Final Reflection - Scenario

I feel I am an exceptional candidate for this teaching position.  I have a strong background for incorporating technology into the classroom, not only from the educators standpoint...but for the students as well.  I believe in this every changing almost "instant" world we are in, students need to be able to access anything at anytime.  My great education from Kansas State University has prepared me to be a strong teacher and I feel that I am a huge asset to your school.  Not only to I have a strong background in technology, I am also ESL endorsed so I know how to incorporate differentiated instruction into the classroom, and technology only makes that simpler.

I hope to see myself in five years as a steady teacher in a great school district.  I hope to help mold a not so technology savvy school into a very technology intelligent school.  I hope to bring new direction to everyday instruction, and be able to receive grants to get my school more computers, iPads, and smart boards.

Technology is such a great way to impact students' learning.  By using computers, information is instant.  Say a student needs to write a report on an animal...they can use the web to access pictures, facts, videos, all in the same place.  How convenient for not only the student, but the classroom teacher, and the parents of the students.

Looking back to when I was in school, we didn't have access to computers and technology like kids do these days.  We got to go to the computer lab once every other week, where as now, each classroom has a cart of laptops that are used daily.  I would love to see every school in the district in which i will teach in have individual computers for each student.  This way they parents don't have to worry about getting a home computer if the finances are not available, but this can also help educate parents.

I feel I have alot to offer as a teacher in your school district and hope you consider me for the job.  Please visit my website for all the technology projects that I could be using to teach our students.

Stephanie's Portfolio

Final Reflection - My WOW Moment

Believe if or not...this morning at about 1am...the light bulb clicked on for me...and this class finally started to come together.  I had struggled all semester with what website tool I was going to use.  I have taken webpage design...and coming from designing my own website from scratch...to using a template became very hard.  I am a perfectionist, when I want something someway...I want to figure out how to get it that way.  I had to learn that it isn't that easy with google sites or wix sites.  I started out with google sites, switched to wix, and about 11:30pm last night...I switched back over to google sites because my wix wasn't cooperating.  Talk about a stressful night!  Once I put my mind to my google site, it came together in about an hour.  I have learned to be more patient this semester, and that things don't always go as planned.  Talk about waiting until last minute to decide with type of site you are using...I think I won that award.  I am very pleased with my website...and hope that I can use this one, and just tweak it a bit for my interviews for teaching jobs.

Final Reflection - Podcast Favorite

Out of all the podcasts that I listened to this semester, my favorite was Tech Chick Tips.  These two women have great insight on how to incorporate technology into your everyday classroom.  Their blogspot is very inviting and has a great look and feel to it.  It was easy for me to find things to write reflections on that they had discussed.

They talk about information like how to create an ibook with your students, or how to tell if a document is corrupt.  The information is not only beneficial but interesting at the same time.

Final Reflection - Semester Favorites

There have been many tools I have learned this semester that I will be using in my classroom as a future teacher.  I have already used some of them in my college classes this semester alone.  Two tools that I enjoyed the most, and feel I would use and my students would benefit from in my classroom would be prezi and animoto.

Prezi is a great tool to replace the boring Microsoft powerpoint presentations.  Prezi is like using a white board.  You have an endless amount of canvas to gather, sort, and put together information for an awesome presentation.  I wish that we would have had more time to learn about this tool.  It is a lot more complex than powerpoint, but i'm sure with more use and ease will come.

Animoto is another great tool.  This is a video slideshow presentation that is simple, takes little time, but can have a total impact depending on what you are presenting.  I have used this in at least three different classrooms this semester alone.  All you have to do is find pictures on the topic, put in a few words, pick music and animoto takes a few minutes an completes you an awesome slideshow.

The greatest thing about ALL these tools we learned about this semester, it that they are ALL FREE!!!!  How can we beat that?

Classroom 2.0

Classroom 2.0 is a free, community-supported network. It is great for those who are "beginners" will  help be a supportive comfortable place to start dealing with digital dialog.  You have to become a member and they do background checks to make sure you are legit.  It is a great site like the others to stay connected with other educators and have all of your resources conveniently located in one place.

Eduteacher

Eduteacher has tutorials to help you navigate the site and show you all it has to offer.  It has ways to blog, message and chat.  You can have a backpack where you keep all your files and links to things.  It is basically a place to keep all of your resources and information organized.

Kan-Ed Portal Site

I couldn't begin to explain all of the resources and tools that are available on the Kan-Ed portal site.  It is an awesome place to have bookmarked and use continuously throughout my teaching career.  It should be the first place I look to for support, lesson plan help, resources for teaching and many other things.