Favorites of literature

I am a big fan of quotes, my favorite quotes is also the title of my blog it is from Mahatma Gandhi, "You must be the change you want to see in the world." I think Gandhi was one of the greatest people to have ever lived. On the last day of one of my TE classes my teacher gave each student individual quotes that reminded him of us. Mine was from Alan Curtis Kay, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." Like me, my teacher loved quotes. This is something that I would like to do with my students. I know many won't care very much, but I hope there will be one student who like me often thinks about this quote and even has it on their desktop as a constant reminder almost three years later. I think it is important to do little things like this for your students. It lets them know how well you know and care about them. I would also like my students to learn the poem by by Martin Niemöller, "In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." I think this poem is incredible. It is about standing up for what is right, even if you are not the one being persecuted. I also want to share with my students my favorite book, The Giving Tree. I like that people have different interpretations, whether the tree is selfless or merely self-sacrificing, and whether the boy is selfish or reasonable in his demands of the tree. I think it is important to see the story from both sides. I am excited to have my own classroom, when I get to share my favorite things with them and they can share their favorite things with me!

Go Green

One of the best things about using technology in the classroom and for work is the reduction in paper use. I think it is important to green and I think this is a great way of doing it. The worlds population is growing at an alarming rate. In 1800 the world population was just over 1 billion. 1922, 2 billion and by 2000 over 6 billion. The estimated world population for 2050 is 9 billion. We are no getting more natural resources, but we are using much more. The world only has so much natural resources, many of witch are almost depleted from human use. On a go green initiative I found that "For every ton of paper that is recycled, the following is saved: 7,000 gallons of water; 380 gallons of oil; and enough electricity to power an average house for six months." That is incredible, think about how big of an impact we can have on the environment if everyone stops wasting paper! If you want to learn more about going green here are some great websites, treehugger, world watch, gogreeninitiative,plantgreen, go-green and gogreenmatter. As a future teacher I want to play my part in conserving the planet and set a good example for my students.

CEP 416

This class has opened my eyes to many different types of technology. I never though I would enjoy blogging! I also am so excited that I can confidently make my own website.One technology that I still do not like is twitter. I have tried, but I don't think there is hope for me. I would like to have a blog as well as a website for my future classrooms. As a future teacher I also want to make sure to include technology into my future lesson plans. It is so simple, and so important. I will continue to update my portfolio, because I think it is a great resource to let interviewers, parents and students to learn more about you. I have enjoyed the freedom of this class, I have learned more than I ever thought I would. The structure was unlike any other college class I have taken. I was able to take about topics, make lesson, and learn about things I was interested in! I have learned so much, and I will definitely take it with me into the classroom!

Blog, Wikis and Websites... Oh my

Through the course of this class blogs, websites and wikis are the technology I feel the most comfortable using. Blogs are a great way to share your ideas with the rest of the world. They are extremely easy to use and allow for a lot of creative freedom. There is a feature that allows readers of your blog to comment, you can respond to these comments as well with another comment option. I use blogger for my blog which I really enjoy, I tried wordpress as well, but found Blogger more user friendly. Blogs are technology that anyone could find useful. It could be used for work, to relay information, or just for fun. I could see myself blogging beyond this class.

While I feel pretty comfortable with wikis I do not know how how much I like them. I made a wiki using wikispaces. Through one account on wikispaces you can have numerous wikis similarly you can have numerous blogs on one account of blogger and numerous websites on Weebly. A wiki is basically website pages that anyone you invite into your wiki can edit. In some cases like Wikipedia you do not even have to be invited into the group to edit the page. I could see a wiki being useful as a teacher, you can have a class wiki that you can post homework, have discussions( which I have done for many classes), get feedback from students and even work as a class on a project. Wiki can be used for business,nonprofits, and even for fun! Wikis are easy to use and like most technology the more you use them the easier they are to navigate.

Creating a website was my favorite technology of the semester! I created my website using Weebly. I must admit I was intimidated by the idea of making a website and assumed it would be extremely difficult. I played around with the website, a lot because I thought it would be such a useful skill to know how to do. I changed my website almost daily when I first starting using it until I finally found a formal I loved. I am proud of my website and feel that a website would be a extremely beneficial thing to have for a class. I will use one with my future classroom. I want to keep up with this site, I think it is a great way to display your work. This is something I could sent to future jobs, so they can see some of my work and learn a little about me.

The Bare Necessities

The bare necessities
I am the Vice President of an MSU's campus chapter for TOMS shoes. We organized a bare foot walk to raise awareness for the children around the world who go without shoes each day. We urged people to go barefoot all day not only to raise awareness. but also see how difficult a day without shoes really is. April 8, was World Wide day without shoes. Social issues are extremely important to me and something I want to instill in my students. The State News wrote an article about our walk and our chapter. I was extremely happy about this because more people could learn about this issue I am very passionate about!

Brain Pop

I think it is very important not only to use technology in the classroom, but also show the students technology they can use outside the classroom. Brainpop is a great educational website. It is broken up into Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts and Music, Health, and Technology. One of my favorite features on the site is a section where you can select the state, subject and grade level and it will tell the academic standards that the activity in the games cover and you can select them. I think this could this feature could be very beneficial for the teacher so they can tel the students which activities they want them to complete.There is a feature that allows helps parents learn what their child is doing. I think this is great way to make sure parents are involved with there children. Another great feature is BrainPopEducators Blog which features research, lesson plans, video tutorials, curriculum calender, classroom tools, professional development and standards. The site offer tips tool and resources for teachers to share with one another which I think is very important. There is also BrainpopJunior, which is geared toward younger children. One of my favorite things about the site is Brainpopesl this part of the animated educational site is geared toward students who do not speak English and to help them learn with animated movies, study tools, quizzes and fun games. Since I am majoring in TESOL, I thought this was really exciting there are not too many sites that I have found for ESL students. This site is a great tool I would want my student to use!

Teaching English Abroad

I have always been interested in the idea of teaching English abroad. One site I found Teach Abroad really interests me. You can search the country that you are interested in teaching in and they will show you the programs and jobs that they offer there. Since TESOl is my minor I think that this experience would be especially rewarding and allow me to work with my students more effectively. The opportunity sounds really appealing to me also because it allows you to be submersed in another culture. For most of the programs you are required to have a TEFL certificate or TESOL certificate. Since I love travel and teaching, I feel combining these two parts of my life would be very exciting.