blog post 6

-        -For this task I decided to stay close to home and use the high school I attended, Southside High School, located in Long Island, New York. Since I am no longer a student at Southside I had very limited access to the content on the websites homepage and course-related sites. Despite this minor setback, I was able to find a multitude of helpful resources under the Instructional Info and Web Resources tabs without a log in. Specifically under the Instructional Info tab I came across a list of departments ranging from physical education to math and sciences with helpful links, tips and resources on each page. On the social studies page there were review materials offered for the state-wide regents exam, general course and teacher information, citation guidelines and many more helpful tools. Overall, my almamater’s website is very easy to navigate and provides a helping hand to students and parents alike. These subject specific web pages are available for freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors in high school.

 Attending Florida State University has truly helped me come into my own and discover what I would like to do with my life. My passion for working with children shines through in almost every aspect of my day-to-day life, yet sometimes I become overwhelmed with educations rapidly changing structure as it becomes more technology-based. Will I be able to keep up with the advancing technologies and teach my students effectively? In order to be a successful teacher in the future I will strive to utilize the technology software available to me such as productivity software, classroom management software, and apps all of which will make my job as a teacher much more manageable. These technologies have the ability to assist teachers in preparing memos, lectures, reports, and in reporting required student information. The apps are useful in that they offer mobility while providing many of same functions as productivity software in order to efficiently get things done.

In today’s class we visited the Technolgy Sandbox located on the 3^rd floor of the College of Education building. This was my favorite class period thus far because we, as students, were able to interact with virtual technology that we can use in our classrooms as future educators. Not only did I learn useful tips on how to function and navigate the abundance of technology offered to us, but I also learned about new technologies that are offered in schools that I didn’t even know existed such as the 3D printer and 3D pen. My favorite technology I came across in the Tech Sandbox was the Oculus Rift. Although this virtual reality tool is very expensive, if a school were to budget to have at least two located in the library or a tech lab where all students could access them it could do wonders for students and increase creativity within the classroom. I also thoroughly enjoyed the SMART Table. I’m interested in working with younger kids either in pre-school or early elementary so I think the SMART table would be a great tech tool in the classroom to immerse kids in games all while learning at the same time.