POST #1: Introductions and Sharing Your Past Experience

I am currently between schools. For the past 14 years I have been teaching ELA at Columbus Catholic in Waterloo. While there I taught the AP classes, and two concurrent classes with Hawkeye Community College. This coming school year I will be teaching at Xavier in Cedar Rapids. While I am not exactly sure of the classes I will be teaching, I have no doubt the insight gained in this class will help quite a bit. There were many times when I stopped, sat back and thought, dang I wish I knew about that two years ago. Or other thoughts with more colorful words.

That is not to say the information was not available. Columbus is a small school with an even smaller staff. The nature of reality is that many teachers have four or more preps and simply do not have time for a full exploration. Any tech PD we do only scratches the surface. Our tech people are wonderful, but simply overworked. We did use resources provided by the AEA, but it was a little hit and miss. While I would direct one student to Gale, another would insist that google scholar was all that was needed. To be honest, I felt ill prepared to fully sell all the resources to my students. Credibility of sources was an issue that the other ELA teacher and myself constantly fought. Too many times students had the attitude of, I found it on line, it must be OK and good enough.

Having said all that, those experiences are what brought me to the course. I wanted to be able to have all the names and uses of these resources on my finger tips when confronted with an impatient student. Or have a cheat sheet laminated and on the wall to point to. The concurrent courses were an above average challenge. They are designed to be the first semesters of college writing. I had to help students up their game. We were able to dabble, and most students understand databases now, but it was haphazard. So I came here.

Hi Penny, I'm María Cummings. I'm also needing to complete courses this summer for my teaching license renewal, and like you I saw this course as a good way to begin so that I could possibly use it in the future classes that I will be taking. I think it's great that we have such an opportunity to be able to learn at a pace that we can handle to know that help is at our fingertips or a phone call away; thanks for sharing.

Hello!  I currently work at Abraham Lincoln High School, Council Bluffs.  I lead a large majority of our freshman Health Ed and PE (HPER) students.  I also lead our adapted Personal Health and Wellness class, serving those with severe and profound needs. I have been a sports team coach for over 25 years, but have "retired" from those positions to explore, to pace options in my personal and professional development.

This is my first enrollment in a Iowa AEA Online resource course, tho I have taken Blackboard courses to complete degree programs (7 years ago), and completed online training/responses for CE licensure(s).    

I am extremely interested in this course content and its offerings to impact PE classes in our building and district.  I hope to apply technology in traditionally non-tech disciplines to promote HPER and technology literacy.  I am in the process of creating a flipped classroom to pilot, and will continue to utilize on-line supplementary materials, QR stations with instructional links, and assessments in PE courses.  

For the past 25 years I have been teaching kindergarten. Currently I teach at St. Albert in Council Bluffs. I have known about AEA Online resources for quite some time but have only dabbled in using a few. My student use Bookflix a lot.  I have also used some videos from Learn360.I have looked at several others but never had or took the time to really delve into what they had to offer. When I saw this course offered I knew this was the chance I was hoping for.

     I currently work at Washington High School in Washington, Iowa, teaching ELA courses for mainly ninth and tenth graders. I have had some experience with the Iowa AEA Online resources.  Professionally, I’ve taken various trainings online and have, of course, accessed the online self-paced offerings for recertification.  In the classroom I have had students use the SIRS Researcher when researching topics and gathering information for research papers.  I’ve also had students use iClipArt and Soundzabound for various digital projects.  Because I’ve used Iowa AEA Online in my classes before, I was very aware that there was much more to this site than what I was using with my students.  I thought this course would give me the opportunity to truly explore the many options, something I’ve not done during the school year due to time constraints. This course gives me the opportunity to really explore those options.  I’m always wanting to find more ways to connect to diverse learners and provide all my students with helpful learning tools and options.  

I currently work in the IKM-Manning school district.  I have taught 4th, 5th, and 6th grade over my 20 years of teaching.  My passion is math, but I have taught all subject areas.  I remember when I started using AEA Online resources many years ago.  It was cool to look up content areas on Britannica and the Searchasaurus search engine for kids.  The web page was very simple and all you had to do was click an icon to get to the resource.  I haven’t used it as much just because there are so many options for technology usage.  I am truly intrigued by all the science and social studies resources for teachers.  I also like the safety and appropriateness of the content.  This course was suggested to me by a colleague, but I’m realizing that these are all things my husband, a second grade teacher, uses with his kids.  He was actually the one that had to give me the username and password to get into many of the resources.

