POST #1: Introductions and Sharing Your Past Experience

For the past 11 years I have been a teacher at international schools around the world. This includes teaching and coaching positions ranging from Pre-K through G12 but mostly positions in the elementary level. I have been a part of schools in the U.K., Germany, Thailand, Japan, and China. Currently, I am teaching grade 2 at a PYP (Primary Years Programme) in Suzhou, China. My last interaction with the AEA was about 12 years ago when I took a required course for my first teaching license. Since then I have had no interaction with the AEA in any form. This is my first time using the online resources. I took the introduction course because it was logical given my lack of familiarity with the AEA’s online resources. I found it interesting to see what is and is not available for easy use by teachers in Iowa.

1)     I am currently a 4th grade teacher at Regina Elementary in Iowa City.  This will be my 25th year teaching.  I have taught 3rd grade in the past, as well as grades 5-8 resource.  In my current 4th grade position, I teach most subjects, with the exception of science and English.  The students switch for social studies, science and English in the afternoons.
2)     Prior to taking this self-paced course, my most popular Iowa AEA Online resources have been iClipArt and the Britannica Digital Learning Encyclopedia.  iClipArt is my favorite.  I use this for developing Smart Board lessons/presentations, adding graphics to teacher-created worksheets, posters, and signs for my classroom, etc.  My students use the online encyclopedia for research throughout the school year.
3)     Since I only primarily use two of the online resources, I felt this class would help me expand my knowledge of what the AEA has to offer.  I knew I could find more options for resources through taking this course.  I'm really looking forward to expanding my AEA horizons, so to speak!

I teach pre-k at Lincoln Elementary in Waterloo.  This is my thirteenth year teaching preschool.  My past  professional experience with AEA online has been taking all the training classes required by my employer and completing other self-paced courses for renewal credit.  In the classroom, I am very familiar with Book Flix and True Flix. I love how these sites add to my curriculum and enhance our studies.   I was interested in this course to see what else was offered by AEA online.  Also, I love the ease of these self-paced classes and needed renewal credit for my license.  It's very convenient for busy teachers!

I am a teacher associate working in a library/media center in a large Ankeny elementary school.  Each day, I help students and teachers find the right materials, either for curriculum needs and wants, or personal enjoyment, along with other library responsibilities.  I have taken a variety of online courses for paraeducator recertification, and for personal interest. Learning about the AEA resources will help me help the students, and is a great refresher on all that the AEA has to offer.

For the past 17 years I have work as a High school Associate for ESL para for recourse class. Ive had training with Iowa AEA online course. I am taking the technology class and what interest me to take this class is that all the knew technology that has changed over time, is teaching me how to use it and to further teach my students how to use it as well.

Currently, I am beginning my 8th year of teaching English/Language Arts. I worked for 6 years in Southeast Iowa, before moving to Central Iowa last summer. While in Southeast Iowa, I worked with the Great Prairie AEA and did a lot of work with the “Understanding by Design,” and was introduced to the Iowa AEA Online’s resources.

Unfortunately, I did not have much other exposure to the resources at the time; the most I was able to use was the CultureGrams site to assist students with research projects and PowerPoints. It was a great tool to use to inform students about our world’s vast amounts of diversity and culture, much of which was never taught to them previously. Outside of that, and maybe dabbing a bit into Britannica Online, I did not choose to use some of the other tools. In fact, I wasn’t aware that some of the resources Iowa AEA Online had, even existed!

And so comes my reason for taking this online course. I genuinely wanted to see what I was missing in having glossed over other resources of IAEAO for so many years. I was particularly interested in other reference tools that students could use, akin to the service provided by CultureGrams and Britannica Online. More importantly, I wanted to see how these resources catered to students in the K-6 area—the main reason being that most of the material currently available online is light-years ahead of these students’ comprehension levels. In other words, I wanted to see what amount of IAEAO consisted of resources that were more at their level of understanding.

I have been teaching K-4th grade Title I/Remedial Reading in the WSR school district for many years. I am 3/4 time and teach struggling readers at two separate buildings, working to improve their reading fluency, comprehension, and their love for reading. I have very little experience with AEA online resources. I had seen TrueFlix advertised and went online to investigate the program about a year ago, and remember being impressed with it. I had planned to use it with my students, thinking it would motivate them and also liking the comprehension component. For 1 reason or another, I never did use it with my kids. Two of my fellow teachers have taken this course and said they learned about several AEA resources they didn't know existed and liked that they could take this course at their own pace, any time of day or night, and in their own home. So I decided to take the course for these reasons - and also to get reacquainted with TrueFlix.

