Coming to an End

Last and Final Blog Post!

This is my last blog post for this course and I have to say that I'm a little sad about it. I really enjoyed reflecting about the assignments we had to do, while also describing what I'm doing while I'm a substitute teacher. I truly love being a substitute teacher here at the school, but eventually I will want to have my own class and own students instead of traveling to everyone else's class. I will get to the modules we did this week but I really want to discuss what I do at the high school and middle school. The high school guidance counselor is going on maternity leave in November and so the middle school guidance counselor is moving up to the high school for four days and then back to the middle school one day a week. That's where I come in, I am not a certified guidance counselor and do not have my licenses so I cant really discuss too much with students, but I'm here for students who may be falling behind a little and need help getting organized or getting caught up on their work. At first many students didn't know who I was and I was just the mean lady who was there to nag them about their missing work, but now some students are comfortable with me and are more willing to come down to the office to let me help them with their missing work. All of these students are incredibly bright and really know what they're doing, they just need a little guidance and help to get. I am working with one student who had several missing assignments and I didn't think he would want my help but when I asked him If he would work with me to get his assignments he was fully willing and comes to see me every study hall to try to get all caught up. He is now all organized with his papers and I am on him everyday to make sure he gets his work done instead of messing around in class. 

                    I love the students here because they just want to learn and get their work done, some need a little guidance and support, but knowing they want to get things done make a huge difference. I have not yet tried any of the cites with the students I've been working with but I do try to make it more fun for example if we are doing math, I let them use  the white board instead of doing it on paper, which they really enjoy because it's more fun for them and they can correct their mistakes right on the board. I also try to find what makes thing stick with them so they know how to answer a problem. My one student told me that he likes to read things out loud because it sticks better that way, and he also like examples for things he doesn't understand so I try to come up with examples that relate to football because that's one thing he enjoys, so relating it to things he likes will hopefully help him learn or remember things. Since I've been at the school for almost the whole year its nice that finally students are starting to recognize me and know that they can come to me for help. I really enjoy helping students and love seeing them do their work because most students know how to do their work, it just takes them being away from their friends and other distractions for them to get things done. They see me as a friend and someone to talk to, but they also know I'm an older than them and know I will get on them if they miss their work or they're not turning things in. 

        Now to the modules we have done since the last post. I was stumped on the interactive PowerPoint for two weeks! I  had no idea what I was doing or even how to do it. Even some of the videos I was watching just weren't helpful and I didn't think I would ever get this module done. I was really struggling with a topic, I asked my students, I asked teachers, I asked other adults and just nothing was popping up in my head that would be a good idea. I am disappointed in my interactive project. I decided to do a Powerpoint on the holidays, which was very simple but I know I didn't put as much effort and time in it as I should have. I was a substitute last Friday and all the students did was watch a national geographic the whole time so I did the whole thing all day but I just couldn't get creative with it. If I had to do it again, I would do something that current and exciting like the upcoming election and what both sides stand for and what everyone is saying about it. I wanted to do this idea, I just couldn't come up with a way to make it interactive. But the module I did not enjoy one bit was the the movie that was due on Monday. I found My Movie to be incredibly complicated and I couldn't even figure out how to change the font color on the movie so I had to go with white. I thought the example about 9/11 was so good and interesting and I wanted to do something like that but I was having so much trouble with the app that I just stuck with something simple like natural disasters. This is one app I cant see myself using in the future but it was nice to try it once to see what it was all about and what it could be used for. 

             I am excited to start the portfolio to put all of the work that we have done together and just look back at some of the fun work I have done. From this course, I have learned some cites that I will use in the future, and I have found some that I will not use but it was still fun and excited to try all of them to see what works for me and hopefully what will work for the students. 

This week I have been in the classroom as a substitute teacher, and also assisting in the guidance office because the guidance counselor is going on maternity leave, so I am there to help with students who have missing assignments. But when I am in the classroom I get to meet so many awesome students both in the middle school and the high school. When I am in the classroom, I can see how I can use so many of the resources we have learned about this week, such as Prezi, Voicethread, and Slideshare. My favorite of all three of them, were the Prezi and Slideshare. For this assignment, I did three separate ways of displaying my reviews of these cites. I had a lot of fun with these reviews. For two of them, I used Kidspiration, which I'm upset that my free 30 day trial is up soon. For the first one about Slideshare, I used bubbles that explained what slideshare was, and then connect arrows to the pros and cons of the cite, which linked down to my rationale for using it in my classroom. I used several colors and made it fun and creative. My second one about Voicethread was the most creative one I made. I used the pictures of people on the side that acted like they were in a normal classroom and asking about the cite. I had three students in my review who had thought bubbles and so did the teacher. Then i put in separate boxes the pros and cons of the site. At the end, I had the teacher have a thought bubble explaining why she would use this cite in the class. It was a lot of fun do do that kidspriration because it was different an made it my own.  For the Prezi review, I used Glogster do review it, it wasn't as engaging as my other reviews, but I still made it more interactive and fun than PowerPoint. My favorite cite that we viewed was Slideshare, because there is so many works on the cite and you can almost anything you need in a short period of time. My least favorite was the Voicethread because I like to speak to the class so I can answer any questions right away. I did like that other teachers could comment on the thread of what they liked or another way of solving the problem. I would use the voicethread cite if I wasn't at school that day and I still need to go through with my lesson plans so I could explain the lesson in my own words and give them all the information they would need instead of trying to have the sub explain it. All of these cites are different from plain old PowerPoint and they are more engaging which may be exciting for the students and I would use all of these in my classroom to change it up every once in awhile. I'm starting my non linear PowerPoint, but I am having some trouble thinking of a topic and tying to make whatever i chose to be fun for the students. I am not proficient with PowerPoint so it might be a challenge to figure out how to make it active but it will be a fun new tool to learn. I cant believe we are halfway through the semester and all that I have learned so far will be so helpful when I become a teacher of my own, I just hope that all the technology doesn't change by the time I'm finished with school, because a whole lot has changed since I finished high school five years ago. 

