Alyssa's Blog EME 2040

In my future career as a special education teacher, I see myself using Excel and data collecting in a lot of different ways. Firstly, I would use Excel to organize my students and their needs because in a special ed classroom it is important for a teacher to keep track of their students individualized plans. However, that is not my only option. I can also use Excel to keep track of my students grades for their assignments. One of the most interesting topics I have seen in a classmate's blog is Class Dojo. Class dojo is a platform for teachers to use to keep track of their student's progress. Each student has a character who records the number of "dojos" they earn in a day. Dojos are given for good behavior like staying on task or finishing their reflex math on time. Another great aspect to this platform is it allows the teachers to communicate with the parents and they can also track their students progress and behavior in class. The next technology-related skill ...

"The Flipped Classroom" is the name of the strategy that teachers use to differ from a traditional classroom setting. This strategy, is representative of its name, and essentially means that instead of teaching in a normal classroom, the students are taught through online learning or even outside of the classroom, at home. This changes the types of activities too; instead of homework, students are participating in online discussions or are able to engage in activities at home with the help of their teacher. Open Educational Resources are just that, resources that are "open" and accessible to every one, and they are normally distributed through online platforms. OERs are meant to be used by anybody and to be changed, edited, and shared again. The website OER Commons is a page where people can go on an easily create their own OER. The website gives you three building options: Resource Builder, Lesson Plan Builder, and Module Builder. These three options gives anybod...

For this ILP I chose to create a Quizlet study set where I gave students the terms and definitions to help them learn the different parts of speech. This project was used to show people that educational technologies are constantly advancing and because the world is becoming so digitized, the way students learn is changing along with it. Quizlet, as shown in the voicethread, can be used to study with flashcards, practice tests, or even small games to test your knowledge on a certain subject. Quizlet is extremely easy to navigate and can be used even beginning in elementary school till graduate school. Below is a link to my voice thread where I explain the benefits and uses of Quizlet. Link:  https://voicethread.com/myvoice/thread/13253248/80162172/74459332

If you click on any school website, there is often a tab for teacher or staff pages. Here you can find links to all teacher and staff member pages that each contain different information specific to whos page it is. The page I visited was Lemon Bay High School's Staff Page. This is my old high school so I knew exactly where to go from the home page. Below is a screenshot showing a list of several staff members and teachers, each with their own page and it is categorized to make it easier to find who you're looking for. Clicking on a few of the pages, you can easily see a trend. Each teacher provides their name and email making it easy for parents and students to contact them with any questions and concerns. Also provided usually are several links to pages with activities or class lessons, sometimes even a schedule or calendar for the class to follow along with. http://www.lemonbayhigh.com/staff.html In the future I definitely see myself using technology in many differen...

Initially, I believed Diigo was not really something I would use alot. I personally am not a tech-savvy person, but in my future classroom, I hope to change that by incorporating educational technologies, maybe even Diigo. Diigo is a perfect online platform and it has many capabilities. I like being able to post and share things with my group members or other students from my class. I surprisingly enjoy blogging. Blogging gives me the ability to share my interests and thoughts with a large amount of people, almost instantly. Blogging, especially using Blogger or Twitter is actually extremely easy. Just click "new post", type your thoughts, then press "publish" and you're done! That's amazing, coming from a person who is not necessarily good with technology. A Web 2.0 tool I find valuable and may use in my future classroom is YouTube. As a teenager in the current generation, YouTube is a common thing. In my future classroom, I believe YouTube could be a p...

For my design project I chose to create a tool that was personally helpful to me back in middle and high school. In school, my teachers would use Kahoot to create trivia games where we would be quizzed on how well we knew the topics discussed in class, and it gave us students a nice break from the constant lectures and notetaking. Designing a Kahoot trivia game was not hard considering Kahoot's website makes it super easy to do. You simply sign up and create a game! I chose to create a small trivia quiz which related to my major as well as my future career as a special education teacher. My quiz consisted of six questions, giving students 120 seconds to read and answer each question. Normally teachers only give around 60 seconds to answer each question, but knowing that special ed students often lack the fast cognitive reactions we have, I extended the time. I also chose to include images for each question that I believed most went with the topic. My question were straightforward a...

Using Twitter has definitely been new for me. I have had a personal twitter in the past but I never actually used it. In this class, I have used Twitter to connect with several educational groups and advocates for special education. It has been beneficial because it has provided me with current information on the constantly changing education system. Twitter may be beneficial in my future career, because it may allow me to connect better with my students or may allow me to be quickly updated with changing information that may be important to me as an educator. The digital divide can affect student success in schools because it may cause students to be unable to turn in assignments because they do not have access to technology. Causes of this digital divide can include a student's socio-economic class, race (segregation in certain areas), and possibly just the school's inability to provide students with internet access. As a classroom teacher, I can not expect every student to...

In my personal case I believe the three main ELA Standards listed for First Grade I would be able to adequately teach using just my prior knowledge. I have been around a first grade teacher almost my entire life, and I have gained classroom experience through my own teachers and my internships in classrooms. To teach first graders text features, it only requires that you are able to teach simple skills and to be able to explain each feature. Asking and answering questions is a basic skill and can be taught easily but also be a type of trial and error; the students need to know that there is "no stupid questions" and I believe I can establish that. The use of digital tools to "produce and publish writing" may be a little more difficult simply because as a teacher of first graders, there may be some slower learning students who have not reached the ability to produce pieces of writing as they are still learning basics such as sentence structure and punctuation. In t...

As a student, I use Microsoft Word almost everyday. I use Word to primarily write essays. However, I also use Word to take notes in class because it is faster than writing them. I have seen my teachers use Word to guide presentations in class. My personal experience with copyright is just making sure every source I use is cited or I always credit the person I get the information from. Being fair with materials in an educational environment is just proper etiquette and cheating is not something I take lightly, as a student or as a future educator. I am always fair and I believe in doing my own work and not stealing someone else's or allowing them to copy off me. As a teacher, I would just begin every year by making it clear to my students that copyright is serious and that cheating will not be tolerated, and consequences would be given. To combat academic dishonesty in my classroom, I would ensure every student took an oath and signed their name to a quote or paragraph on cheati...

As a future teacher, I believe what most influences teachers to use technology in the classroom, is the way it instantly engages the student. As a student myself, I know that if I am able to use any sort of technology in the classroom, whether it be a computer or my cell phone, I am going to be engaged because it gives me an easy way to access help but also gives me a chance to use something I am familiar with and connect it to what I am currently learning. ISTE standards for educators all include the idea of improvement with both the students and teachers practices involving technology. One standard that is meaningful to me is the standard under leadership. Standard 2b for educators states that the educator must "advocate for equitable access to educational technology, digital content and learning opportunities to meet the diverse needs of all students" (ISTE). This standard specifically stuck out to me because I have personally been impacted by teachers that have over qua...

Hi everyone! My name is Alyssa Reese and I am from Englewood, Florida. I am a freshman currently taking courses to become a teacher for young children with special needs - including physical and mental disabilities. I have always aspired to be a great leader and teacher, and by teaching kids with special needs I hope to encourage others to pursue their dreams as well as inspire my future students to never give up, because with determination and hardwork anything can be achieved. Previously in primary school, I was surrounded by educational technologies, in and out of the classroom. My teachers would always ensure that students were engaged in their coursework by implementing technology into class assignments and study techniques. Often my classmates and I would participate in electronic quizzes and games which allowed us to compete against each other while learning and reviewing class material. I also used other educational technologies such as library rooms, where students were able...