My reflection on my journey of becoming a teacher...

I have been in college since Fall 2008 (I took a year off to have my son)  I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and I feel like this was a good way for me to reflect on my journey this far. I have really enjoyed my last few semesters because I finally got to start taking the courses required for my major and not just general education courses.  I finally felt like I was close to being a teacher.  However, at the same time now that I am getting closer to my student teaching I am getting really nervous!! I am mainly nervous because I feel like it is different when you have your classroom, your own schedule, your own kids versus just "stepping into" someone's room.

I have really enjoyed this class.  I would say it is probably one of my favorite classes so far because I feel like it is all hands on and I am truly learning things. My favorite part is all of the things I have found out that Google can do! It amazes me and I am a little sad I didn't know of these things until now.  Between the free websites, hangouts, slideshows and drives, I am amazed! Most free websites that are out there for you to use you have to upload slideshows and links and forms just like the Google site; however, if you need to change one thing on it you have to re-upload whatever you changed.  With doing everything on the drive, any changes you makes automatically changes on your site.  This will save a teacher A LOT of time, because things are constantly changing.  I am also very fond of our book. It is one of the first text books I have used that I feel like its talking to me and in "student" language.  It is a very easy book to read, which in return makes the information much easier to learn and retain. I am very satisfied in feeling like I will be taking away a lot of knowledge from this class that will help me become a better teacher.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

In this video titled Mr. Winkle Wakes by Matthew Needleman, we say a man who woke up after 100 years and went to work, a hospital, walked around and then finally a school.  He was astonished how different life is and how we have all these machines and new technology.  However, when he went to the school he felt safe and relaxed because everything was still the same as it was 100 years ago.  I really like this video because it point blank prove to everyone how behind our schools are in technology.

We have so many wonderful pieces of technology in the world today that is truly sad that our schools are not taking advantage of everything! We have such high expectations for our students to make certain test scores, but if we continue to teach them "the stone age way" who can we really be upset with if they aren't making those scores? My favorite part of this video is where Mr. Winkle is sitting in the classroom and sees another one of those machines but it is in the back collecting dust.  This is so true and I remember seeing it often while growing up, a lot of my classrooms had computers but they were a 'bad thing' and collected dust.  It makes me sick seeing teachers have wonderful tools and ways to reach their students but choose to be stuck in time. How can we prepare kids for the real world and to succeed in the real world if we are not using these things? I will definitely be passing this video along :)

Technology Integration Video

Differentiating Instruction Through Interactive Games 

Using tech tools and games acquired through grants and his own resourcefulness, second-grade teacher 

Robert Pronovost tailors math instruction to match students' individual learning styles. 

After watching this video and then reflecting on my elementary grade years makes me feel ancient.  I remember when I was in the second grade and my school finally received some computers.  However, they were only in the 'Computer Lab' and not in classrooms yet.  Usually, as a class, we would take a trip to the computer lab once a week to use them.  They were of coarse the really old ones with barely any color and had a floppy drive (SHOCK! lol)  I remember mainly using the computers to take our AR (accelerated reader) tests on.  It wasn't until my 7-8th grade year until I really remember having computers in the classroom for us to do activities on.  Even then the encouragement from teachers to use the computers was not good.  Most of them used them as a way to waste time for the students who finished ahead or time or if the teacher didn't feel like teaching that day.

I seriously hope to be like this teacher.  He was very inspirational in his ways of teaching.  He is a great example of how we can still "physically" teach our students but incorporate all the amazing learning tools from technology.  After he taught his lesson, each student would get their computer and play their game.  He referred to it as practice but they had to get enough points to move on to the next level.  He said that the first one was an actual review of the lesson and the only way they could get enough points to move further was to actually grasp the concept.  After that is was fun learning for the student.  I LOVE THIS!  This gives the teacher time to really go around and help the students who really need help on a concept.  However, at the same time the students who get it quickly will not get bored because the application allows to continue educating them in a fun way.

