POST #1: Introductions and Sharing Your Past Experience

I am starting my 16th year of teaching and have been a 7-12 math teacher, 7-12 computer teacher and a k-12 tech coordinator. I do everything from teaching probability & stats and consumer math to repairing computers and helping staff with using assorted tech resources in their rooms.

I had previously used clipart.com in a 7th/8th grade computer exploratory when creating powerpoint presentations. It was a great resource with appropriate images that students could grab with not thinking about usage rights. Beyond that, I never explored beyond what I needed for my own classroom at the time.

At first it was just about taking a credit online, but I did want to know more about the site. Soon after diving into the site I was impressed by what it all offered. I had made several comments to my wife, asking if she knew how much it offered and if she knew what teachers used it.

1) I am a first grade teacher at West Lyon Elementary in Inwood, IA.  I have taught here for the past 18 years.  My first year I taught Kindergarten, but after one year I knew that wasn't the job for me.  I moved up to first grade for a few years and then second grade - looping with the students I had the previous year.  I stayed in 2nd grade for a few years and now I am back teaching first graders.  

2) I have done many of my Mandatory Reporting classes online through AEA but recently have taken these classes at an area school that offers it at night.  

3) I needed a class to renew my license as two classes I was enrolled in at Augustana College were both cancelled due to not enough participation.  We have had AEA staff come to our school to share their online resources but it had been many years since I had used some of them.  I also knew that they have been updated since then and thought this would be a great opportunity to find out about them again.  

This is my 8th year teaching ELL in the Boone district. I work in elementary, middle, and high school classes. Before taking this course, I took an AEA PD online course about using Social Media for educational purposes. This year we got Chrome books at the Middle School and High School level, so I'm interested in ways to really capitalize on this opportunity. The kids are anxious to pull out those computers at any opportunity, so I'm finding ways to use the resources we have that we haven't had time to use before.

I currently work at WACO Community Schools.  I am a 1/2 time math teacher and 1/2 time technology director.  I teach all of the Algebra 1 classes along with 2 college classes; one over Microsoft Office and one over Intro to Computer Programming.  I am in charge of all of the tech work in the 2 separate buildings at WACO.  

The only formal experience I have had with the AEA Online Resources was when we had a person from the AEA come and share with our entire staff what resources the AEA had available for us.  I had used iClipArt in the past along with Learn 360.  I found there were various videos available for my Algebra classes.

First of all, I needed 2 credits to renew my licensure.  I am extremely busy with tech work, teaching, and coaching.  I am thankful that there are online courses.  I would love to see more courses presented this way.  Being a tech director, and a teacher, I thought it would be beneficial to know more about what we have been offered to us.  In fact, once I completed the CultureGrams part, I emailed our Spanish teacher to tell her to check it out.  I know she does a lot of this in her class and I always see the kids googling for information.  I am very pleased with the information I have gained from this class.  

I currently teach language arts at Sibley-Ocheyedan Middle School.  I have only used AEA online for taking courses necessary for my license (mandatory reporting and bloodborne pathagens).  To be honest, I took the course because I needed a quick license renewal credit.  Once I got into the course I was amazed at all of the resources I have been missing by not using this valuable resource.

I have been employed by a medium sized high school in the midwest for thirteen years.  I primarily teach biology and advanced biology courses but also occasionally teach general sciences.  

My previous experience with Iowa AEA online resources has been great.  When I first started teaching I often utilized the numerous videos that could be checked out.  I would use these as a supplement to my lessons.  I have also utilized AP Images, Brittanica Online and Learn360 in the past.  

The reason I was interested in this class was to see what else was available besides the online resources I currently use.  I sometimes tend to get stuck in a run and use the same online resources.  I wanted to see what variety of resources I could bring into the science class room.  

My past experiences has been with the Teen Health and Wellness that has been offered by AEA for several years.  I am a high school Health teacher and always had what I thought was a solid curriculum to offer our students and both junior high and high school levels. How I got introduced to THW was  thanks to our librarian, Kathy Barnett, here at CCE.  She sent me the page and thought I might be interested in it.  Immediately, I found so much to like and use for my classes. It has become the core of my classes. What I found so valuable was the reliability of what was one the site. No worries about inappropriate material or questionable sources.
The topics, the depth of the material and the way it is presented makes the class very effective and has cut back on my paper work for class. I have each student bookmark THW site from AEA and we go to it almost every class. As I tell every class, this is a site that you can keep through out your high school years. Also, I allow my classes to have a "free roam day" that allows them to search deep into any topic they choose.
no assignment, no reporting out...just looking deeply into a topic they may have questions about but do not want to say anything in class.  THW has been a great tool and solid basis for our Health Education classes.

