Kasey- EME2040 Blog

 In K-12, I didn't experience a whole lot of distance learning. I had used Canvas since early high school, however I never really dealt with distance learning. COVID hit during the last quarter of my senior year, so teachers still weren't sure how things worked yet. There were no Zoom meetings, and all assignments were on Canvas. Granted, some assignments were altered (my guitar teacher obviously couldn't listen to us play, so he assigned us music theory worksheets) but for the most part things weren't that different yet. Open Educational Resources (OERs) are public domain materials that teachers can access and use for their classrooms without needing permission from the original creator. According to University of Maryland Global Campus , usage of OERs come with both pros and cons. The pros include things such as the resources allowing modification to your own personal standards, they can increase student interaction, and they can enhance an otherwise great course. How...

  I learned a lot of new skills with the previous assignment. For example I wanted to have a consistent blue font color to match the aquatic theme I was going for but since the pictures I chose for the banners were also blue, I had to learn how to use the photo editor within Weebly to darken the photos so the text would be legible. I wasn't a big fan of how restricting Weebly felt. Sometimes I had an idea of something that I wanted to do but the website's features were fairly limited and made some of my design choices impossible. I definitely want to make a class website in the future to have a central hub for all of my students to view assignments and announcements. In a classroom, I might use QR codes to make a fun and engaging activity for my students. I'd hide various QR codes around an outdoor area for a treasure hunt and they'd contain links to different quiz questions. Whoever finds all of the QR codes and correctly answers the questions first would get a prize. ...

 I'm unfortunately unable to find any class websites because it doesn't appear that any school district that I search for doesn't have their teachers make class websites and the few links that I found no longer function. If I try to search for "teacher websites" or "class websites" I'm only given websites containing resources for teachers and not ones for a specific classroom. The best I could find was the staff of Roberts Elementary School all providing a list of their favorite things so their students can get to know them better, much like the "About" page in a teacher website: https://www.leonschools.net/domain/5013 From what I remember from my third grade teacher's website (this was about 15 years ago so my memory is a bit fuzzy), my teacher had a link to her monthly newsletter, announcements regarding any upcoming assignments, and an "About Me" page. Seeing as I was too young to own a computer, the website was more for th...

SC.912.TI.2.8-  Evaluate the consequences of misrepresenting digital work as your own. This standard teaches students about the concept of plagiarism and how serious of an offense academic dishonesty can be. It also goes into the legal aspects of copyright infringement and I feel that will show students that not only is plagiarism cheating, it is also illegal. I feel prepared to teach my students to create their own works and how to properly credit any outside sources they may use in their works. I'll definitely use this site in the future for more learning-related matters.   Playing around with the CPALMS resources, I can see just how useful it'll be in the future. I'm able to find hundreds of lesson plans relating to all sorts of subjects. I searched for English-specific lesson plans and came across multiple relating to Fahrenheit 451, The Odyssey and other epic poems and how they can relate to modern day America. I'll definitely use these in the future, just in case ...

 So far, blogging doesn't seem to be that different form journaling, something I've been doing for years now. A disadvantage to blogging, however, (at least within the context of this class) is that I feel limited as to what I can write. I'm responding to prompts more than I am getting my feelings out. I love writing but so far blogging seems to lack some of the passion that the craft normally holds. I am firmly against Generative A.I. and am very concerned at how it is seemingly going to become a staple of human life. As a future educator, I feel that I'll have my work cut out for me, seeing as the younger generations are overly reliant on generative A.I. and critical thinking is less emphasized. Now that students can just ask Chat GPT to summarize a book that they find too difficult or even write an essay on said book, it brings forth an alarming realization that Artificial Intelligence is seeming to overwrite human intelligence. I was exempt from using Generative A.I...

 In using Pinterest and Instagram to expand my PLN, I have learned a lot. I use Instagram quite a lot but I've never really used Pinterest until just now. It is super helpful following other teachers' boards and inspires me to maybe create my own someday. Both social media platforms do a good job at hosting a community for teachers, making them feel more connected. Growing up in the Leon Country Public School system, they weren't exactly stingy with their technology budget but they also didn't spend a whole lot. We didn't have personal assigned laptops, but rather a cart in each classroom with some cheap Acers that didn't work half the time. As Microsoft 365 (or Office 365, as it used to be called) was just starting out, I had to adapt to use more modern technology, as the word processer I was using before was Word 2007. I learned how to use the cloud and how useful it is to have notes and projects saved on the cloud rather than locally. I think social annotatio...