My Life , Education, and Educational Goals

I am a junior at the University of South Alabama. I graduated December of 2008 from Faulkner State Community College with my Associatesw degree in Science. I am a newly-wed and I have four month old son that I love dearly. I plan on graduating from the University of South Alabama in May of 2011 and going straight into the workforce. I hopefully will get a job working in Baldwin County following the teaching footsteps of my mother.

Things I have Learned and Will Take With Me in the Classroom

In my EDM 310 class, Micro-computing systems, I have learned how to use many different types of technology in the classroom. These include powerpoints, podcasts, videocast, accounting spreadsheets, Microsoft Word, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, Skype and many more other types of technology and communication systems. I plan on using all of the communication systems such as Twitter, Blogger, Facebook, Myspace, Skype, and Tweetdeck to keep in touch with my students and their parents. This will effectively help because students will continuously be absent and I can give them the assignments they missed through any one of these systems. I will use powerpoints, podcasts, and videocasts to enhance the learning in my classroom to make learning more fun for the children.

Topics that are useful when Learning about technology

Some of the things that I looked at and discussed in my classroom blog were different lectures such as , Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. This lecture was a very effective one because it showed everyone that acheiving your goals are always possible when you put your mind and heart into it. This will be a great lecture to show to my students so that they can also be inspired to do well in school. Some other effective things I listened to were some podcasts called EdTechTalk and Kidcast. These podcasts were very informative and interesting to listen to. When I have a classroom I will have different stations that the children can go to and apply different skills. One of my stations will including listening to the podcasts and writing a paragraph about the information given by the podcast.

Attitudes, Approaches, and Tools I will use in the Classroom.

I will always try and make sure I have an open and welcoming attitude with my students and fellow teachers. I believe as a teacher and a person I can always learn something new from anyone in my surroundings including my students. I want the children to have fun using technology, but also know how to use it effectively so they can accomplish their goals in the future through technology. I will ask my students if anyone has any prior knowledge to technology and if they do allow them to show their skills to the class to give them some confidence. I will use powerpoints, podcasts, and many other gadgets in the classroom to make learning a fun and rewarding experience through technology and hands on learning. I can not wat to get into the workforce!