My EDM blog assignments are now complete

I have enjoyed taking this class with all of you! Have a Great Summer!!

Finding your Passion Changes Everything

I really enjoyed the lecture of Sir Ken Robinson. He was very funny and interesting at the same time. I feel like he did very well at explaining what he believed and I agree with what he is saying, but I do disagree on one aspect.
I agree that you do have to love what you are doing, but I think you should also be good at it as well. That was the only thing I disagreed with because I do not think just loving what you are doing is good enough. I think the only way some people love what they do is by being good at it as well. Other than that I agree with everything else he talked about in his lecture.I agree that you should have a natural attitude. I think this is a very important aspect at whatever you do in life. I do not think you should have to change your attitude about something you believe in. I also agree with him when he stated that you have to meet your own expectations, not another persons. This is a big problem in today's society because I believe people are trying to reach these expectations that they can not accomplish. Another thing I agree with is that he stated that if you do not know yourself as a person then you will not know what you like to do or what you are good at. A lot of people miss out on their calling because they just will not believe in themselves and they will never find out what they are good at because of this.
He stated three things that you need which are personal fulfillment,help from your community, and the Economy. These things are very vital in order to accomplish things in life. If you do not have these three things then it will be very hard for you to make it in life and be able to do the things you love to do. The last thing that I took from this lecture is that he stated education is about personal growth. I agree with this 100% because I think that school is sometimes the only place children can actually be themselves and have people that care about them.

Reflection of EDM

1. Blogs: I loved doing the blogs each week. I think this is a great way for people to think about things in a different way. I also think it is a great way to see what your other classmate thought about the same topic.
Presentations: I am pretty much used to doing presentations because each semester it never fails that I have to do a presentation for a class I am taking. I think it is a great way to learn about everyone in your class and a great way to connect with people.
Google Docs: This is probably my favorite thing about the entire class. This is a great tool for anyone to use, but it is awesome for students because no matter where you might be you can always pull up your work if you have a computer with Internet. I think this will be a great tool for me when I become a teacher because I will not have to worry about a jump drive to remember to bring with me to school.
Google Spreadsheets: I liked this tool as well. Mainly for the same reasons as Google Docs. This is going to be a great tool for me to use when I have my own class because I will be able to put any information that I may need on my students whether it may be their grades or personal information like their telephone numbers.
Picasa: This was really cool to learn about because I have never used this tool before. I thought all of the many tools you could use on this was just amazing. I will also be able to use this when I have my own classroom for pictures that I might want to use for my lessons.
Podcasts: The podcast assignment was probably my least favorite of them all. I enjoyed doing them and listening to my classmates as well, but I just feel like the information some of the students gave was already known. Other than that I enjoyed doing it.
Twitter: I have really enjoyed using Twitter. At first, I did not like it at all because for some reason I thought it was so confusing. After I researched and found some information from other people using Twitter it became a lot more clear to me. The only down fall to Twitter is the set up. I think it could be a lot more organized, but other than that I really like it.
Other Teachers: The teacher I have contacted has been really helpful to me on many different levels. She has given me so much good advice about being a teacher and she has also given me different ways that she uses technology in her classroom. She has also helped me contact other teachers to help me find out things on Twitter.
iTunes: I definitely plan on using iTunes when I become a teacher. It is a great way to get things like podcasts to share with your students about different topics. I have really enjoyed using this tool.
Who I am as a Professional: I really believe this class has broadened my knowledge on technology to a whole new level. I thought I already knew a lot about technology, but boy was I wrong. I think this class has helped me to become a better Professional and it has taken my technology skills to a whole new level.
Google Earth: I already knew the tools to Google Earth, but it was fun to play around with on the day you discussed it.
ACCESS/ALEX: This is a great tool for soon to be teachers as well as people who are already teachers. You can find things from lesson plans to activities to use in your classroom. This was a great thing for me to learn about and I will be using the site for reference in the future.
Foliotek: I do not understand why teachers haven't came to ask you how to use this tool. When you showed us how to upload our files in class that day from then on I have not had a problem with using Foliotek. People make it harder than it should be. I definitely learned how to use this tool a lot better when you showed us the shortcuts.
2. I think we learned everything that is essential to know about when becoming a teacher. You did a great job at explaining everything we needed to know.
3.No, I enjoyed everything we covered in this class. Some of the things may have been a little boring, but they were very important things that needed to be covered.

