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My Story

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Narrative Who am I? Connect to teaching life SLIDE 1 . I am a learner, a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a teacher, a sibling, a community member, and a colleague. My relationship with education has not always been smooth, not as a learner and not as a teacher. My experiences have shaped me for better or for worse. I have learned that my struggles provide me with a very unique perspective on how to reach children. SLIDE 2 As an elementary student I presented with no unique needs, as far as my teachers could see.  I was easy to teach. I was bright, I was agreeable, I excelled in academics and the teachers liked me.  What they didn’t see was what I brought with me. What they didn’t know was what I was thinking.  They didn’t know me, they just saw me.   SLIDE 3 What they didn’t know about me could have filled a book. I was smart, really smart, but that doesn’t mean I felt connected to what was being taught.  I didn’t see myself as part of the community.
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My Pecha Kucha 
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I believe

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I believe that students need to be in a place that feels safe to learn.  This place needs to be both physical and mental. They have to have food in their bellies, they need to have clothes on their backs, they need to be warm and they need to feel loved.  If they come to me lacking any of these things I believe it is my responsibility to meet these needs. I believe children need developmental appropriate environments in which to learn. They need to move and play and talk.  I believe they need a teacher who inspires them, supports them, and encourages them to be themselves.  I believe they need permission to ask questions and make mistakes and dive into what they are interested in learning.  I believe that with access to education all children can learn.  I believe that it is my job as a teacher to figure the best way to make that access happen. My project comes from my desire as a Reading Specialist to teach all children to read.  I teach children from varying socio economic gr
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Wesch and Turkle

What is the relationship between Turkle and Wesch? Do you see them as allies, or opponents in this discussion of new media and technology? (post by Thurs, 6/29 @ midnight) I am not quite sure what the relationship is between them, but I am sure how I feel about each. In Turkles, The flight from conversation one paragraph stood out for me more than any other. WE expect more from technology and less from one another and seem increasingly drawn to technologies that provide the illusion of companionship without the demands of relationship. Always-on/always-on-you devices provide three powerful fantasies: that we will always be heard; that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; and that we never have to be alone. Indeed our new devices have turned being alone into a problem that can be solved. Not being on any social media myself I often wonder how people meet the demands of all their face to face interactions and still have time for the opportunit
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Animoto

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My First Animoto I experienced many technical difficulties prior to being able to create this video, but with the help of Victoria I was able to finally log on the the sight and explore this tool While I was quite intimidated when I opened this tool it was fairly easy to use.  I started my trial with very limited time left before the assignment was do.  I began with the tutorial that walks you through each step of creating a video.  I let the tool choose videos for me so that I would not end up down the rabbit hole of perfect picture selection.  I did however change the song to appeal to my learners.  I used both methods of captioning available and quite honestly, only realized there were two through trial and error.  One method puts the words prior to the picture and one method captions directly underneath the picture.  I actually like using both to provide repeated practice.  Then I got really brave and choose my own photo.  That was just as easy.  I used the stock p
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Why We Banned Legos

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I have to be completely honest.  When we received this assignment and were told we could choose any chapter we wanted, even a short one, I had ever intention of choosing the shortest chapter I could find.  As fate would have it, in my search for the absolute shortest chapter I found the chapter entitled, Why We Banned Legos.  As the mother of two small boys and an elementary teacher, Legos are a big part of my daily life.  In fact, My entire dining room table is covered with what we call Duplo Village.  Legos have provided hours of family enjoyment and activities and work very well as a break or a reward in my classroom. Reading the title of this chapter I could not imagine what could have transpired that lead to Legos being ban, but I needed to find out.  Before I read the chapter I thought surely this Lego banning people must be insane.  I was in the mindset of stereotyping and gender bias from our class discussion today and my mind whirled with ideas of how Legos could be guilty o
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Frozen

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A I have always loved Disney. As a child I visited many times with family members. As an adult I have visited twice before my children and now twice with my children. My husband and I went to Disney World on our honeymoon. I was brought up watching Disney films and although I was never an extremely feminine girl I did enjoy a princess movie. I just never identified with a princess I identified more with Mowgli. As a parent I watch which ever Disney movies my children seem to be interested in when they see a trailer. Most recently we have watched Frozen and Muana. They have never seemed interested in watching the Disney films of my youth so I have never pursued them. Although my personal children (both boys) are not obsessed with Disney movies and princesses I have seen many little girls who are. Working in the Elementary school setting I have had plenty of opportunities to see little girls who are enthralled with their favorite princesses.
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