I am enrolled at UAA. For my current technology course, I was required to design this blog. My professor intends for the class to use this blog to help us to become better acquainted with different technologies, different blogger pages, and how different educational blogs can be beneficial to our emerging careers as future educators.
Our first assignment was to create the blogger page. After considerable frustration and time, I was finally successful. Yeah Me!!!
Next, we were asked to go to a number of different educational blogs and just poke around a bit. Done!
My next task is to comment on my experience. So, here it goes.
Since I have absolutely no experience with blogging, I am forever grateful with the helpful guidelines provided by Prof. Henrickson. Thanks!!
I started by going to the list she provided. I looked through quite a few. Some I found more helpful and enlightening than others. I finally decided to spend more of my time exploring the sites listed that previous classes followed.
One thing that I learned was that You Tube is not just for funny videos. I was surprised by the amount of information (for learning and teaching) is posted in video form. I have had professors who have assigned different You Tube videos for homework, but usually they were movie clips or interviews of some sort. I have had plenty of “funny” videos passed on to me through email, but looking through this educational blogs has definitely opened some new doors.
I think that every one of the sites that I visited had information or teaching strategies that would be able to be applied into my own future classroom. The one site, http://adifference.blogspot.com/, had different video labeled TED videos for math. I didn’t even know what a TED video was. TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. The site offers different insights into math strategies.
I’m not sure who I will follow through the semester, I think I have narrowed it down to http://elemenous.typepad.com/weblog/ or http://adifference.blogspot.com/
As I leave this blog for now, I want o share two different thoughts from http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/.
First, teaching requires a special bred of people, the job isn’t perfect. Keep in mind that you have to work with what you get because as much as you would like, you can’t fire students or their parents.
Secondly, as you are starting out your new teaching career, develop a supportive social network of fellow colleagues; knowing the right people can make all the difference,
Teresa
List of Blogger sites:
Hey Teresa! Looks like you explored a lot of blogs! I really liked the thoughts you posted from coolcatteacher, I'm going to have to check this blog out. I think it's important to recognize the job isn't perfect, I think it's so much more rewarding because of it though :) Also, establishing a social network is CRUCIAL. I didn't realize how invaluable this was until I started observing in the schools. Taking EDEC 242 (family and community partnerships) this summer also helped me realize that establishing a network can make a big difference.
ReplyDeleteI love TED Talks. They are a great resource. I am glad that you are finding useful blogs to follow - that was my intention.
ReplyDeleteHey Teresa, I like your blog. It teach me something as a teacher. I like the thoughts you posted from coolcatteacher. I agree with that blog that as teacher we have to remember that we work with what we get, student are not there for us to fire but are there for us to teach and pass our knowledge as a teacher.
ReplyDeleteAs I read people's blog posts, I feel that I am learning so much! The idea of TED videos is intriguing. Sometimes, I feel that I'm learning too much to understand everything, but I guess even baby steps count. The cool cat teacher quote was cool, and I think it is so very true.
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