Twitter

Twitter was probably the best assignment we had to complete in EDM in my opinion. For one, the people that I began to follow that are in the education/technology field have some really good ideas about things that I would not have found out without being apart of Twitter. Another reason I like Twitter is because of the many people you can become friends with. For example, I am friends with people all across the world like Oprah and our President Barack Obama. Even though these people may not really tweet, I think it is really cool to be able to see what they might think about something. One of the main things that helped me with Twitter is one of the teachers that I contacted on there. She has given me so many good ideas and she also gave me other people to follow to help me out with Twitter. I have also been using help materials to help me with certain things that I might want to do through Twitter.
I use Twitter every single day. I mainly like to get on to see if the other teachers I am following have put anything interesting/important that I think I should know. I also like to get on to see what my other classmates are up to and to see what all they have discovered on Twitter. I tweet everyday with the teacher that I am communicating with for our other assignment. I usually ask her a couple of questions a week and we chat back and forth through out the week.
Honestly, at first, I did not like Twitter at all, but I have to say that I have become to really like it. I thought that it was complicated at first, but after I did some research and got advice from other people who use twitter it was all pretty easy and I like using this tool. I plan on using Twitter from now on and especially when I become a teacher. The main reason is because there are other teachers that are available for me to get information from and the best part is it is FREE. I think all teachers would benefit from using Twitter.
The only negative I have about Twitter is the format. I think it is a little scattered and I think it could be more organized. I think if it were set up like Facebook or Myspace it would be a lot better. Other than that I have grown to really like Twitter.

EDM Podcasts

To start off, I would like to talk about the podcast that myself, Allie, and Lonnie did on websites high school teachers could use for useful information. I thought we did a great job of finding useful websites for high school teachers. I think each one of us put in a great deal of time for this assignment and I think the information we gave on this podcast was very good and I also believe we were very well prepared in giving the information. One thing that I think we could have improved on with this assignment would be for us to have found a few more websites so that we could have had a few more sites to give out for the listeners.
One of the podcast I listened to was the podcast by Mary Davis, Matt Quimby, and Johnetta Nixon. Their podcast was about websites that are useful for Elementary teachers. They also did a great job at delivering their information about the websites they chose. They had some very useful sites for elementary teachers to use. I know that I will use these sites when I become a teacher. My favorite website was the one with songs that teachers can incorporate into their lessons. I think the one thing they could have done to improve their podcast would be to have at least one or two more websites because I think the more the better.
The next one that I listened to was the one about ACCESS with Megan Morgan, Alicia Baxter and Angel Jackson. The script was a very creative way to give information about their topic on ACCESS. I think that when people listen to their podcast they will be very interested about learning what ACCESS is about and I think that is a great way to relay information on a topic because it is all about your audience. The only thing that I think they could have changed is I think they could have been more relaxed and went with the flow because you could definitely tell they were reading from a sheet of paper.
I also listened to Peyton Ivey, Kendra Hill, Jessica White and Jessica Courville's blog about Facebook. They did good on giving out information about Facebook and all of the different things you can do on Facebook for your classroom. I think labeling the pros and cons was a very good way to do this podcast. I think they could have been a little more elaborate on some of the things they talked about, but all in all it was very good.
Lastly, I listened to Shift Happens by Jessica Prestage, John Dunlop and Christie Love. I loved the way they were so laid back and made the podcast sound like a normal conversation and was not practiced. They gave some really good information about this video and brought up some really interesting points. The one thing I think they could have improved was Jessica and Christie should have talked a little bit more. I feel like John did most of the talking, but other than that it was really good and interesting.

Blogs

When we first started this class and found out we had to have a blog and that we had to post to it every week I was really dreading it. Now that I have done it for a couple of months now it really is not all that bad. Actually, I have found some of the information we have had to research very interesting.
The things that I do like about blogging is that when I do a post I can go and look at other peoples blog our class to see what they wrote and to see what they thought about the particular assignment. I also think it is a good way for us to go out side of the box. If I would not have been assigned to this assignment i most likely would not have done any of the things that we have had to do for our blogs, so I think it is a great way to motivate soon to be teachers to search and write about what they have learned as well as reflect on things that might happen inside of your own classroom. Also, the things we have to research are things dealing with teaching and things that we may have to deal with and I think it is a great way for us to explore and learn about those things.
Some of the things that I do not like about the blogs is that we have to blog every week. I think it would be a much better experience if we only had to blog every other week or something like that. Also, we have many more assignments we have to complete on top of blogging and sometimes I get overwhelmed with the things we have to complete for this class. My best advice to upcoming students who have to take this class would be to do everything ahead of time. Do not wait until the last minute because everything seems to pile up at the end of the semester. I do all of my posts at the beginning of each week because at the end of the week I usually have a lot to do.
All in all I have really enjoyed doing the blogs because it has opened my eyes to a lot of things that I was unaware of before doing these posts. I think blogging would be great to use in my classroom because I think it would be a great way for me to get feedback from my students and to see whether or not they are understanding the things I will be teaching them. I also think it would be a great way for students to communicate with one another. I think if there is anyway possible that I could incorporate blogging into my classroom I will definitely do it.