I am Just starting back into teaching full time in the fall with the Cedar Rapids Community School District.  I will be teaching and coordinating the Building Trades program or student built house.  I will be working with students from all 3 district high schools to construct a single family home.  In my past teaching assignment 10 years ago, I taught for a district for a period of 4 years and I had never used the AEA resources until recently for the different sites and pages.  We had only used the Iowa AEA Site for the required training at that district.  I am very excited that I am going to begin this fall incorporating more problem solving and technical thinking into my project site (classroom).  I look forward to using Learn 360 for the beginning of the year safety videos and for some project basic videos.  In the Past I was tied to the very temperamental VHS player in the woodshop.  I feel that having the video’s in a digital format will assist in the class being more productive in the beginning weeks of the school year before we start going to the jobsite.  I also am excited to be able to work on adding some QR codes to the weekly Job Board for the students to utilize in the group problem solving and construction of different items in class.  I feel that I can also incorporate visual learning and student learning via images into the program at times as well.  This class opened my eyes to so much that has become available online during my 6 year break from teaching.

      I’m currently employed at Lamoni Community Schools, in Lamoni, Iowa. My degree is in teaching Spanish and English, grades 5-12. I teach 7thand 8thgrade Exploratory Spanish, Spanish I-IV, 8thgrade Literature, and 10thgrade Literature. I truly love my job and enjoy watching my students learn and apply new skills.
      I’ve always known that the AEA has many resources that can be used in the classroom to prepare new lessons and find new interest that may appeal to the students, and though we have had AEA representatives come and speak to us in past years, I never really got much out of it, because I felt it was too rushed and at times they were not sure as to how far to expand their overview. I have borrowed classroom reading material from the AEA, such as books, but that is all.
     When I read the short class description it excited me that I could learn how to navigate the system on my own and not require the assistance of a college or other person, and that perhaps I could be of assistance to someone else. I enjoy learning new ways to better my classes and I felt that understanding how to use Iowa AEA Online would give me the edge I need to be better prepared for the classroom.

Brooke Doyle

I am currently employed as full time Mom to my two daughter, ages 13 and 4, and son, age 2.  I also manage all the finances for our family farm and work alongside my husband on our cattle operation.   I have to keep an accurate record off all income and expense and pay bills in a timely manner.  I also do odd jobs on the farm such as feeding and checking cows or fixing fence.  I was previously a 7-12 agricultural education instructor and FFA advisor as well as serving for one year as a full-time substitute.  I used AEA online resources some as a high school student, but limited experience as a teacher.  I often used clipart and Britannica.   I would like to be better utilize the AEA resources when I enter the classroom.  In the meantime, I would like to utilize the AEA website for my own children.  I’m sure they would enjoy Learn 360.  My oldest daughter is in 4-H and I think she could find some sources beneficially when working on 4-H projects.  

Hello, my name is Anne.  I teach at Salem Elementary School in the Mt. Pleasant School District.  Currently I am teaching 5th grade.  My past experiences with Iowa AEA online consist of "how-to" short inservices on what Iowa AEA has, how to access it, and brief highlights of its special features.  I also spent a half day with other teachers who teach social studies or teach in the same grade level I do.  The day was spent looking at what Iowa AEA online has for resources in the area of social studies.  I found the time we used looking at all the resources was beneficial.  The choices we had and options we could implement were phenomenal.  Britannica Online, TrueFLIX, Gale, and MackinVia have been life savers when it came time for my students do research or look up information to gain background knowledge on a particular subject.  What interested me to take this course was to gain more information and insight on what Iowa AEA online has and what it could do to enhance my classroom curriculum.

I will be returning to the classroom this upcoming school year after taking the last seven years away from teaching. I will be teaching k-5 art in the Linn Mar community school district. In my prior job I taught k-6 art and also talented and gifted. My past experience with AEA Online Resources prior to taking this course was pretty limited. I used Iclipart for some assignment and handouts I created for students as well helped students use Britannica School for research projects. I was interested in taking this course because I wanted to become more familiar with and be able to utilize and incorporate the AEA Online resources into my teaching. More specifically I’m really interested in using the Images and Audio as a way to teach students about
periods and movements in art art by using primary sources. I’m also interested in the Culturegram tool as a way to give students a richer experience when we learn about contemporary art that has been created by an artist not living in the United States.