I have been teaching at Bettendorf High School for the last 15 years and through this time  I have had limited experience with the AEA.   Similar to one of the other posts, our media specialist did notify the staff of the materials and resources available, but I didnt take advantage of the opportunity.   Now having taking this course and explored many of the databases, I foresee myself taking advantage of the many different primary source materials for my history classes.   We are a 1:1 school so the tutorial information on all the different media and video materials will be of great assistance in attempting to utilize theses sources in the classroom.

  I recently completed the AEA's Google 101 course for re-licensure.  This course together with the information in the Google course really helps to overcome some of the tech fears and provides easy access to great online materials.

1.  I have been in the classroom for 20 years having taught TAG, 4th grade and currently teaching 2nd grade.

2.  In the last 3 years iPads have been introduced in my classroom.  Our librarian introduced me to Pebble Go which is a great resource for the lower elementary classroom. l used Pebble Go and incorporated it with social studies units. The topics provided in Pebble Go correlate so well with the topics taught in second grade.  I plan to use it even more this coming school year.  Students also used Pebble Go as a choice during Cafe time in guided reading blocks.   After using this resource I found other resources that worked well in my classroom: Book Flix, True Flix, and Britannica School.  

 3. This past year our school provided an inservice on some of the resources provided by AEA Online resources. Having used some of the resources and then hearing of more through the inservice I was pleased to see a self paced course that allowed be to learn more about the resources.      

1.  I am currently a substitute teacher in the Nevada school district, although I am also on the list for two other districts.  I am also a middle school cross country coach.
2.  In the past, I taught 1st grade and Title I reading in Iowa.  This was in the time before the web had extended to it's current vastness so we simply didn't have the number of resources available. I used the AEA to get videos and books to support my curriculum, especially for science and social studies.  I also went to the AEA for Reading Recovery training, although I believe they were simply a host site.  The AEA has certainly expanded it's services to serve current needs and demands of education.
3.  As I am getting my Iowa license back after 15 years of being out-of-state, I thought it would be good to educate myself on what the AEA currently offers as a resource.

1.  I am the K-5 Music Specialist and High School Vocal Music teacher in the Eldora-New Providence CDS and at South Hardin HS in Eldora.  I'm beginning my 8th year in this position and before moving to Iowa was a teacher in Everett, Massachusetts in various positions K-12 in vocal music, then as the High School Vocal Director in Billerica, MA.  Both of those districts built brand new high schools after I left.
2.  I annually take the Blood-borne Pathogens training, do the Mandatory Reporter training when it is due, and have taken other online classes, but not in this format, through AE267 and AEA11.
3.  I was wanting more information than is typically given by our librarian about the the various online database resources available through AEA Online.  I was hoping to find some that my students would be able to use for presentations.

I have been teaching at Notre Dame in Cresco, Iowa for over 20 years. I have taught playgroup, preschool, kindergarten, first grade, and third grade. Most of my time has been in the kindergarten classroom.

I have used Bookflix with my kindergarten class. They enjoy listening to the stories, learning about the authors, and doing the puzzler questions. In fact, they love dancing with the bird! I also have used Learn 360 to show my students a St. Patrick's Day video to explain who St. Patrick was and how an Irish-American family celebrates the holiday.

I took this class because I needed the credits to renew my teaching license, I liked the idea that the class was online and I wanted to try taking an online class since I haven't done that before, and I also wanted to see what other AEA resources were available to use with my class. I did not know that there were so many valuable resources!

I am a K-12 teacher-librarian for three school districts (lots of schools) in southern Iowa.  However, I work with K-6 students most of the school day.  I feel very comfortable with Iowa AEA Online, using a few of the databases quite regularly in my classes.  However, some of the resources aimed more at secondary student I am admittedly not so knowledgeable of.  Therefore, being able to take this course as a refresher of some resources and taking a little more time to dig into SIRS, GALE, AP Images, and AEA Digital Library was nice.  I found the tutorials and guides to be great resources that I bookmarked and will utilize with my staff and students, as well!

For the past three years I have been working at the Nordstrom Distribution Center as a trainer of new employees.  I was a classroom teacher for eight years prior to Nordstrom where I taught middle school literacy.  Even though I was a classroom teacher it is sad to admit that I did not have very much experience with using Iowa AEA resources prior to the course.  However, with trying to get back into the classroom I was interested in learning more about the Iowa AEA resources as it is something I am going to incorporate into my classroom when I go back.  The resources that are available to help with reading/literacy seem very enriching to students and also the resources that help with student research will be of great help to the students and me.  Also, I loved how almost every resource had something that would help assist teachers, such as guides or lesson plans and also incorporated the Iowa Common Core.

