Casey Sistrunk Ed 202 eportfolio, Spring 2017

My Educational Philosophy!

My name is Casey Sistrunk and I came from a small high school in Texas named Elysian Fields. I am now in my second year as an Elementary Education major at Louisiana State University of Shreveport. I am currently working as a lifeguard instructor, and I love to have the ability to teach others how to save lives. As my educational career moves forward I have some big goals that I want to accomplish. I want to be able to inspire my students to find a love of learning within themselves, I want to make a difference in my student’s day to day lives, I want to show my students that making mistakes are not a bad thing; they are a learning experience, and I want to be able to learn from my students every single day.

As a future educator in my community I am going to play a bigger role to my students, and my students families, than just teaching information out of a ten year old book. I am going to be shaping the future generations lives. I know that some of my students will not have a very big support system in their homes, and I want to be that support system to those students. I want to be able to turn a student who does not have a care in the world about education, or their future jobs from education, to a student who has that internal flame within themselves to learn. I believe that all things are possible, if you want it within yourself badly enough. That is what I want my students to leave my classroom knowing. They need to know that no matter where they come from, who their parents are, or the type of clothes that they have in their closet, if they have the desire within themselves to have a better future then they will!

I believe that students learn better when they can do hands on learning/experiments. By having the opportunity to learn by doing hands on assignments, I believe the lesson takes on a deeper meaning to the students. For example, if a student is asked a question such as, if Jacob has to draw a picture of a human heart and only has 15 minutes to do this, can it be done? The students can either simply say yes or no, or the students could try it for themselves. The students would be able to test their drawing skills, their knowledge of the human heart, and their time management skills all in one hands on assignment. I believe that teaching in this way gives the lesson a deeper meaning to the students, and gives the students a feeling of achievement when they are able to hold something that they created.

All of my students that walk through the door of my classroom on the first day of school, will be carrying their own personal baggage and emotions. I feel that it is my duty to be able to show my students that when they walk into the doors of my classroom they are in a safe environment. They don’t need to worry about what is happening at home and what they have to deal with when the bell rings. My classroom will be a safe and open environment for all. I will show my students that they can talk to me about anything, even if it is not school related, with no personal judgement on them. If a student is emotionally worried it is hard for them to be able to fully learn, but if a student feels safe they can conquer it all! I strongly believe that if my students feel safe in my classroom, to get their emotions off of their chest, then they all have the potential to learn to their fullest extent.

To be an effective teacher I believe you have to have certain qualities within yourself; such as compassion for students when it is needed, love for your students, a strong work ethic, major organizational skills, and understanding that being a “great” teacher calls for constant change and growth. Without these qualities, is a teacher really effective? I believe that to even get through one day as a teacher, you have to love what you are doing and the kids you are teaching. Without those two simple things you can never become, or be, an effective teacher for your students.

I have huge goals as a future teacher that I have stated throughout. Goals such as wanting to be able to inspire my students to find a love of learning within themselves, wanting to make a difference in my student’s day to day lives, wanting to show my students that making mistakes are not a bad thing; they are a learning experience, and wanting to be able to learn from my students every single day. I believe by having these goals I will strive to be a better teacher for my students, and a better teacher/learner for myself.

My Educational Technology Philosophy!

As a future teacher I know that technology is a big part of today’s classrooms, and only continues to become a bigger and bigger part. Every single day technology becomes more and more advanced. The computers are becoming smaller, cell phones are becoming bigger and able to do more things, and most students wouldn’t even know what a library is if it wasn’t for mandatory reading. Teachers need to be able to go with the flow of technology. For example, chrome books and IPads are becoming a huge part of classroom assignments and activates. I personally have never worked on a chrome book and do not know what it is capable of. As a future teacher it is important that I know and learn about a chrome book, and that I learn about any other new types of technology that is out there. If I don’t know about the technology in today’s world, how will my students get a firm grasp on it? Without my help they will become even more behind on their technology skills, because I came to them behind myself.

In my opinion technology does have a place in the classroom. I believe that by having technology in the classroom, students will be able to have a broader knowledge; not just about technology but about the material I give them as well. For example, I can split my students up into groups, depending on how many computers I have, and give each group a certain place in the world to look up. After a set amount of time each group would present to the class what they learned from searching the web. This enables the students to have a hands on assignment, a group assignment, and learn how to speak in front of their peers. Without technology being in the classroom, this wouldn’t even be possible. This is just one example of the benefits of having technology in the classroom, and there is so much more!