I am currently a K-5 Instructional Strategist: II, Extended Core with the Waterloo Community School District. I have been teaching in Waterloo for five years. Prior to my current job, I was a K-8 Instructional Strategist: II with the AGWSR School District. In the past, I have used quite a few of AEA's 'physical' resources, such as books, book boxes, etc. I have not used many of the digital resources because I was unaware of all of the possibilities! I was researching AEA's website for possible courses to take for my teaching license renewal and came across this course. It peaked my curiosity because I am always looking for various ways to reach my very diverse students and their needs. I was hopeful that I would learn about some resources that I could use in my teaching and was completely satisfied with what AEA has to offer! Thank you for opening my eyes to the many possibilities that are available!

I am currently teaching in the Ottumwa Community School District as a K-5 music teacher.  I travel within the district to three different buildings.
Many years ago, I took a class on powerpoint.  During that class, I was given a brief introduction of many of the resources available through the AEA.  I have since changed districts and a different AEA.  I also took some time off of teaching, and so grew out of touch with what the AEA offers.  
That's really why I wanted to take this course.  I wanted to have a better understanding of resources available to me.  With the ever changing world of technology, it is great to have up to date resources at my finger tips.

I currently work as a middle school (grades sixth, seventh, and eighth) English language arts and social studies instructor. I am familiar with and have frequently used some of  the Iowa AEA Online Resources with my middle schoolers in both disciplines I teach. Although I had some experience using the resources, I felt like I was just scratching the surface. In other words, I knew the AEA Online Resources had much more to offer, and this class has certainly convinced me that I was correct. For example, I have used Britannica and Culture Grams in my classroom regularly. Even though I was familiar with Britannica and encouraged students to research a variety of subjects using this resource, I had never set up a My Britannica account in which to organize the materials I had chosen for classroom instruction. Likewise, I had used Culture Grams for information about countries around the world, but I had never used some of the valuable tools like the Build-Your-Own Comparison Tables and Graphs. These are just two examples of the important information I accessed through this class about the Iowa AEA Online Resources.
 
Additionally, I was interested in taking this online class because the school year does not always allow for the time needed to explore new material and implement it with integrity. Our middle school students have access to Chromebooks in the classroom in addition to the ones in our computer lab which is part of the media center. I am excited about making better use of these excellent instructional resources during the upcoming school year.  

I'm not currently teaching in the classroom, but I do have teenagers who are going through high school and college. As a former media specialist, I struggle when kids do research and quickly do a search on the Internet and begin writing down their facts for their paper/presentation. Very rarely do my own children go to the library and conduct research with tangible books/periodicals. I've experienced a lot of frustration with all three of my kids as they struggle to understand/interpret the various articles on the web as they search for primary sources online that fit their reading level, topic, and provide adequate sources.  

Having this introduction to resources that are available through the AEA is an excellent idea, not only for educators, but I would hope that any high school class that contains a lot of research would do something similar at the beginning of their class so that students can be directed to appropriate databases in which to conduct their research.

I'll have to ask my daughters in college if their universities do something similar.

I teach at West High School in Waterloo, Iowa. Well, actually I retired in 2012, took two years in training for International Baccalaureate instruction, and then started teaching the Theory of Knowledge course for the IB in the Waterloo Schools. In my previous 33 years of classroom experience, I taught English. While I was teaching Advanced Composition, AP English Literature and Comp, and AP English Language and Comp, I taught students to write pro/con research papers. We used GALE as a source to look for topics, find resources, and think of claims and counterclaims. When I saw this course offered for a renewal credit, I decided to see what more I could use, this time in the Theory of Knowledge classroom.

I am currently a 5th grade teacher at Eisenhower Elementary in Ottumwa. I teach all subjects to my class which is roughly 20 students. I have used some AEA resources in the past such as TrueFlix, Culture Grams, and Mackin Via. I have supported students with using these resource for research and reading. However, I knew that there were many more resources available that I didn't know very much about. By taking this class I was able to learn more about the resources I had used, as well as learn new resources. I am very excited to add Science Flix, Freedom Flix, Britannica, and Learn360 to the available resources for my students. I am excited to help students create their own accounts, as well as create my own lessons and playlists for students. We have access to 1:1 Chromebooks in my classroom and these tools will be able to enhance student learning in all subjects.

This will be my 28th year of teaching science at the middle school level.  I am currently teaching at the Denison Community Schools.  I have known about the AEA Online resources but to be honest have not really looked into it nor used it to enhance the learning of my students.  My class consists of a lot of ELL students at various levels of English acquisition.  AEA Online resources will give me many ways to present material to these students, as well as others, to better their understanding of science!  Plus this will also be a great way to integrate our 1:1 Chomebooks currently use at our middle school.