POST #1: Introductions and Sharing Your Past Experience

I agree with your comments that we don't know the value of the resources we have available to us in our AEA's. It is one of the best kept secrets in Iowa education. I almost think it should be a required class for PLC's where each resource is examined individually, otherwise there is so much information provided it almost becomes "over-load".  I am anxious to go back and examine some of resources now in context with what I am teaching.

I am a school counselor and have counseled in the school system at the high school level for seven years. Prior to working in the school system, I worked as addictions and mental health counselor for 2 years and a supervisor over employees working with people with disabilities for 1 year. I have a passion for people and love what I do. I don’t have any experience with Iowa AEA Online resources. I was interested in this topic due to our school integrating more technology. This year the guidance office has its own monitor to post slideshows and I thought some of these resources may help with animations, clipart and font, styles, etc. to keep our slideshows creative and updated. We also have many students who have access to their phone even if they don’t have the internet and I thought that perhaps there would be some resources some students could access for assistance with homework and personal struggles.

My name is Tamara Irvin.  I am a reading interventionist at West Middle School in Sioux City Iowa.   Next year I am piloting a 90min Reading/ English block.   I am excited for this opportunity, but also a little nervous.  For the last 7 years I have worked to develop a tier 2 intervention block in our district, and supported teachers in implementing tier 1 researched based strategies.  Next year West Middle School is also implementing one to one computers. Given the one to one implementation and a new class I realized I need to get back in touch with my resources.  I admit I have not used the AEA site much.   I attended a 2 hour PD session with one of the Sioux City librarians where she quickly covered some of the resources available through the AEA Online resources.  She got me thinking about using sound, video, primary resources, and up to date articles and images to capture student’s attention and brain power.  I am excited to explore the sites more as I start to map out the year ahead.  

Since 2002, I have been a substitutes  teacher and coach at Howard-Winneshiek Schools. I have taught in Pre-school through high school class rooms and coached both high school and junior high volleyball, basketball  and track. I have done several long term sub jobs throughout the years also. Being so versatile in the different grade levels have exposed me to several of the AEA sites. The one I have used the most is Bookflix. I was glad I took this class because it showed me about a number of other sites that I could use in the classroom, or understand the ones the teachers have left in the lesson plans. One of the reasons I took this class was for re-certification credit. I like the self-paces option of the class. And I knew from other self-pace classes I have taken that I would be getting a lot of good information  that I will be able to use in a classroom.

My name is Todd Walker and I am a fifth-grade teacher in the Linn-Mar community school District. I have been in Linn Mar for over 10 years now. I have used Iowa AEA online for many different things throughout the years. Currently some of the main aspects of the site that I use are the TrueFlix as well as the learn360 videos. Most years I also use the clipart portion of the website to assist students with inserting images into their projects.  But something that I've always struggled with his helping my students in a more effective way to find credible resources for their research. Because so many of my students still want to rely on using Google for the research and I want to give them more concrete options when then need to gather research. So that was one aspect of the course that I was really interested in. As well as just other general aspects of the website that I've never used before.

I have been blessed to be a part of the Griswold School district for the last 7 years as a first grade teacher.  This last year we had 1:1 laptops and this next year we will have I pads in our classroom to share.  In my district we have a wonderful technology coordinator who shares with us different AEA resources that are available to us, I have been familiar with all of the programs but not in-depth. In my classroom I have used Book FLIX in guided reading centers and social studies.  In student projects I have used Iclip art and sounds abound for different things like our glogster on the Pledge of Allegiance.  I was interested in this course because it gave a detailed plan of attack as to how to access, use, and implement these resources with in lessons in my classroom.  I was also interested in the different programs that are for the upper grades like Culture Grams.

I took this class to help me better understand how to use Iowa A
EA online and to find more resources to use with my first grade class.  I was somewhat familiar with BookFlix having used it on occasion.  I am hoping to have my students use more digital information as well as myself.
Learn 360 and Gale are two more resources that really appeal to me.  I would like to partner with the public library and if students become familiar with this at school they may continue learning with this site outside of school.