I am currently in farm management, and also substitute teach when I have time.   It’s a family business and we current manage about 3000 acres of our own land and around 10000 acres of others.  We have a variety of things to do.  The most important is keeping our tenants happy and making sure they’re making the most profits off of their land.  
As I mentioned I also substitute in my free time, I get a lot of enjoyment out of this.  I really like helping the kids and being a positive influence on them.  Some of the schools I teach in are low income and feel the students need more positive examples to learn from.
I have taken classes with the AEA in the past and have had very good experiences; it was nice to have this class to be able to navigate around the site easier.   I was interested in this class, because I feel I have to call into the main office for help a lot and I would like to be able to answer some of my own questions moving forward.  

I'm going on my second year at ESC High School as a Library Associate. I was a Daycare Provider for 10 years before starting at the school. So I haven't had any experience with the Iowa AEA Resource,until the beginning of this year.The schools Media Specialist introduced me to the Iowa AEA and showed me some of the resources. The Media Specialist thought it would be a good idea for me to take this class,since she is here only once a week.I wanted to learn more about the AEA so i can help the students. I'm in the Library all day, but I have college online classes in all eight class periods. I have learned so much about the AEA resource after taking the class, but still need to go into the AEA resources and go into the AEA resources and go through all the AEA resources so I can show the teachers and the students how it works and how to get around in it.

I have been a Social Studies teacher at Clinton High for 18 years. My interaction with AEA online has been searching for some tough to find resources for a lesson, and license renewal credits. My taking this class, in all honesty was fueled by the need for more license renewal credits. (AEA's self-paced classes are a great way to accomplish that.) As I got into the unit more and more, I started to get really pumped about some of the resources available. SIRS is going to be a mainstay in my classroom!

I am currently working as a Homeschool Coordinator in the Homeschool Assistance Program in the Red Oak School District.  I, along with one other homeschool corrdinator. act as a "bridge" between the school district and the homeschool families.  We offer academic help and support to the families in our community.

My past experience with AEA includes ordering books, movies and kits for families to use for their studies. AEA staff has been very helpful in locating materials. I am looking forward to showing families and students the many resources available on the AEA website.

Another teacher recommended this course to me to learn about all the various resources the AEA site has to offer.  I also took this course to fufill license renewal credit requirements.

I have been teaching 7-12 science since 1989 at Nodaway Valley (formerly in the Greenfield district).  I currently teach 7th and 8th grade science. For the last 5 years, we have been a one-to-one school for grades 7-12.
My past experience with AEA Online has mostly been using Learn360, iClipArt, and Brittanica Online. Prior to becoming a one-to-one school, students would use the computer "lab" whenever we did web-based lessons.  My technology learning curve was not as steep as it could have been. I would require students to use IAO resources for their research, as the Brittanica format at the time looked like my good old World Books that we had used previously and I didn't have to worry that they were getting "bad" information.  
Now that all my students have computer access all the time, I want to have more options than "Googling something". Honestly, there are times I miss The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature when we are researching topics! There is so much information to sort through and evaluate. I want my students to have access and understanding of reliable resources.

I began my career as a 7-12 English/Speech teacher in Iowa and then had an opportunity to relocate to the west coast which I knew would be an excellent experience for me.  As teaching jobs were difficult to land in my new area, my career took a turn to private sector business, and I was a technical writer and project manager for computer companies for a few years.  I enjoyed that role very much, and I always knew that it would enhance my teaching career when that resumed.  I then relocated back to Iowa to be near family, and I am interested in getting back into teaching.
When I was a teacher right after college, I used the AEA resources quite a bit.  In the English and Speech activities that I designed, I liked to use films to illustrate literature and mass media concepts.  My students were very engaged when I used a variety of learning media, and I appreciated the wide choise of materials that AEA offered.
I chose this course on AEA online resources because I wanted to quickly update myself with the current AEA resources for schools, especially all of the digital reference and curriculum resources that are now available.  My background in computers and project management (using mainly computerized, virtual offices) enhanced my interest in this new way to deliver content to students and manage the teacher-student relationship regarding supporting learning and tracking progress. I took the Google Apps course first and knew that this AEA online resources course would dovetail well with that one, and it did.  I'm very satisfied with my level of understanding of AEA online resources after finishing this course.  It accomplished what I had in mind.

I have been teaching in Atlantic Community Schools for 20 years.  I have taught a wide range of subjects and grades from 5th grade to 7th grade.  I am currently teaching 4th and 5th grade PE, also I teach Drivers Ed for Atlantic and another near by school.  I have some coaching duties within the football and wrestling program. I am also very active with the high school from helping with events to working in the weight room.