I am currently am renewing my sub. authorization.  I have been substituting for about 2.5 years primarily in the Audubon CSD.  I started in Middle-High School and took advantage of subbing in the elementary when it was approved for sub auth holders to do so.  I have subbed in all age/grade levels, as well as all of the 'specials' in the elementary setting.  I took some education classes in college and am currently enrolled with BVU to obtain my teaching license.    
I have not used any of the online AEA resources as I am not a licensed teacher with my own classroom.
I was interested in this course because I am working on becoming a teacher and know that technology has become a huge part of all classrooms and grade levels.  I felt it was something to give me a little edge or background when it came to that part of the edu curriculum I am completing.  I had absolutely no idea all of the resources that were available for all grade levels.  It makes me excited for my own classroom use in the future.

My name is Debra Dunsmore and I am currently the second grade teacher at Saints Mary and Mathias Catholic School in Muscatine.
I previously took an online course, "What Great Teachers Do Differently" with Joshua Bower during the 2015/2016 school year and I loved it, but I have never done a self-paced course before.  
I chose to do this course because I am not as technologically "savvy" as I would like to be and I realize that the use of the internet technology in the classroom could be invaluable to me as a classroom teacher.  I was amazed at the amount of information that I could find on every subject that I teach!  Since I teach second grade, I was especially interested in the areas that were specifically geared towards the younger learners.  In the past, I have pretty much used the internet to find pictures to show my students and online academic games, which could reinforce skills I was teaching in class.  I am excited to use some of these new resources that I learned about in this course.

I've been an educator in NW Iowa for 30+ years.  I quickly fell behind when technology started to be used more in the school system.  I presently teach middle school math and science.  I was not at all familiar with the AEA online resources or the self-paced courses. After taking this course I realize I should have done this years ago and wonder how many of my colleagues know about it.  I've heard discussions at school about students not being able to do research or find appropriate materials.  From what I've learned about all that is available and how easy it is for students to use, it would fix a lot of the problems.  A numbers of topics students research contain inappropriate material for their age group and the AEA online resources seem to take all of that into consideration.  Most of the students in our school are pretty "tech-saavy" so if I wanted to incorporate something into my class I just asked them.  It will be nice now for me to know a little more so I can maybe introduce them to some new things.  I'm also anxious to be able to share a few things with my colleagues that they may not know.

My name is Susan Lau and I am taking this course for recertification regarding my Iowa teaching license. I am certified in elementary education K-6 and music education K-6.  Two years ago I retired from teaching. My teaching career ended somewhat abruptly due a job relocation with my husband. Currently, I am teaching as a substitute teacher with the Dubuque Community School District. A piece of my heart was left in the classroom of my last teaching position.

As a K-8 Music Teacher with Seton School in the Western Dubuque District, I relied on many materials shared by Iowa AEA Online resources. When I first started teaching at Seton, there weren't any teaching materials for the so called music department and I wasn't familiar with Iowa AEA resources. So that first year of teaching music was a nightmare. As time went on I started to search your online resources and once I became familiar with it I was hooked. I believe what is offer with resources for teachers, now, is far more encompassing than it was in 2003. Teachers today are extremely blessed to have such resources at their disposal.

I took this course because I knew I would learn something. I was unaware of so many helpful sites available to teachers. There is no excuse for any teacher to fail in the classroom with the digital world of teaching resources.

I can really relate to your experience as a teacher and your lack of exposure with this digital world. I recently retired from teaching and I had no idea about all the resourses AEA Online system had to offer to Today's standards. Just think what we could have accomplished with all the digital aids.  Thanks for your post.

I am currently a special education teacher in a resource setting at Hopewell Elementary School in the Pleasant Valley School District.

I have used Iowa AEA Online resources to assist students in my resource program with classroom projects.  I have not used these resources on my own.  My students have worked with Culture Grams, Learn360, iClipArt for schools, AP Images, and Britannica Online.  I relied on the assignments coming from the classroom teachers, and I knew very little about these resources before this class.

I took this course to become more familiar with the resources that teachers in my school and district use in their classrooms.  I was hoping to learn more so I could be more helpful to my students while working on classroom tasks. I also wanted to be more competent in using these resources for myself.