"Growth" vs. "Fixed"

At the beginning of this video the Author of "Mindset" Carol Dweck stated that some students have the thought that they have to do a certain task correctly so that they will look or seem smart. She went on to explain how other students go into the learning process with the mindset that they are pretty much going to do their best while trying to better their intelligence by studying and being on tasks with their assignments. I thought this was very interesting for her to say because this is the honest truth and I feel that is what hinders most children from using their intelligence to the fullest. For one reason, a lot of children look at intelligence as sort of a competition. They want to be just as smart or even smarter as their friend. I wish that students would not go through school feeling this way because no matter how smart or not they may think they are, some students are smarter in one area than another student is and vice versa. We all have our strengths and weaknesses in certain areas. The 8 session workshop she talked about seems like a really great idea. She explained how it teaches people to learn at a growth mind set. She also talked about how the study skills they taught them did not work at all because they had no motivation what so ever. This is a major problem with children today. The main think you have to have dealing with any kind of education is motivation. I have to motivate myself to this day with education or I would not make it through college. I really enjoyed this video because Carol really explained this topic well giving her audience examples to understand what she is talking about like the race car driver.
This discussion greatly affects me as an upcoming teacher. It really has opened my eyes to how children really learn and mainly that most of them are just not motivated enough to learn and open up their minds to new things. I plan to use this as an opening to my class each year and explain to my students that if they are not motivated and if they are not ready to learn then they will greatly suffer. I think by me giving them a talk about how they need to have a growing mind will probably open their eyes and maybe they will then be motivated if they were not already.

Solar Eclipses

I listened to the podcast about Solar Eclipses from the K-5 section. This was a very interesting podcast because it explained in pretty good detail about what a Solar Eclipse is and what happens during one. A Solar Eclipse is when a shadow from the moon falls from the earth. The woman who was doing the podcast made some really good metaphors while explaining a Solar Eclipse she used a softball and a sidewalk to give an example about how the softball can only cover a small area. She explained that the sun does the same thing. It can only cover a small portion of the Earth at a time. She also went on to explain how only the people in the umbra can see the Solar Eclipse and someone standing on the penumbra will only see a partial eclipse. She also explained that if the moon was smaller or father away from the sun we would not have Solar Eclipses.
Podcasts like the Solar Eclipse one would be very useful to me when I become a teacher because I could play the podcast for the children to get a different way of explaining things like Solar Eclipses. I think it would also be a great tool to use for activity time because I could find some children music to play while they do their activities. I think it would benefit the children for me to find some related to math because all children need a little extra boost on math. I could find some fun math songs that might help them with math facts and problems. I think this tool will be a very big help for me when I become a teacher.

The Edible Schoolyard and A Night in the Global Village

The Edible Schoolyard was so interesting to me and I think this program is just amazing for students to be able to experience. For one thing, some students learn better when they can put their hands on things rather than having a boring worksheet to do and some would rather have the worksheet. I think this is great because the children get to do the things on their own. Also, the cooking part was very interesting because the only reason I know how to cook is from my mom and some kids are not that lucky, so I think that was just awesome for them kids to be able to cook things by themselves. I think I could use this is my classroom to teach children that they do have to learn how to do these things on their own because one day they will be on their own without someone there to tell them what is right and wrong. I think this would be a great lesson for children to learn at an early age.
A Night in the Global Village was also amazing to me because it is such a great lesson for children to learn about because these things really occur and some children have no clue of it. I think this would be a great thing to incorporate into my classroom because it teaches children about how some people have to live. I also thought this was awesome because these students actually got to experience in real life how those people really live, work, and do certain things. They also had to sleep in the conditions those people had to sleep in. They had to learn how to make a fire with the material they had and they found it very difficult because they said they have never even had to do things like that before. At the end the students performed skits of what they experienced and I think this was a great way for the students to think about and reflect on what they experienced and realize how those people live.
Both of these podcasts were just amazing and I think these topics would be great to have when I have my own classroom because it is concepts that students should know about and learn about as well as learn how to do.

