Blog Post #16

Well, this is it! I made it through quite an interesting semester of EDM 310. However, this is not the end! This is the beginning to a career I have always wanted, the beginning of me changing children's lives! Last spring I enrolled in this course, not being good with time management, I gave up half-way through. To be completely honest, I wasn't wanting to spend the 9 hours each week and I just didn't give EDM a chance. This time around, I put in a lot of hard work with my assignments and this has become one of my favorite classes so far at the University of South Alabama. After all, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to be an educator. Dr. Strange and his staff, along with everyone in his PLN he has shared with his students this semester, has taught me so much and introduced me to new tools necessary to create the environment I want for my students.

For our very first blog post assignment this semester, Dr. Strange asked, "If You Built A School, What Would It Look Like? After reading If I Built A School on Krissy Venosdale's blog, Venspired, I could imagine JUST what my school would like. Colorful walls, a tree house for a library, kids art work everywhere, and comfy seating. But what about the methods of teaching I will emphasize, the tools my students and I will use, and the learning that will take place in my classroom? EDM 310 is one of the few education classes I have taken so far and it has given me a better understanding of what my teaching philosophy will be. I can now answer these questions thoroughly thanks to this EDM 310 course.

In my elementary classroom, preferably first or second, I want to be the teacher that provides my students with an environment for them to be creative, daring, and successful. I don't want my students to be afraid of coming to school because they feel dumb or different. I will remind my students to always do their best and to be creative while following their dreams. My student's will be young and still learning about school and who they are. I will not allow my classroom to be the place that tells them they are wrong for being creative. They will know it is okay to make mistakes, but to reflect on what they have done to be successful the next time. I want to know my student's interests and passions, so I can create lessons that they will be engaged and interested in. I want my classroom to be colorful and full of technology. iPads, SMARTBoards, laptops, and Nintendos (thank you Ms. Cassidy's First Graders for that idea) will be available for my students.

My students will not be taught the way I was. No more "busy work" because it's Monday and the teacher needs quiet time. My students will learn collaboratively with their classmates. They will create meaningful projects based on the state standards. They will be encouraged to ask questions when they are unsure of something. My students will have technology resources to help with their assignments. I will incorporate blogging into my classroom, I love how this is a unique way to enhance literacy skills and give my students an opportunity to practice peer editing. Vocabulary words? Discovery Ed has visuals to help teach them in a different way from the old school copying definitions in the back of the book. Thanks to the idea on Dean Shareski's blog, I could use Skype to have people all over the world visit my students and tell them the definitions of our vocabulary words. Students retain information when they are interested in the assignment, that is how my future students will learn, through engaging projects and collaborative learning.

I am taking with me so many tools and resources from this course that I plan to use in my classroom. Dr. Strange challenged his students to find different technology tools and to learn about ones he introduced to us. This has been a class very different from any other course I have taken. EDM 310 was more about independent learning and projects, which I find 1,000 times more useful then the "burp-back" education I am still experiencing in a few of my college course! Education has changed a lot from the 4 years I have been out of school and I know it is constantly changing. As a future project-based educator, I will take everything I have learned in this course and continue to use and find new technology tools to give my students the education they deserve. Thank you EDM! Have a great rest of your summer!