's simply creating an assignment and having them upload it. He talks about how students already have cell phones and how to integrate those into projects by having the students take pictures and videos on them. Overall, his main point was that students already have the tools to make podcasts and take pictures/videos, so why fight them? Instead, integrate them into your classroom so that the students are having fun while getting to use technology they understand. I liked this podcast a lot because I'm a firm believer in somehow integrating the technology these kids use everyday into the classroom and this podcast gave different ideas for that.

Podcast Reflection #10: Kevin Honeycutt " School as Life-Practice"

For this podcast reflection, I chose to listen to/watch a podcast done by Kevin Honeycutt. In this episode, he skypes with Ginger Lewis who is the director at Turning Point Learning Center in Emporia, KS. They are a 1 to 1 laptop school and a school that has technology completely integrated into their curriculum. One of the interesting things that she wants is a "Life-Practice Model" which is where all of the classes are integrated together. She wants school to be a preparation for life and wants to be able to teach the kids lessons and tools that they can use later in life. They also have a program called "Global Nomads". They provide lessons and lesson plans that you can buy over a variety of subjects. She uses different methods and tools to get the kids empowered and get conversations started between them. She says they're used to talking to each other but the chat tool she uses is an equalizer and a great teacher to her kids. Overall, I really liked this podcast because it showed what a school can look like when technology is greatly integrated into their curriculum and hopeful this school is an example to other schools of the great methods and tools that can be used to further help students learn.