iTunes University

I found a lot of useful information on http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning/. First of all, it stated that learning no longer happens only at a desk. Students now expect constant access to information, no matter where they are. Which is exactly why more and more faculty are using iTunes U to distribute digital lessons to their students. This statement is so true because students have some form of a device to use whether it be an iPhone or a computer. This site also stated that iTunes U has the largest collection of free educational media available to students, teachers, and lifelong learners.
It also stated that iTunes U has become the the engine for the mobile learning movement. It puts the power of the iTunes Store in the hands of qualifying universities so they can distribute their educational media to their students or to the world. This is so amazing to me that we actually have something like this to use in our everyday lives. Another cool thing I found out about iTunes U is that you can set up your on site with a password and have selected members be a part of it. This information is very helpful because it is definitely something I would use in my own classroom. I could use this device for many things and I hope that it expands even more by the time I am a teacher.

iPod Suggestions

http://news.duke.edu/2005/12/ipodupdate.html
The article I found on Duke Universities use on iPod in instruction was very interesting. It stated that the number of students using iPods has quadrupled and the number of courses incorporating the devices has doubled while trying to use more technology in academics. They also stated that since the use of iPods has increased so has the use of videos in lectures. I think this is a great way to incorporate technology in students academics. A lot of students have things like iPods and even if you do not have an iPod you can still do a lot of the things on the Internet which is provided by most Universities. They also explained how using devices like the iPod has taken the learning experience outside of the classroom and it has also taken learning to a whole new level. They stated that the use of this device is in all types of classes from computer science to Human Anatomy. I think every University should consider using technology in this way. It makes the learning experience so much better. The most interesting thing they stated in this article was that in 2004 Duke distributed free iPods to all first year freshman. I thought this was a great thing to do and a great way to open the door for a new style of learning.

Dr. Christie's Site: Internet Resources and Tools

Dr. Christie had a lot of interesting information and resources on her site. The part I liked and learned a lot about was the Internet Resources and Tools section. I wish I would have known about this site long before now because it has so much useful information about using the internet from simply navigating the internet to electronic citations. I can remember doing papers in high school and I never knew the best places to go to look for the information for what I was doing my paper on and this site was very helpful in that aspect. Also, I really thought the electronic citations link would be very helpful for high school teachers to pull up for their students on the day they talk about research papers because this would be so much easier for the students to find out how to cite something rather than them finding out themselves and do it wrong. I also thought the ClipArt section was really neat. I already have an idea of how I want to use ClipArt in my classroom and this link gave me so many more ideas to use it in my class one day. I think that this will be a very helpful site for me to use when I have my own classroom one day.

Wikipedia

When doing a project or research paper, I try to stay away from Wikipedia as much as possible, but I will occasionally look the information over before I completely rule it out. If I have found the information from a reliable resource and it was also on Wikipedia then I will use it. Other than that I do not use the information on there. The main reason is because of what I read on the websites we had to read for this blog. I knew that people could go in and add fluff, but I just can not believe places like Diebold and Walmart would go in and delete things that people should know about their companies. I believe the only way that Wikipedia would be a trusted source would be for people not to be able to edit the information and when this might happen I have no idea, but I think if they ever made it to where people could not edit information it would be a great source to find things from.

Last Lecture

I LOVED this lecture. When I first seen what we had to do for this weeks blog I was dreading having to listen to some long boring lecture. Boy was I wrong. I thought everything in this entire lecture that he talked about was so touching and interesting. He brought up several points that really opened my eyes and made me look at things in a different perspective. I think he was such an amazing man just by listening to him for an hour and 20 minutes.
One thing that really opened my eyes was when he talked about waiting long enough and people will impress you. I feel that teachers jump to conclusions about a lot of their students and they do not give them long enough to show what they can do. That will be one of my goals as a teacher. Not to jump to conclusions about a student and I will give them enough time to express themselves.
Another thing that moved me was when he talked about telling someone they are doing something wrong is really helping them. I have never thought about that in that way. I feel like some teachers tell their students "good job" even when they really did not and I do think that hurts a child in the long run. This really opened my eyes to the fact even if you are wrong and someone tells you, they are just trying to help you. Not hurt you.
The way he used technology was amazing. He made technology fun and interesting. I could tell that he loved his job in every aspect and I think that is why he made it so interesting. I am glad we had this assignment because it really did open my eyes to so many different things and it made me think outside the box.

All About Me

Fischbowl (November)

The month I chose to listen to on the "Best (?) of the Fischbowl 2007" was November. The title to this one was "Why Wireless?". This was really interesting to read and take in because what he brought about is very true about the Internet and education.

