Blog Post #1

If I built a school, It Would Be in the Cloud

For our first blog assignment, we explored Venspired, an educational blog by Krissy Venosdale. Krissy has been in the education field for over a decade. She started blogging in order to gain more prospective on her teaching. She uses her own Personal Learning Network to collaborate with other educators. In her blog, If I Built a School, Krissy tells her readers what her dream is. She wants to build a school that teaches students how to think, not what to think. We also watched Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud. Sugata Mitra is an educational researcher with the experiments "Hole in the Wall". His "Hole in the Wall" experiments focus around the fact that children can teach themselves and others in a situation where no education is provided. He wishes to give every child a computer, no matter where they are from. His experiments have proven that children in the most rural of places can teach themselves without any teaching from an educator.

I want to teach in an elementary school, teaching grades one through fourth. I would prefer to use a student oriented way of teaching. The students will learn from each other as well as me. This type of learning is based on building relationships with peers and learning the material. I want my students to think for themselves, but have enough direction from me to know how to do that.
What I Want My Students to Know
-I want them to know that they will not and cannot know everything.
-Technology is constantly changing. They should know how to adapt.
-They have the ability to teach themselves.
-And lastly, I am there to teach them how to be better learners and thinkers. I will never tell them they are learning or thinking wrong.

What I Want My Students to be Able to Do
-Think with an open and thoughtful mind.
-Be technologically literate.
-Teach me something that maybe I didn't know how to do before them.
My Methods
My primary way of teaching will be student oriented. I want my students to build good communication skills while learning the material. I will show them to an extent how to do something, but I expect that they finish it and excel in whatever they are learning at the time. It is not my job to do anything for them. It is their job to learn. I am only their to show them how.
Tools I'll Use in the Classroom
-Computers.
-Maybe iPads depending on the schools availability to provide them.
-SmartBoard to be hands on and interactive in class.
-Classroom blog to keep up with all students current work.
Role of the Student
The students in my classroom will not only be the learner but also the teacher. I want my students to learn from one another and me. They will manage a class blog for themselves. They will be active participants in the classroom with one another and others outside of the classroom.

Practice Post

Who I Am
For starters, my name is Michelle Detar. I grew up equal amount of years in both Louisiana and Mississippi. I was born in Louisiana and after nine years there I moved to Biloxi, Mississippi. I stayed in Biloxi until I graduated high school at D'Iberville High. Right after graduation, I moved to Savannah, Georgia. I started college at a technical college there just to get my basics out of the way. After two years there, I decided I wanted to come home. That is how I ended up at the University of South Alabama. I wanted to be close to my original home but not really there.

I have one younger sister. Her name is Amanda, and she is currently active duty Air Force. She is stationed in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I could not be more proud to call her my sister. She does amazing things and continues to excel every day. My mom lives in Tennessee and my dad in Oklahoma. I love both my parents very much. They have supported me my whole life without doubt or judgement.

My hobbies and interests are currently cooking and baking, photography, running, reading, and Doctor Who. I love to learn new recipes. I am always trying new things in my kitchen. I have a Holga film camera that I enjoy using. I always used digital cameras, but I love the surprise you get when you develop your film. I am training to do the Color Run in October. I hope to run the full three miles, but we shall see! I love science fiction and romance novels. And lastly, as of not too long ago, I am a Whovian, which is just a nerdy way to say I am a Doctor Who fan.

I am majoring in Elementary Education. I am in my final semester before I start candidacy. After I graduate and become a certified teacher, I plan to move to Tennessee to be close to my mom. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was four years old and first enrolled in pre-school. When I think back to the teachers that most influenced me, I can truly say my elementary teachers played the biggest role in my education. I believe you can help a student learn more as a child than as a teenager or adult, which is why I chose elementary instead of secondary education. I start field work in schools this semester and am so excited to get involved in a classroom. I hope to be the best I can possibly be at what I choose to do.

Test Post 2

Test post 2

My Test Post Title

This is my first post. I clicked the HTML button which I should always do in EDM310. I am now a Blogger!