A New Path

I learned some amazing things this week. I learned that I love being in an education environment. I love being back in school. Throughout much of my life, in high school and even into college, I did not like being in school and the education process at all. It never came easy to me, and to be honest, at that time I was not one for hard work. But being back in school, after being away from it for the last four and a half years, I have come to a greater realization.
In my time away from school I learned the value and satisfaction of hard work and the completion of a task. Be it saving enough money to pay for a 7 month trip to South America or taking part in a 5 hour, 32 mile, outrigger canoe paddle race from Catalina Island to Newport Beach.

Coming to the decision to pursue a career as an educator did not come easy. A great deal of thought and deliberation went into it. But being on the CSUSM campus all week, and partaking in my classes, I know now that I have made the right decision. I am excited to use the lessons I learned the first time around in college, and apply them to the way I will do things in this program. But I am most excited to using my life lessons to try and help shape students into hard working, well rounded, socially conscious, educated individuals. It is just the beginning of this journey, but I am excited to be on it.

Education Resources on the Web

Education and technology go hand in hand. One drives the other. In order to use technology most efficiently in a classroom setting, one must fully understand its capabilities. As technology changes so rapidly, it is up to the user to adapt and continuously learn new methods, functions and capacities. In order to do this we must rely on that very same technology to educate us. These programs and platforms include PC's, MAC's, Word, Excel, Multimedia presentations, and of course the Internet.


While looking over "Computer Technology in the Classroom 101" by Laura Turner, I dissected each of the above areas and the different resources that are out there on the web. First, I was curious about PowerPoint and Hyper studio. I have had limited experience with PowerPoint and had never heard of Hyper studio. What I found was an abundance of information and tutorials on how to go about using each of these tools. And not just how to use the tools in general, but also how to use them in a classroom setting for lesson plans.

I use both a MAC and PC. Most of my experience in a professional setting has been on a PC, but I have purchased a MAC and am finding there are a great many similarities, and a few differences. I am also finding that there is a litany of information out there for both platforms. From beginners guides on each, tutorials, and training for education purposes.

Finally, as society moves in the direction of computer based information and resources, I found it helpful to look at the different ways to not only join in this movement with my own web page, much like the one that you are reading now, but also how to better utilize this great tool and its seemingly infinite amount of information. It is necessary to learn effective ways to sort information. Otherwise a huge amount of time can be wasted.