Classroom observation

This is just an extra post because I am in a substitute teaching position for today. Right now I am watching my high school volleyball coach and middle school science teacher teach her sophomore students teach her biology students about chemistry. I have managed to not take one chemistry course throughout my whole high school and college career. I regret that decision of not taking a chemistry class because I would love to learn all of this information because I find it all interesting stuff. I love being a substitute teacher and being back in the school setting. I had such a great high school experience and I knew that that's where I wanted my career to be. So far I have been in the high school sciences classes and I love being there and seeing students learn fun new information. They do exciting new experiments and they have so much fun doing them, while also learning. I have noticed that in classes teachers are doing more experiments and doing more hands on things which I know would have helped me when I was a student. I have also noticed that while I started my technology course that technology is huge in the schools now, well at least in the school I have been subbing in. Students use the computers more and more and do a lot of work on them. They learn more from the computers and have their own emails or passwords to log in to their computers, I have also noticed that they have websites that they go to and can see their assignments and homework due or labs or rubrics that are on there so they can reference back to them if they need to. It seems like so much is done online or with technology, which we never had when i was in high school five years ago. In my science courses, I think I would use the glogster to do interactive posters for the students which would engage them in the material instead of just powerpoint notes that students easily get bored of. I really enjoy being in the classroom and learning about the new technology that has come about in the past few years and I am excited to see what arises when I have my own classroom.

Technology I will use in my classroom

As I go through these educational websites, the one that I had the most fun with and am already thinking about ways to use it in my classroom is the Globster website where you build your own interactive website. I liked that there were so many different layouts and so many topics you could use for these posters and you can create them anyway you'd like. I liked all of the themes that were available to use and in so many different subjects. I did my interactive poster on the Biomes which I included several different videos of the animals that live there and just what goes on in the forest. I found that kids like engaging videos that are interesting and fun to learn about than just a teacher reading right from a power-point. This website was also very easy to use and showed a clear step  by step ideas on what to do and where to put what. I had a lot of fun with this website and I will use it when i have my own classroom. I also enjoyed learning about the kidspiration and inspiration because I seemed to use a lot more pictures than words to explain what was going on and I think younger kids will enjoy that to see the pictures and know what they go to. It was a fun way to put information together and show students how they relate to other things. I have been writing down all of these educational websites to use in my classroom when I become a teacher because I have really enjoyed these websites and I am sure students will to because its something different other than PowerPoint or word.

About the Author

My name is Allison Dunn and I am 23 years old. I graduated from The Ohio State University for my bachelors degree in Psychology. I thought I wanted to pursue a career in Occupational Therapy, but I did an internship over the summer and found out that I didn't love it and my passion was elsewhere, in the school system. I have always loved school, I love the atmosphere and the people and just all the memories I made when I was in high school. I'm not in the Bachelors plus program at Ashland University and going to get my license as an Intervention  Specialist. I have participated in an event that our community has call the Field of Dreams which is where adults with disabilities all get a sponsor from a local business in Wooster, and we assist them in a softball game every year. They play under the lights on a Saturday night just like they're at a major league baseball game. Seeing the joy these adults have about this game and just about life made me want to go into this profession and enjoy and help people with disabilities everyday. They are the happiest people I've ever met and they just live and enjoy life to the fullest, which is something we could all learn from them.


I am very excited to learn about the new technology available to teachers and students now, but Wiki is definitely intimidating and confusing. I have messed around with Google Docs and I found that was a good website to collaborate with others. I am still trying to grasp the Wiki page. I have never been a big fan of twitter because there is too many negative things said on there and people can say whatever they want and can make a comment about your post. I do enjoy blogging though, its a great place to reflect about whats on your mine and just type and type away about whatever you want because its on your own page. Its a fun place to make your own and designing it the way you want and anyone can read it and comment if they'd like. I enjoyed reading about all of the different technologies that can be incorporated in the classroom. I graduated high school five years ago and things have really changed in just five years. In high school, the only place you could find computers is in the library, now I am a substitute teacher at Northwestern High School and I have noticed that every student can have a laptop in every classroom. These students use them almost everyday to work on projects. It is incredible how much technology has impacted our schools, but it has been a huge advancement because our world is so technological now.