Transition Timeline Podcast

This podcast discusses steps that need to be taken in order for students to successfully transition to adult life.

Web Links

www.taylorvilleschools.com

www.midstatespec.org

Library of Congress Website Resources

I have used the Library of Congress' website as a resource for my classroom in the past. However, I have not had much use for it as of late. Because I do not have the opportunity to teach academic courses, I do not access the available information as I used to. As I was maneuvering the website, specifically following the avenues for teachers to use in the classroom, I was impressed to discover the available lesson plans that the Library of Congress has developed for addition to a curriculum related to history. The website also does a very admirable job of developing tools for researchers to use in order to maneuver the website's information. Through the professional development piece, there are a lot of vauable primary sources as well as ways to use those sources offline and used in multimedia presentations for the classroom. Further, this website can be related to a previous lesson for this course by providing a lesson for teachers and students on evaluating the quality and usefulness of websites. Along with the obvious application to history courses, there are lessons revolving around poetry and other literary genres that can be used in English or literature courses, as well as opportunities for art teachers to develop lessons around historical pieces. This website also organizes information in thematic units, which could be used easily by teachers to supplement units that are already in place in their curriculum. All in all, this website does not provide me with many resources at this time, but it definitely gives me many ideas for my fellow teachers and I will absolutely share this with them.

Reflection on Blogging

This is my first true experience with blogging. Overall, I have found it to be not so difficult. I do, however, wonder what type of information I should use or provide in this medium. I'm not sure what I want to share and who is going to be reading it. I do think that it would be a usefull tool for my students and I, I travel to six different school districts for my position, and giving my students a means to communicate with me when I am not in their building or classroom would be helpful. At this time, I rely on teachers to contact me with student questions or requests, but if I used a blog, this would allow the students to take the responsibility on themselves to get in touch with me. I could incorporate links to other websites that would allow students to research the answers to their questions. I look forward to expanding my knowledge and experience using this technology tool.