Week 4

Search Engines Results and My New Web Page

This week I searched my name through both Yahoo and Google. I was very surprised with the results that I found from both of these websites. I thought that my digital footprint would have been larger than what it actually is. After searching through multiple pages at both of the search engines, the only websites that I could find which were actually about me were results of sailing regattas I had previously participated in. I did however learn that there is another Andrew Schiller who is a teacher from Michigan that plays the guitar; there was a lot about him! Since, there is a lack of information on the web about me personally (at least information that can be easily searched), I don't think that there is much that anybody, including my future employers could find about me. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. On one hand I don't want people to know anything about me that I wouldn't want to personally share with them, and on the other handits not good because there is no information that can help others get to know me, or any of the positive impacts that I have ever had.

I also built my own webpage this week which I hope will be a beneficial tool for me in the future, as well as this year. I plan on using the website as a way to help people learn more about me by sharing some of my interests and hobbies as well as a little biography about me. I also will use this website to help others and myself keep up to date with one another. I have already given out the website to multiple members of my family and my colleagues. The website will however be used primarily as a resource for future employers to visit and assess. If I do this website right, I think that it can be a valuable source for helping me find a job in the future. The website makes my resume and my work accessible and it provides a great overview of myself in and out of the classroom; all without sending anything through the mail or meeting them in person. It also is a way that can sperate myself from other teaching candidates. But again, this can only be done if this sight is done in the right way, which means organized and proffesional.

To assure that these are accomplished I will spend a lot of time on the webpage ensuring that it is informative, up to date, and appropriate. This means that the grammar and context on the webpage is accurate and that I convey myself as an adequate teacher candidate in any school through the webpage. I want my webpage to give a good representation of the inspiring teacher candidate that I want to be, and the positive citizen that I am in my community outside of the classroom as well. To accomplish these goals, my website will have a clear definition of my teaching philosophy, past work and experiences I have had, and a good summary of myself and my interests. This includes having an up to date and printable resume on my website, examples of the lessons and work that I have done in the past and appropriate pictures of myself and my interests. However, the most important goal that I have to accomplish my goals for this website is that it will be organized in a way that makes it easy for others to visit and navigate through my web page.

Week 3

Google Reader and RSS's

For this week, I researched ways in which I could use Google Reader to help me keep up to date with webpage’s and blogs on the web. Like receiving mail in your mailbox, Google Reader updates you whenever a website or blog is updated. The only drawback is that the site has to have a RSS feed in order for you to be able to add it to Google Reader. You may notice that I have a new widget on my blog now. This widget provides links to the updated websites that I have saved on my Google Reader. The list below describes where those links come from, and how they can be used by teachers. If you want to see all of the new updates for all three of these websites, you can go to my public page by clicking here.

When browsing the internet I choose to go with option three and decided to look for information that I could use which may continue to help me once I have my own classroom. The first site I subscribed to was the Michigan Department of Education. As a future teacher it is important to keep up to date with the latest and greatest news from the Department of Education. This website gives you an update of any breaking news, lets you look at current outlook of the state's education programs, and other types of data from all of the department offices. As an addition to the website is other RSS feeds located in the blue box on the right side of the screen. Those feeds have the MDE staff directory, a section on No Child Left Behind, the State Tech Plan, and more. This website is a good resource for teachers because it provides first hand information from the state so that it makes it easy for teachers to stay up to date.

The second site I added to Google Reader was The Doyle Report. This website is dedicated to introducing and evaluating new and old technology in the classroom. Even though I consider myself pretty intelligent with the current technology of today, twenty years from now I don’t want to be as oblivious with technology as some of the teachers are today. Many of the articles are also very interesting. Some of the most recent articles talk about how the education in the United States compares to the rest of the world and it says that American Teens test lower on Math and Science then other children around the world. As a teacher this is very alarming to see, and it opens my eyes to the importance of my job as a teacher to stop that trend the best that I can. This website is beneficial to me as a teacher because it’s a place where technology and education meet together. It gives current issues that are happening in the educational world and suggestions on improving your methods of teaching with technology. On the right side of the web page there are two widgets which help you browse the blogs by either Education News Blogs or Education-Technology News Blogs.

The third website I added to Goggle Reader was hosted by Scholastic and it’s called This Week in Education. This website is dedicated to helping keep teachers up to date with the educational world. There is a section for parents, students, and teachers; so it is useful to everybody. This site is useful because it’s a very organized (high production) website which basically provides the latest headlines in the educational world. The blogs on the website have the latest headlines of the day in education in regards to politics, technology, and breaking news. I liked this website the best because it provided more relevant information for a teacher, and it was very easy to navigate around the page.

As a teacher I think that there are multiple ways in which RSS's can be of use in your classroom. First if your class was researching any specific topic, then they could add the website to Google Reader so that they are notified of any updates. This is a lot more convenient then checking back every day to see if any new material has been added. This is also helpful to the teacher so that they can teach the most up to date information. Another example of how RSS's can be used in the classroom is for keeping teachers up to date on the educational world. A teacher can add educational websites to Goggle Reader so that they can stay up to date with the Educational world on a local, state, national, or global level.

Week 2

A Look at Blogging

While looking around the internet I stumbled upon two blogs that I thought were very interesting and it reminded me of ways in which blogging can be used by teachers in and out of the classroom.

Dedicated Elementary Teacher Overseas

The first blog I found was by an American woman who is teaching a third grade classroom overseas in the Middle-East. You can view her blog here. I thought this blog was interesting because she created it to try to address how the thinking of eight and nine year old children in the Middle-East is both similar and different then her experiences in America. She also introduces how differences and problems teachers in overseas American schools face compared to her experiences in the Middle-East, the cultural differences she has noticed between the two countries, and she also explains her teaching philosophy which I found to be similar to mine. In her about me page she says,

"With every classroom dispute between classmates, with every homework assignment or test grade, and with every classroom experience comes a special chance to teach something “more.” I feel I have one of the most important jobs in the world–that of “molding little people” to become the next adult generation.

This blog also reminded me about how blogs can be used by teachers in and out of the classroom. Like the blog above, teachers can use blogs to communicate with teachers around the city, the state, the country, or the world. These blogs could help teacher build relationships with other teacher where they can discuss ongoing problems in their classrooms, suggest or comment on lesson plans, or to build friendships and support with other teachers.

Miss Pellin's Third Grade Class Page

Another blog that I found interesting was by a third grade teacher names Miss Pellin. If you want to take a look at her blog you can hit the link right here. She posts a weekly blog which gives an overview of what the class did the previous week, what they will be working on in the coming week, her observations in the classroom, and important dates for the parents and students to remember.

This blog reminded me of another way teachers can use blogs in their classroom. By creating a page like Miss Pellin's, a teacher can help build up an appropriate classroom community for their class. This type of page helps build up a classroom community because it helps parents become involved in their child's learning, it allows the parents and teachers to stay in contact with one another, and the blog helps make the class more personal to all of the parties involved (the teacher, the students, and the parents).

Suggested Resources

If you are interested in creating your own blog you can click here.

If you want to browse teaching blogs you can go to:

• Technorati
• Google Blog Search
• or other educational blogs here

Week 1

WELCOME~!

This is a new blog I created in an attempt to connect and organize myself as I contine to become an inspiring elementary teacher. This blog will be used to introduce who I am, what my teaching philosphies are, and what I am currently doing in the field of education. I invite you to come back often to look at my latest blogs and to ofer any feedback you may have. You may also go to my homepage by clicking this.