I've been a paraeducator for 14 years at a Council Bluffs, Iowa High School working in Special Education. I work in a room called Learning Stratagies which is like a study hall for the special education students.  Most of them are out in the general education classes but come to our room for extra help or have tests read, work on essay papers or special assignments.  I felt this class would help me to help the students better.  Our school uses the data base SIRS for most of our research.  By taking this course II have a better understanding of how to navigate SIRS and the other sites.  The students do a lot of Power Points so the Soundzabound ( which I didn't know about before ) will be very useful.  There are so many more credible resource sites that are changing dailey than I realized.   In this day with more and more technology being used it is important to help the students be able to incorporate this in their classes

My main role is working in the technology department for Bishop Heelan Catholic Schools in Sioux City. Part of that role is providing professional development for teachers. I also host a Video Production class at the high school.
I’ve been familiar with Soundzabound and iClipArt for Schools  and used them with my classes. I also attended a session at ITEC several years ago on the resources available through Iowa AEA online. There was so much valuable information about the resources that I did not realize. Spending time checking them all out has been very enlightening.

Spending time checking out resources and websites to share with teachers always interests me. The self-paced modules really appealed me the most because I don’t feel the pressure to meet deadlines. Taking the class online is so convenient and I took my time exploring the various resources. The format of the course is great as well. I learned a lot of new information from this module and will definitely recommend it to teachers I work with.

I am currently an elementary special educator in the Cedar Falls Community Schools district. I am involved in both the co teaching and pullout models. Daily we seek to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of our learners so that all students can achieve at high levels. I was hoping to find additional resources to meet the needs of all my students. I have had minimal experience in the past with AEA online. I have used Book Flix sporadically and AP images. I had heard about this course from a colleague and decided to enroll needing a licensure renewal credit. The self paced system was a definite advantage so that I could complete the course in the amount of time I needed. Honestly I entered the course not knowing what to expect, but came away with a wealth of knowledge. I had not known previously about the actual amount of resources available through AEA Online. Knowing the sites are safer, the searches more refined and relevant will make having my students use them easier. The sites make individualizing through images, and literary sites more accessible to all learners.

I am currently returning back to Iowa from South Dakota. When in Iowa I taught for 7 years and am now back and would like to keep up my Iowa license. I am an early childhood educator and will be a stay-at-home mom this next year. In the past, besides using the AEA to take courses for re certification, I have not had any knowledge of all that they had to offer online. This is the main reason that I chose to take this course. I have been gone for the past five years and am trying to find ways to keep up with all that is going on in Iowa education since I haven't been here. I feel that learning what is available through the AEA online is a great source to keep in my tool belt for future needs. I am amazing at all they have to offer and can already see how beneficial this would be in the future.

I have been teaching social studies and drivers education for 13 years.  I am a high school social studies teacher at DNH Community School District.

My primary past experience with AEA Online resources is really only to get videos.  In recent years I have almost exclusively used the streaming videos.  

The reason I decided to take this course is because I felt that I was not using the AEA Online resource enough or exposing my students to the resources available to them.  I have heard others talk about using the resources that are available, and had convinced myself that I was also using them by accessing the digital streaming videos.  I was hoping through taking this course I would be able to learn more about the resources available and then implement them in my classroom.  We have 1:1 computers, so the AEA Online resources are something that I need to take advantage of more.

I have been teaching for 7 years at Regina Elementary in Iowa City. I was a 1st and 2nd grade resource teacher for two years and have been teaching 2nd grade ever since! Every fall our technology teacher gives us our AEA username and password to use on the site. I would say it has been a lack of extra time to really dive into the site and know what is available to be using in my classroom. I found out about the Learn 360 when I started teaching 2nd grade and I use that fairly often when looking for a short video to correlate with a theme in my classroom or specific subjects being taught. For example last May I was teaching a science unit on space and the solar system. I found these really informative videos on each of the planets to show my students! I enjoyed using the grade level for appropriateness as I ended up choosing videos a grade or two above my students because I knew they were so interested and could grasp the concepts. I wanted to take this class because I needed a credit and I am really interested in knowing the resources available on the AEA site!

For the last 5 years, my family has resided in MN and I was the high school band instructor there.  I was recently hired as the 5-12 Band Instructor at West Hancock and am looking forward to working with the students in Iowa again!  When I began my teaching career in 2002, I started in the Allison-Bristow school district and at that time worked a very little bit with the AEA Online system.  As a young teacher, I did not venture too far into it because I was just trying to keep my program going.  More than anything, I used the iClipArt for designing music programs.  The 2 main reasons I took this course are that it was readily available and also that it allows me the chance to get familiar with the Iowa AEA Online resources again.  Many of these resources have been added to greatly, I am looking forward to making use of them in my teaching.

