Week 3- Digital Story!

I love learning about the history and science of storytelling.  In this week’s resources I read a lot about how the brain retains information better when it can relate to something personal.  I know that when I am trying to obtain new information, I try to find a personal connection to help me remember what I am learning about.  Teaching a lesson by personalizing it shows the children/students that the teacher is passionate about the topic and has experiences within the subject matter. 

Watching all the digital stories from the alumni students was a very fun way to not only learn about the topic, but also a little about the person.  I enjoy telling my personal stories to others, especially stories where I gained new knowledge. I think Digital storytelling would be a great way to be able to save those stories and pass them along to future generation. 

I am very excited to learn about creating my own digital story on a future lesson I would like to teach my students.  Being a physical educator and not having that classroom layout, teaching concepts/lessons might be a little bit more challenging.  Showing a quick five-minute digital story before a unit may help the students understand the topic; I think that this would be a great way to start each unit and allow the students to relate with the subject matter.

WEEK TWO RESOURCE IDEAS

I WAS VERY AMAZINED BY EVERYTHING I WAS READING AND LEARNING ABOUT IN THESES RESOURCES FOR THIS WEEK. I THOUGHT THAT THE GOOGLE TRANSLATE FORMULA FROM GOOGLE SHEETS WAS THE GREATEST THING EVER.  I KNOW THAT WITH MY FAMILY COMING FROM POLAND ENGLISH WAS NOT OUR FIRST LANGUAGE AND IT WAS DIFFICULT TO LEARN.  MY PAERNTS AND GRANDPARENTS STILL STRUGGLE WITH TRANSLATING WORDS AND I THINK ONCE I SHOWED THEM THIS TOOL THEY WILL SEE HOW EASY IT COULD BE WITH THE RIGHT RESOURCES.  IT WILL ALSO HELP WITH COMMUNITCAITON THROUGHT OUT THE WHOLE FAMILY BECAUSE I CAN SHOW THIS TO MY COUSINS AND THEY CAN SEE THE TRANSLATION THEY NEED WHEN TALKING TO GRANDMA OR GRANDPA.  

ANOTHER THING THAT I REALLY LIKED FROM THIS WEEKS RESOURCES WAS LEARNING ABOUT ALL THE DIFFERENT TOOLS THAT ARE OUT THERE, LIKE THE TEXT TO SPEECH, READ ALOUD, VISOR, OR THE FLOATING MAGNIFYING CLASS.  I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT SOME ONE THESE TOOLS, BUT I CAN SEE HOW GREATLY THEY CAN HELP STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES.  

 THEN MY FAVORITE THING THAT I GOT OUT OF THE RESOURCES WAS THE “MOVE IT” TOOL.  I REALLY LIKE THIS TOOL BECAUSE I DO HAVE A SHORT ATTENTION SPAN AND GET VERY DISTRACTED.  WITH THIS TOOL HELPS ME REGROUP MYSELF EVERY SO OFTEN.  WHEN THE "MOVE IT" SCREEN COMES UP ON THE MONITOR YOU MUST DO AS IT SAYS AND MOVE IT. I LOVE THIS IDEA BECAUSE NOT ONLY ARE YOU GETTING THAT MOVEMENT IN, BUT BY DOING SO YOU ARE INCREASING YOU BLOOD FLOW.  INCREASING YOUR BLOOD FLOW HELPS YOU THINK BETTER AND EVEN FEEL BETTER. SO, GET UP AND MOVE IT!

Why I want to become a Teacher.

I have always had a heart for children; as a child I would care for my baby dolls and then it turned into my cousins. Once I turned 12, I started babysitting for money and I loved it.  In high school I decided to take some child care class, which taught me a lot about the teaching.  After high school I did not know what I wanted to do, so I started to take a few general courses at the community college.  After a few years of still being undecided, I finally choose to get my Associates in Child Care.  Since the program changed as I was about to graduate, I ended up receiving my Associates in Science. Before I even received my diploma, I was hired to be a preschool teacher for a center in New Lenox.

I have been at this child care center for the last four years and about a year ago my co-workers told me about this Adult Studies Program here at Trinity.  Once I investigated it and seen that they had a Physical Education Program I was all in and applied that day.  Sine I was a P.E. leader my senior year of high school I always had this career as a gym teacher in my head, but I never found a good program that I could afford or motivation to complete something like that.  With my help of my co-workers in finding Trinity and the motivation from my boyfriend, I was able to find the life that God had envisioned for me and I was to take the first steps in living up to my purpose .