Things ya need to know

Alrighty, here’s a brief introduction to me. I’m 22, with an Independence Day birthday comin up eventually. I was born in Swift Current on a beautiful (I assume) Thursday evening into a family consisting of 2 parents, 1 brother, 1 dog, and 4 cats. The city has changed, the dog is gone, the cats have decreased in number, but everything else stays relatively similar.

I am a B.E.A.D student, with my first degree being a BFA in Acting, and my upcoming degree in Arts Education. Before entering the Acting program, I was a Computer Science major … not a typical transfer to be sure. I love photography more than pretty well anything else right now. It’s the one medium that I actually feel comfortable in artistically, which is a treat for me. I’m an avid sports fan, and have been my whole life. I’ve had Rider season ticks for 8 years with my dad and brother, ran the Green Mile when they won the cup (one of the best nights of my life), and I’m already starting to study the roster for training camp… which starts in a month.

The main reason that I transferred out of Computer Science was my lack of math skills. I really struggled with the equations that I was required to know and use. Since then I have not spent a single second writing programs and am confident I have lost every ounce of programming skill that I ever possessed.

As far as technology in the classroom goes, I think it is a fairly untapped resource. New-age technology was never utilized in my highschool days (outside of C.S. classes). Some classes (social studies comes to mind) consistently used old slide projectors with the beep-track to keep the class awake and remind the teacher to change slides. Social studies (though not a subject I am particularly interested in teaching) is a class that would benefit from the use of computers in the classroom. Gone are the days when a simple google search, or a power point presentation are the extent of computer-usage in the class.

Our society is so tech-driven nowadays that it makes zero sense to keep the benefits of research and science out of our classes. Students are more aware of new technology as a whole than any other age group; teachers can use this knowledge as a hook for students to learn the material in the curriculum. That being said, as of right now, I certainly don’t plan on basing my lessons in drama class around the computer. There are some areas that can be useful (I really like the idea of having parents log in to a password-protected area of a website and seeing an up-to-date report card type of page), and some that wouldn’t be as useful.

My hope for this class is that I walk away from it with a much broader view of what is available to me as a teacher. I am on the internet a lot, but I focus on few websites. I want this class to expand my horizons and introduce me to sites and utilities that will save me time and grief as well as give me more tools to use during my teaching career.