Most of the past experiences that I have had with the AEA are ordering videos and have taken other online courses from the AEA.  

The thing that interested my about the course was to learn what other types of resources the AEA has to offer.  I have also taken other online courses and have enjoyed them.

I have been a regular classroom teacher in the past for about 30 years and for the past 10 years have been a teacher in the alternative education field. My alternative classroom has less students than most regular ed classrooms and there are a variety of classes taking place at any given time during a typical day. Our main goal in alternative education  is to entice the students to attend school regularly enough that they accomplish the task of completing the coursework necessary to earn a high school diploma.
In my regular  classroom years ago I heavily used the resources from the AEA but have honestly not done so since moving to alternative education. That is going to change. I was reintroduced to all that the "new to me" AEA offers mostly because I needed to pick up some renewal hours. A specific example of a plan that I have already began researching and plan to soon use is to introduce the Kahn Academy to a male student who is autistic and struggles terribly with math. I placed the current class materials in front of him and explained the requirements and I might as well have been speaking old style Latin. I am not saying that the Kahn Academy is a miracle cure but it does give me hope that he can at least learn some math via a different avenue. We will see. There are other things I am also going to look into.

I am into my eighth year as a science teacher at Don Bosco in Gilbertville.  I began teaching in 1978 after graduating from U.N.I., taking my first job in a middle school in Waterloo. I didn't last long.
I took the "path of least resistance" and returned to the safety and security of our family business; as a truck driver and milk grader, picking up and delivering milk from dairy farms to processing plants in various towns in northeast Iowa.
I had the privilege and great good fortune to work with and for some of the finest people one could possibly hope to be associated with; my two brothers, my dad, and the dairy men and women who were my employers and who became some of my best friends.
Eight years ago, a science teaching position became available at the small Catholic high school that is just 6 miles from where my wife and I had built a new home.  Milk hauling had become less desirable because of my dad's passing and my older brother's difficulties related to his diabetes.  Also, the business itself had started to decline due to changes in the dairy industry.
My "mid-life crises" was cured, not by a Harley or a Corvette, but by a return to teaching.  And what a wonderful cure it has been.  I tell everyone who asks,"How's teaching?", and I tell them "I can't believe I get paid for something that is this much fun!"  I enjoy the classroom and I enjoy the kids immensely.

I presently work in the Atlantic Community School District. I work in our 4th and 5th grade building. I do a program that is known as 6 Minute Solution. It is to improve the struggling student's reading fluency. I meet with numerous students who come read to me for 1 minute daily for five days on the same story. After the five days we increase the story level. I also have recess duty and assist in several different math classes. At the end of the day, I am available for extra study assistance for students.
I have not had much exposure to the Iowa AEA Online resources. I have assisted students with their research through the website, but have not used it for my own personal use. While helping student's with their projects, I was able to see how valuable the website is and wanted to explore for myself. That is the reason why I took this course. I have learned how extensive the Iowa AEA online resource really is. I know for a fact that I will use it in the future.

I have my substitute authorization and I work primarily in Story County in the middle and high schools as a substitute teacher for most any subject. I have a B.A. degree in Business Management and I had been working full time in the 8-5 world. After being a stay at home parent for a few years, I was looking for an alternative job career that would allow me to make a difference in the world, be a hands on mom and be around other adults. Thus, I heard about the Substitute Authorization course and I have never looked back. I thoroughly enjoy being a substitute teacher. I enjoy going into different schools and classrooms and meeting the students and teachers, seeing the various classroom settings and effectively managing the course work to be as beneficial as possible to the students.

This is my first experience with the Iowa AEA Online resources. I need to have 2 continuing education credits for my renewal next summer.

I was very interested in this course primarily because it was a self-paced course and secondly because this course will introduce me to the online resources available through the AEA. I am very new to  the teaching world and I wanted to understand how to better use technology in the classroom.

I am currently a substitute teacher since we recently relocated our family. I have 15 years of teaching experience in lower elementary. I took a break from teaching in the middle of my career to stay home and raise my children while they were younger. My last position was working as a home school coordinator for a public school district.

I had some knowledge of the AEA resources and did use the AEA to some extent, but I never took enough time to dive in deep enough to discover how the resources available could really benefit me.

I knew by taking this course it would force me to take the time to see what was available from the AEA. I am so glad I took this course. I learned so much about the tools the AEA has to share for students and staff. I am certain I will pass this information along to others and encourage others to take the course.

I have held a substitute license over the last 5 years. I worked occasionally but spent most of my time home with my family. I am in need of a license credit and have found AEA online as a great way to get credit and do it through a self paced course. I was interested in seeing what AEA resources had to offer. So many options to choose from that will be helpful to educators and safe for the students.