Scenario

  In 3-5 years, I plan to see myself as an educator in an elementary school. However, my future is pretty blurry. I do not know what state or city I will be teaching but most likely I see myself being in Kansas at first. I also see myself as having completed a master's degree either in elementary education or speech and language pathology. I know that I will reach these goals if I stay in school and KSU is perfect for fitting these needs that I plan for.
       I know that I will be a good educator for I have strong attributes that I believe I will carry with me when I become an educator, is my ability to be patient with students and their learning. I understand that students have different learning styles and at different paces. When I become an educator, I know that I will take the time to plan according to my student's needs (such as building and IEP). I also am able to be flexible. When teaching, it is impossible to follow a script. Everyday is different and things happen all the time that are not planned. For instance, fire sirens may go off, distracting the flow of the classroom and students can ask/answer questions that throw off the teacher's train of thought. When these things occur when I am teaching, I feel confident that I will be able to accommodate to the off track events that will occur everyday.
       There are challenges that I know I will face in the classroom. Classroom management I know will be something that I will have to work on throughout the year and with each new class that I get. Kids are not perfect and can be very rebellious, I know that I will have to work on being consistent with the rules and consequences that I address to my students.
      Another challenge I may face would be learning and looking out for new software application. I would consider taking a class for new software if there is one offered. I also would use the option of browsing the internet that explains software programs. Professors at Universities or educators at any level, are also a great tool for learning new software programs. Most educators, I believe, are aware and have practiced using certain software programs because they have been in the teaching profession longer than I have, therefore, I feel that they would be more in tuned and up to date of the different software programs that are out there.
       I'm excited about teaching because technology is very popular and what defines the present and the future I believe! In taking the Technology for the Classroom, I would love to have my students incorporate what they are learning using Animoto (video where you pick pictures and music to spread a message).  Wordles is another fun tool that I would have my students do in class. Wordles help with creativity!

       I would incorporate technology in my classroom because it has had a positive influence on my education. In using technology, I have designed my own website and it has broaden my world of resources such as VoiceThread. I think it would be cool to have my own students create their own websites and include the projects that they have done in the class.
       Technology is not something that I would hide. I would want to spread my knowledge of resources to other educators so that they may benefit from the very positive effects of using technology in schools. I would encourage Principals and the School Board to have a one-to-one laptop system in the school. Students can do most or all of their school work using a laptop on their own desk. Using laptops save paper and students will feel "important" and I think they will get more out their school work. iPads are wonderful tools to use in the classroom. Teachers can create quizzes on iPads for their students to take! Any of the resources and technology that I am familiar with are seen/shown on my website! https://sites.google.com/site/stephaniesded318website/home
       Any of the tools that I have on my website can be used in the classroom to engage and hold interest for the students!
      

My Wow Moment

       My "wow, ah ha, light bulb on" moment for the DED 318 class was realizing that it is the end of the semester and I have created my own website, complete with links, projects, and pages! I remember before I started this class, I looked at past student's websites and I remembered thinking..."What! I can't do this!" Boy, was I wrong! I found that making your own site is not as intimidating as it sounds or looks! Any site that you choose to use is pretty self explanatory in terms of how to make it your own, special, unique site. Take a look of the site that I created over the past four months!

Podcast Favorites

       I really enjoyed listening to Karen McMillan via Classroom 2.0 LIVE! She had so many interesting learning activities that she does in her classroom. For instance she talked about Paper Blogs. Creating paper blogs consist of making a blog on paper and students can comment on each other's blogs with post-it notes! Karen also talked about writing poems with text lingo, which I thought was a good learning activity that connects to student's lives!

       I also really enjoyed listening to the Tech Chicks! You can read about what I learned from them in Podcast Reflection #12! It is so fun to listen to these two women because they are educators that are enthusiastic about sharing creative resources to other educators! There is a picture on the left, that the Tech Chicks shared about in one of their podcasts. It is a website called Little Bird Tales that sounds like a lot of fun to do with young students!