I also find inspiring the amount of work this teacher put in to get this technology for his classroom. I took the quote directly from him: "My first two years that I was teaching, I didn't have any technology in my classroom. Not having access to those tools and knowing how valuable they could be is what kind of drove me to reach out to companies around, which led to receiving a few computers from Apple, and then recently receiving a large grant from Facebook as well. The iPod Touches came to us through a SIG grant, school improvement grant. Dream Box we started this year. We are just trying out, on a trial basis, because most of the software we use in this classroom I either get through beta testing or through free trials. " I feel like if we had more teachers like this our education system would be a lot better.

I also wanted to share this quote from Mr. Pronovost as well: "I encourage my students to use all the tools that are available to them. One thing that we emphasize in this class is that using computers is not always the best tool. Using your hands may not always be the best tool. And so when I have some students on Planet Turtle, they might be solving the problem on their white board, or they might be counting on their fingers, because that's the best strategy for them." 

What a great way to work everything and every way of learning together!!

An Issue Related to both Teaching and Technology

       Classroom teachers are embracing the use of technology to enhance their classroom teaching more today than ever before. But in order to effectively use the technology in their classroom they must prepare themselves for some of the challenges they will face in accomplishing this goal. Some major issues classroom teachers identify when they discuss the challenges of infusing technology into their teaching are the availability of Technology Hardware, Technical Assistance, Software Applications and the time to Integrate technology into teaching.
Our public schools are a mixed bag when it comes to what type of computers and other technology devices are available to the classroom teacher. There is also the question of how many computers will be available for teacher needs. Are the computers in the classroom or in lab situations? All of these hardware questions and more can only be answered when I actually have a classroom in a school district. Until that time I need to learn a variety of different technology tools, prepare myself for the possibility that I will have to group children on computers and learn other strategies for making the most of the fewest available computers. Rare is the school district that has enough technical resource specialists to assist teachers at the building level, let alone in the individual classroom. As a result, we as future classroom teachers need to familiarize ourselves with simple trouble-shooting technology tasks. Knowing how to connect peripheral devises and load software packages are but a few of the many simple little skills we can master in order to help ourselves keep the technology tools going in your classroom.  There really are an unbelievably large number of software applications available to the classroom teacher. The bad news is that they all require some time to master their use and format of operation. Some good advice is to select a few multi-use packages and master them well.  People generally learn computer applications more quickly and completely when they have a specific purpose in mind. If we can remember this practical idea when we have our own classroom we might avoid that all too familiar student response, "Why do we have to learn this stuff? We will never use it.   Even if you have the hardware, trouble shooting skills, and knowledge of how to use the software, it still takes time and experience to effectively integrate the technology into your teaching.  While we are developing the skills associated with becoming a good teacher, we need to bring our technology integration skills right along. When you are learning how to plan for effective teaching, build the technology into those plans right then. A yearly planning calendar might just as well be developed as a computer document instead of written in a 3 ring binder. If our goal is for our students to communicate the results of their work and effort, have them use the computer to enhance their presentation. Be a technology advocate from the beginning of your career. It truly is more difficult to relearn old practices in new ways than it is to learn the new way in the beginning.

we are PREGNANT!

Well this is my first blog and what better way to start it off by the news of us being pregnant! I am starting this mainly for family in Washington so they can see pictures and be more involved with us.

Well we took the home pregnancy test last Wednesday (actually we took 4 of them lol) and they all clearly said PREGNANT! I completely freaked out! I was crying, shaking, more scared than anything. I ran down stairs with the first test, bawling my eyes and showed Tyler and he just hugged me and was completely calm about the whole situation. We then went to the doctor that Friday and she confirmed I was pregnant and said I am probably about 6 weeks and my due date would be around November 30th.

I know I am not far along at all but we are excited!

No, we did not plan this, we actually planned on having kids in about 3 more years so this came as a HUGE surprise to us! But we are looking at it as a blessing and we are very excited!

And we took a picture of the beginning process before my belly starts to grow :)