I am the 7-12 vocal music teacher in Humboldt, Iowa. I will be starting my 34th year of teaching this year. My students are great to work with and we have a lot of fun learning and presenting great music all year long. We present a fall musical every year, present four major concerts, participate in Solo/Ensemble contest, Jazz Choir, host an annual Barbershop Festival and too many other things to list. Every day is busy and rewarding.
Shamefully, I have never used any of the resources discussed in this course, except for iClipArt. Needless to say, I learned a lot and found many services intriguing and amazing. In my line of work, I often need images and audio clips. AP Images and Soundzabound are new resources for me that will be of great value. I was blown away at the amount of excellent training videos in Atomic Learning and the depth of resources in Britannica Online. Learning how to use the advanced search functions is the key to using these sites. Through the use of tagging, you can narrow down your search to find what you’re looking for quicker than ever before.

I recently started teaching at a correctional facility.  I was not familiar at all with the AEA Online Services that are provided free to schools.  I was surprised by the variety of materials available and I plan to explore them further.  Although use of the Internet is limited at my facility, I see many services that I can take advantage of.  I decided to take this course because I have not really worked with the AEA for many years and I knew that things had probably changed a lot since my last encounter.  I am glad to see that the AEA not only provides all of these different online choices, but through this class, thoroughly explains each one.

My name is Kaleigh Vance.  For the past two years I have been staying home with our four children.  Before that, I taught at Burlington High School as a special education teacher for students with moderate to severe disabilities.  I loved the students who I was able to meet and teach.  I worked side by side with the AEA in a lot of areas and I found them to be very caring and thorough.  I used the online AEA website to order materials such as science kits, books, and communication devices.  I also would log in to do the mandatory reporter class.  However, I did not realize how much was available to me on the website.  I was only using it for the things I knew it could do, which was pretty much limited to "ordering stuff."  I am taking this course for a license renewal credit but also chose it because I was curious to see what else it had to offer.  There is a lot more than I had imagined.  I think it would be a good idea for schools to offer training like this on a teacher in-service day.  Ill bet there are a lot of teachers who would benefit from knowing their way around the website a little better.  
This fall I will be teaching high school special education at Danville High School.  I am looking forward to using some of the new information I have learned from this course.

Currently I am a K-5 elementary teacher/librarian with the Waterloo School district.  This coming fall will mark 18 years in this district.  Prior to that I worked for 1 year as a teacher/librarian in Hannibal, MO and then in Joliet, IL for 2 years.

I have utilized a few of the AEA online resources in my classroom over the past few years.  I really enjoy using MackinVIA with my students as it exposes them to ebooks and Culture Grams when our school is learning about diversity!

I would like to initiate more of the AEA online resources this coming school year, especially Britannica and TeachingBooks.net!

Having taught for 15 years in first Riceville and now at Howard-Winneshiek, all at the High School in Social studies, my past experience with Iowa AEA Online resources has been limited.  I have always known that they are available, that there is a wealth of information collected there, but I had never taken or frankly had the time to explore or see as this course provided what and how it could be used.  At first I took this course for the relicensure credit, but as I proceeded through the course it became very apparent how I can easily incorporate the material here into my curriculum and expose to the students how to better use these resources as tools.  From this course and a couple others I took online through the AEA, I intend to share and address copyright, fair usage more than I ever did before which was zero and why in is important to have free legal resources such as these.

I work at Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids. I’ve been a teacher in their language arts department for fifteen years now. One of the classes in I teach is titled “Perspectives in Literature” and it’s essentially a class in modern humanities – examining, in particular, aspects of contemporary methods of communication and how to parse the methods employed by filmmakers and advertisers to guide the emotional responses of their audiences.

I have never used AEA Online resources in class prior to this year. Students in the past, when they are required to develop work specific to proving mastery through the development of a project that uses sound and image tend to be a bit at-sea with it – often taking material from YouTube or straight-out filming it themselves. I’m looking forward to guiding them through the specifics of the AEA Online resources.

I signed for the class for that particular reason. The resources explaining what can be legally used for the classroom, I found to be really helpful.