I feel that students need to learn that technology is a good thing, but in the wrong hands it can turn out bad. When my students leave my classroom at the end of the year, I want them to learn what being safe on technology really means. Throughout the year I will show them the correct ways to keep their passwords safe; by having strong passwords to start with, I will teach them that what is put on the internet never truly goes away even if you delete it, and I will teach my students how they should portray themselves while on the internet. I will teach my students all of these things by having them do interactive assignments on the internet; setting up passwords to see if they come up with strong or weak ones, have one student each day give me a good example of how they have properly portrayed themselves on the internet, and show videos of what could happen if they miss use technology. I feel that by doing all of these things, my students will have a better understanding of how to safely navigate technology.

Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity!

As a future teacher I need to be able to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. To me, this means showing the students that leaning can be fun. At the beginning of ED202, I thought this meant that I could only allow my students to show their creativity and have fun when we had free time away from the course work. I now know that I can bring fun and creativity to my everyday course work that I give my students. For example, I have shown above a Makey-Makey that I made in ED202 class this semester. I made this controller for a video game that I also created. I made the controller out of nothing but cardboard, duck tape, tin foil, and glue. I was able to show my creativity by making the controller any way I saw fit, and I was able to make the video game out of a software that I had never used before this. My teacher was able to teach us how to program a video game, but still allowed us to show are creative side as well. By doing this I have grown to see that any lesson can be turned into something fun and creative, that my students will enjoy and get more out of then a boring lesson or lecture would. Doing this project has made me more confident in knowing that I can have fun with my students, and teach them along the way!

Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments.

Another important thing for me to do as a future teacher, is to be able to design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments. Before ED202 I thought this meant I would set up a lesson and if my students needed extra help, I would allow them to use the computers/chrome books to look up videos to help them understand the material better. I now know that I can incorporate technology into my lessons as an everyday thing. For an example, I added a lesson plan that I made above. In my lesson plan I used chrome books and blocks to do a math lesson. I used the software program accelerated math to show my students how to add, subtract, and find a missing number in word problems. I did the same thing with blocks, to allow my students who did not really enjoy technology to still be able to have a hands on activity as well. Doing this lesson plan allowed me to realize that I can meet the needs and interest of all of my students. For my technology lovers I can turn a math lesson digital, and for my hands on lovers I can bring blocks into the classroom to allow hands on math to take place.

Model digital age work and learning.

As a future teacher, I also need to be able to model digital age work and learning. Before ED202, I thought this meant emailing my student's parents and my students what is expected of them, and what the students are doing/needs to do each week. I now know that it can, and should, involve a whole lot more. I have attached a flipped lesson above as an example of what I would do to model digital age work and learning in my classroom. A flipped lesson is a video that a teacher makes to model a lesson such as math. This allows the students to look, pause, and go over the material that is on that video as much as they want or need to. This is an amazing way for the students to have access to their teacher when they are not at school. This can also allow the parents to see an example of what their children are doing in class everyday. Doing a flipped lesson allowed me to see how much technology can really allow parents, teachers, and students to collaborate.

Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.

As a teacher I also need to be able to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. Before ED202 I believed this was showing my students how to log in and off of a computer and that was about it. Now that I have gone threw ED202 I know see that it involves a whole lot more. Above I attached a newsletter that I made to show what digital citizenship and responsibility really involves. It shows what can happen if you do not use a strong password, what is means to cite and plagiarize, how to avoid plagiarizing, and tips on how to keep yourself safe while on the internet. There is also some videos giving examples and demonstrations on how to be technologically safe. By making this newsletter I am able to send it to all of my students and their parents. I also learned exactly what it all meant while I made the newsletter.

Engage in professional growth and leadership.

Last but not least as a future teacher I need to be able to engage in professional growth and leadership. Before ED202 I believed this meant being a leader in my classroom to my students, but I now know that that this also means I can become a leader of my fellow teachers and my students parents as well. Above I attached my Google certification certificate. Before I tool this certification test, I did not know how to be a strong leader for other teachers. Now that I have taken the test I am able to show other teachers how to better their lives through google. Not many people are Google certified, and now that I am I can help others to become google lovers.

Conclusion!

As I have now gone through ED202, I have grown in my way of thinking and in my way of going about having creativity in my classroom, making lesson plans that are effective, giving my students access to me outside the classroom by a flipped lesson, giving my students the knowledge of how to be safe on and offline, and how to be a leader to my students and my fellow teachers. Before ED202 I thought I could only allow my students to be creative during down time, I did not know how to make a lesson plan that would be effective to all of my students, I did not know how to be there for my students outside of school, I did not know how to make sure my students would be safe online, and I did not know to be an effective leader to my fellow teachers. Now that I have taken ED202 I know how to do all of those things and much much more!

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