A Picture on a Blog

International School Blogs

The first International School I found that uses blogs is Manaia Kindergarten in New Zealand. One of the main reasons they made this blog was so they could keep in touch with their families back home and so they could show them how the children they we teaching progressed. Some of the things they have on this blog were pictures and stories of how they are renovating the school. They also post on their blog when students or teachers receive awards. They have pictures of the garden they planted. I thought this blog was very different from the U.S. school blogs, but it was in a good way. It seemed to be more interesting to me. http://manaiakindergarten.blogspot.com/



The next International School I found that uses blogs was Ranzau School in New Zealand. Their blog is used for posting homework and putting new up for the school. The students could also post anything they wanted to. For instance, a student posted a picture of her and her rabbit on there and she told them a little about it. I thought that was really neat. What I liked about this blog was that it was focused around the students in her class. I thought the International blogs were more interesting than the United States blogs.
http://room8ranzau.blogspot.com/

U.S. Blogs in K-12 Classrooms

The first school I found that used blogging in the United States was a first grade class in Oxnard, CA, blogging about their year , Hueneme School District with Projects, Books, pictures, and words of the Day. They had things like drawings of President Barack Obama and writings they did about Martin Luther King Jr. This picture was taken when the kids went to the beach to collect hermit crabs. The blog also has poetry and pictures of the students doing different activities. It also has pictures of hermit crab shells that the students decorated. This class blog was very interesting.
http://sarahpuglisi.wordpress.com/





The next class blog in the U.S. that I found was Mrs. Heaton's class in South Carolina. On one of her blogs, which is the blog for this week, the students are to write about how they can stop bullying in their school and community. I think this is a great way for children to think outside the box. The assignments before that the students were suppose to write about the "Perfect Pet". This is a great way to combine Science in and have fun on the computer at the same time. She seems to be using the blog so that the children can learn to be creative.
http://www.mrsheatonsclass1.blogspot.com/

"Did You Know"

This movie was very interesting to me. I thought it was such a great way to get something across to people in such a simplified way. I loved the way it gave all the statistics about what all has happened with technology throughout the years. My favorite part about this movie was how it liked everyone together with all the statistics. It really opens your eyes to see how we are all connected through a device or technology.
I really haven't thought about how things have changed so drastically until I watched this movie. I did not know a computer even existed until I was probably 7 and to know my children will grow up with all types of cool technology really excites me. I can remember when all people had were beepers on their hips. Now, the cell phones are the new beepers. What is so amazing to me is not only can you talk on the cell phones, but now you can access the Internet from that as well. There is really no telling what kind of devices they will have by the time my children come along. The cool part to me is we do not know what comes next, so we can kind of anticipate what device they will come up with next.

Access

The ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide) program is a way for high school students to take courses that may not be available at their high school. This program is also a great way for students to engage in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, electives, and other courses they may not have access to. This is also a great opportunity for Seniors to earn college credits early.

I feel this program is a great opportunity for high school students. I feel that if high school students take at least one of the classes offered by ACCESS that they will be more prepared for online type classes in college. I remember being in high school and wishing there was some way that I could begin earning college credits. We only had 2 AP courses when I was a senior and I feel that this would have been a great thing for me to do to earn a few more college credits. I think this program is a great thing to have for high school students.

MySpace.com - My Photo Albums - Wedding Pictures May 24, 2008 - Photo 19 of 52

MySpace.com - My Photo Albums - Wedding Pictures May 24, 2008 - Photo 19 of 52

ALEX

The Alabama Learning Exchange, ALEX, is a place teachers can go for many different things. One thing that I think is very handy is the Courses of Study link you can access from this database. You can search the Content Standards for the state of Alabama from this link. Another great thing about the Courses of Study link is that you can search the standards by grade level. With this database, teachers can also search for lesson plans. Teachers are also able to create their own lessons plans from this site. This site also has a professional learning link so the teachers can actually learn things that they might not already know. They can also catch up on the latest news. Lastly, this site offers a distance learning link called ACCESS. This is a way for students to earn AP credits, electives, and various other courses that may not be available at their school.

I think that ALEX will be a very useful resource for me when I become a teacher. I think the thing that will be beneficial to me is the Courses of Study link this site offers. I think this will lead me in the right direction on what I need to teach my students on a certain subject. In all, I think everyone of the resources that ALEX offers will be very helpful to me in the future.

A Little About Me

My name is Ashley Smith and I am 19 years old. I will be 20 in March. I have two older brothers and the best parents a girl could ask for. I grew up in Citronelle, AL and my family and I moved to Semmes, AL my 6th grade year. I am married to my high school sweetheart of 7 years. We got married in May of 2008. When I do not have class I substitute teach at the local schools. I mainly spend my free time with my family and my husband. My husband and I came to South from the University 0f Southern Mississippi. We came back home because he decided to go into the medical field here at South. I went to MGM for high school and was a cheerleader all 4 years. I loved every minute of it. I love all types of sports, but my favorite is football.

Ashley Smith

My name is Ashley Smith. I am 19 years old.