Reflection: Week 5

What?

This week in class, we learned more about the Utah Education Network website. The entire website made more sense to me this week because it was our second time covering its contents. Through discovering this site, I was impressed with all the tools available to Utah educators for enhancing the classroom. We were assigned to create our own UEN website for a future class using the tools offered on UEN. This assignment took a long time to complete and was a little confusing, but worth it in the end.

So What?

Even though it was difficult to learn how to create my own UEN website, I am glad to know the information. I never realized how simple it is to put links on a website to access other pages, movies, or music. It is fun knowing how to do these tasks and I am excited to apply it when I teach. I know this knowledge will help me as an educator, and it is even relevant now as I am working on developing my own lesson plans and searching for high-quality content to create my ideal classroom.

The UEN website can be used often in middle and high school classes because it offers valuable material in every content area. My content area is health and one of my favorite parts of the UEN website was the interactive games. Every game I played was educational, engaging, and fun. I will definitely be using some of them in my future classroom. Another great discovery I made on the UEN website is the links for lesson plans. Although I enjoy making my own lesson plans because I like to customize my class discussions, the lessons UEN offered were still fun to investigate because they gave me fresh, innovative techniques to assist in teaching my curriculum. The health core curriculum involves all necessary aspects of health, from nutrition to abuse to human sexuality. The Utah Board of Education recently revised the health curriculum and I believe its revisions made the goals and objectives ideal. I love that the curriculum is posted on the UEN website because that will always help me stay on track as a teacher, keep me updated with any changes made, and it holds me accountable to teach what is recommended by the state. I was impressed with the pioneer library and all the educational links available through this site. My favorite links on the Pioneer web include culture grams, emedia, and the newspaper links. Other areas of interest on the UEN website include the parent resources and the professional development courses. I hope every teacher in Utah knows about the UEN website, accesses it often, and takes advantage of the valuable material it offers.

Now What?

Like it or not, we are now living in a world that is dominated by technology. I know what it feels like to be in a class where the teacher is anti-technology and I do not want to be one of those teachers. I believe the reason most teachers do not incorporate technology into their classrooms is because they are either intimidated by it or simply unaware of how to use it. I have never been a computer whiz, but now that I have discovered how multiple websites work, I feel like I would be able to figure out how to use many more websites. The internet is simpler than most people think. I plan to inform my future colleagues about the Professional Development Courses offered through UEN in order to learn more about the advantages of technology in the classroom. I am excited to continue learning about the value of technology so I can use it in my future classes. Students enjoy when teachers are current and up-to-date with their skills, so I bet they would appreciate the use of computers, the internet, movies, and music in school.

If all teachers were educated on how to utilize resources like google sites, UEN, and Pioneer Library, I believe more engaged learning would take place at school. Today, students play with technology more than ever and they would enjoy knowing how it can enhance learning and understanding. I love the UEN website because it is beneficial to students, teachers, and parents. Everything offered on this site is 100% safe and informative. I am glad to have discovered the Utah Education Network and am excited to continue learning about it through my own exploration.

Video Reflection:

Throughout my college experience at Utah Valley University, I have learned more information than I ever remember learning in High School. I really enjoy school, work hard to succeed, and feel that I earn the grades I receive. I thought the video we watched this week, "A Vision of Students Today," brought about all the negative aspects of school. Most of the problems presented in this video were because of student laziness or their choice not to involve themselves in class. Every student in college has a different life situation, but we are all students and should dedicate our focus to school while enrolled in college. One point brought up in the video is that students bring their laptops to class, but are doing other things on them rather than taking notes. I have taken my laptop to class a few times and I know it is harder to pay attention, so I stopped bringing it. Case solved. Another point this video brought up was the cost of textbooks. I do not think most students realize there are textbooks in the library available to check out. This way, you can still use it as often as needed, without spending so much money. Another student mentioned she would be $20,000 in debt by the time she graduated college. The government offers pell grants to help financially struggling students and there are many scholarships available if you simply put in the time and effort to apply for them. In conclusion, I did not like how this video was so depressing and negative, but it inspires me to be a better teacher for my own students to help create positive feelings about school.