He talked about how people would wonder why they would allow this in schools because they thought students might get off track on the Internet when they should be listening in class. He claimed he did not know a solution to this problem, but he thought students still need Internet access for various reasons. One think students can access is their Campus Portal, which gives them direct access to their grades and assignments. They can also access teacher's websites where they can find notes, worksheets, and grades as well. He also stated that this allows school to last longer than the time allotted. Teacher's at AHS are using blogs and wiki's to send their student information they need to know as well as assignments. I liked how their schools environment seemed to be one where the students are respected by everyone and this is a place where they can come to learn and also they are able to learn away from school with this Internet access available to them. His last statement was Why Wireless? Because their century demands it. I believe in that statement so much because in our day and age because technology is what we live on.I believe that every school needs to take this stand because when these students get out in the real world they need to be very familiar with the Internet and all the technology we use today.

Last Semester Podcasts

The first podcast I listened to was Allison Midgette and Shaundretta Bethel's discussion on ways to use Facebook in an educational setting. I have a few things I liked and disliked about their podcast that they made.

One thing that I liked about this podcast is I had no idea those resources could be found on Facebook. The one I thought would be great to use in the classroom was the Tests that Allison found on English grammar and commonly confused words. I think there is probably so many more to be found, but that was what she was looking for. Shaundretta talked about how South was going to have their own Facebook page to keeep students update over the internet. I think that is a great idea. Most of the students have Facebook and this would be a great way to stay on top of things through this source. One thing I thought they could have improved on was their tone. They sounded like they were so bored. If you are going to do something where the listener can only hear someone's voice and not see them you need to sound a little more enthusiastic than they did. Another thing they could have improved on was they could have had a little bit more information than they provided. Allison only spoke on a few things as well as Shaundretta and I just think there is so much more information to be found then what they provided. Other than that I thought it was good.

The next podcast I listened to was Shyane Fant, Erica Sledge, and Ashley Cleveland's discussion on useful sites for elementary teachers. I thought this group did a great job in picking their sites because I think each site they described will be very useful in my own classroom.

Ashley started off by explaining this site you can go to and it has tutorials, power points, lesson plans, and much more for teachers to pull up and use in their classroom. I think this is great for teachers to use because not only does it help with Power Points, but it also helps with your lesson plans. I think the lesson plan part would be great for first year teachers who are not sure about what to do. Erica talked bout the ALEX website which I have already explored and can say for myself that it is a great website for teachers, students, and even administrators. It has everything you may need from lesson plans in each subject to distant learning for those who may not have a particular class at their school that they want to take. Shyane talked about teahcers.net website, which I thought was the best of the three because any teacher can use this site whether you may be high school, middle school, or elementary school. The thing I liked about this site was teachers can actually pull up lessons to teach on this site and it guides them in the direction they should go for that particular lessons. This was very helpful to me and I think I will use these sites when I become a teacher.

Podcasts

Although it took me a while to find these podcasts and to get itunes to work right, I found all three of the podcasts very interesting. The one's I listened to were SmartBoard Lessons, KidCast, and MacBreak weekly. I will be describing the three I was able to listen to and I will also explain the one I liked to most out of the three.

The first one I listened to was the Smartboard Lessons, which was pretty neat because I had to substitute today and I actually got to see a SmartBoard in person which was so cool. In episode 150 the speaker talked about several things. One being helpful links and things teacher can use and may want to use. The speaker also talked about ways to misuse your smartboard. Although they were telling their audience about the ways to misuse a smartboard, they explained them in a positive way which I thought was great. This one was my favorite because the speaker gave very useful information on a tool that I will be using in my own classroom.

Then, I listened to the KidCast podcast. I listened to the one titled "The Medium is not the Message". The speaker, Dan Schmit, gave really good advice about doing podcasts. I liked how he stated how kids are doing podcast just for fun and not to deliver a message. I agree with hime because I think it is a waste of time to do something unless your are going to do it to get a point across or to deliver a message.

The last one I listened to was MacBreak Weekly. The one I titled was la la leo. This one was probably my least favorite because it kind of sounded fake or something.I plan on listening to more podcasts soon and I am anxious to see how the one we record turns out.

The Fischbowl Blog

This blog was very interesting to me in so many ways. I like the way this man put his thoughts across. He was very straight forward and to the point. I agree with him on everyone should have some type of knowledge with technology when entering in the work force. Not only with teaching, but any job out there. Technology is used in the work force at almost every job. Even at a grocery store and gas stations.

I do not think people take technology seriously because they do not think they will have to use it in the field they are going to work in. I personally did not think being a teacher would involve that much technology knowledge, but I quickly learned different. I think the technology involved in being a teacher is very helpful. Not only the STI program for grades, but for power points and games you can have the students play on the learning devices they have now when they go to computer centers.

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.