This I Believe....

In Sedu 183, we were asked to come up with a personal belief statement and a story that inspired that belief. It was hard to focus on one thing but, once I really thought about why I want to be a teacher, it came pretty easy. Once I wrote the story, we had to make it visual. I used the imovie player to record my self reading the story aloud. I included music and pictures to go along with the mood. At first, it was really difficult trying to figure out how to work imovie. It took me awhile to get use to it. However, doing this project I think I learned a lot about myself. It gave me motivation to become a teacher to get my belief across. In the end, it was pretty fun and I'm glad I was challenged with this project.

Survery

OER

Open educational resources (OER) are digital materials that can be re-used for teaching, learning, research and more, made available free through open licenses, which allow uses of the materials that would not be easily permitted under copyright alone. They allow teacher's to find free classroom material easily and effectively. Students alike also have access to these materials and can virtually create their own classes and what they want to learn. However, I do see some scary parts about OER. First of, since the information is free, it might not be up-to-date or some material might not be that strong. On the brighter side of things, it is another cheap option for schooling, to try and gain college credits. 

As a future learner, I might look to OERs to try and find information about topics I want to know more about but, don't get a chance to learn about in my college classes. I also feel like it would be another way to look up information for papers. As a student, I'm surprised I haven't heard about this sooner. College tuition and books are so expensive but with Open Educational Resources, text books can be free or extremely cheap. Also with the link I mentioned earlier, really cheap college credits can be earned online. Lastly, as a future teacher, Open Educational Resources gives me access to all different kinds of lesson plans that I can use in my classroom. Other teachers often post classroom activity and homework ideas that I'm sure will become very helpful once I'm a teacher. Knowing that these resources are on hand, makes the stress of becoming a teacher a little less scary.  

My Belief

I believe that every student has a right to the same educational opportunities. This means that no matter where a child grew up or what their background is, they all deserve to be educated the same. Since I feel the city I grew up in is quite diverse, I’ve seen this issue main hand. Our city has a variety of private and public schools. Going to a private school is usually a privilege not all children get. Going to catholic schools, I believe I got the best education possible and I consider myself very lucky. However, that opportunity isn’t possible for everyone. In fact there are more public schools than private schools leading to most children only getting a public school education. The fact that public school students might not get the same opportunities isn’t their fault. A lot of families can’t afford the high tuition and every thing else that comes along with it, especially in today’s economy. So how is it fair that an innocent child might not have the same opportunities as their friend at a catholic school?

This issue became so important to me when I was 13 years old. Through the Erie Insurance Pfeiffer Burleigh Partnership, my mom and a couple of her co workers would go into a second grade class at Pfeiffer Burleigh, a public school in downtown Erie. The program brought the students all over the city to places they might not have gotten a chance to visit other wise. Places like the zoo, museums, the court house, chuck e cheese and even McDonalds.  It all started for me one day when I had off school and had to go with my mom to work. On this June day, her team took them to the zoo. When we first got there, all the students screamed with excitement, so much I got chills. They loved my mom and she was their relief. Through out the day I got a chance to hang out with most of the students and even though they were all different, they all had one thing in common, they were happy. They had no idea that their school was poor or that there was a whole other side to life they might never get to experience. After this day, I always seemed to manage to get out of school to go with my mom. Of course, in high school, I did all of my service hours through the program. Even at holidays my mom and her program would throw the students parties in their classroom and buy them all small presents. I can remember going shopping for all sorts of fun little things for goodie bags and taking hours to put them together. Of course seeing the looks on their faces was completely worth it. We were providing them with something they might not get at home and that’s a huge deal to them. Also during winter months, my mom and I would bring them warm hats and gloves to stay warm.

 Sadly, about 2 years ago my moms company decided her program wasn't in the budget anymore. This news was so sad to me. Not only are these students missing out but now I couldn't help out anymore. These kids were so fun to be around because they seemed to have no worries in the world. They made me forget my own troubles and learn to appreciate what I have. This experience is reason enough for me to want to become a teacher and do every thing in my power to help out the less fortunate and try to give them all of the opportunities I had as a student. 

My Top Ten Tools For School

1)http://angelasedu183.blogspot.com/
2)http://helffrichtyler.blogspot.com/
3)http://bridgit-walters.blogspot.com/
4)http://carlyc11.blogspot.com/
5)http://rlagnello.blogspot.com/
6)http://valletto.blogspot.com/2012/03/cool-tool-for-school.html
7)http://bryannabujnowski.blogspot.com/
8)http://ladylancer.blogspot.com/
9)http://steelers01.blogspot.com/2012/03/top-10-cool-tools-for-school.html
10)http://sasyouregonnahearit.blogspot.com/2012/03/cool-tool-for-schools.html

I picked these as my top ten because I can really see the use for all of them in a classroom. They seem extremely helpful, and I wish I had access to them when I was in grade school or high school.

Cool Tool For School

When researching top educational resources, one really caught my eye. The site Edmondo, is based on social networking. When kids are on the internet all the time anyway, why not give them a safe and fun place to check up on what's going on in their class. Teachers can post things like homework updates, assignments, reminders, and polls. As a student you can view their updates, check test dates, see what you missed in class, and even work together on homework. This tool is super modern and up to date and I can see it's many benefits. Its also free with registration. I would for sure use this in my classroom.

Standardized Tests

Recently, standardized testing has become a major topic in education today. School officials have been trying to get teacher’s to spend more time on test question than actual classroom curriculum. Teachers are protesting this because it takes away from actual lesions they need to teach. School administrators are stressing these tests so much it almost seems like why learn anything if it's not on these test? I’ve always struggled with standardized tests myself, feeling that they aren’t a true reflection on my education. As a teacher I know I’ll struggle with the stress preparing kids for this test will bring. Researching a little more about this subject, it seems like more and more people are beginning to feel negative about these tests as well. There are six pretty good arguments out there exposing the negative impacts of standardized testing. 

Taking the SATs before college was probably the most stressful part. While taking the test I felt completely overwhelmed and unprepared. With all the stress of junior year it was hard to do the necessary preparation to get a good score. I don’t understand why a test that I was hardly prepared for in class was a major part of a college’s decision of whether to accept me or not. It just doesn’t seem fair that I did all that other work in the classroom that seemed like nothing compared to SAT scores. I feel the SATs are out dated and a new system defiantly needs to be figured out. No one person learns the same and having one test to meet everyone’s needs doesn’t seem to cut it anymore.

So when I’m a teacher I hope preparation can be built into the curriculum. I hope there’s a way to not take away from classroom time but, to design lesions that meet both needs. Maybe if these tests are here to stay, they will at least create different tests to meet everyone’s needs no matter what kind of learner they are. While changing standardized test will probably be a slow process, hopefully the preparation can improve until then.