POST #1: Introductions and Sharing Your Past Experience

In a moderate post (150-300 words) 1) give us a brief introduction of where you currently work and what your role is in your current occupation.  2) Share with us what past experience you have had with the Iowa AEA Online resources prior to taking the self-paced course.  3) Explain what interested you about the topic to take the course.

You may do the three parts together in one paragraph or separate them out as you would like.  Once you have completed your post, be sure to look at other participants to get a feel for the different perspectives of educators across Iowa taking this course.

For the past 15 years, I've been working at writing textbooks for two small publishing companies. I would research, develop, write, and edit the materials for various curriculum. Some of the textbooks I wrote included Bible, middle school language arts, and elementary school social studies. Next year I will be returning to the classroom. I have accepted a position at East High School in Sioux City. I'm anxious to get back into the classroom part of the profession once again.
My second teaching job started with using AEA media which included movie reels. It was always exciting to get the movie started and sometimes you needed to slice the first section in order to get it entered into the film projector. Eventually, we worked our way up to VHS tapes and finally DVD's. I have not used any AEA online materials since I left teaching 15 years ago. Things change quickly in the media. I have done some adjunct work at local colleges and am familiar with many of the library materials available on college campus. I find it interesting that when I did my master's degree program I had to travel every time I wanted to research in the library. Today so much of that material is available at my fingertips.
The reason I took this course was to see what is now available through the AEA's. As a published writer, I wanted to learn what safe guards in terms of classroom use materials have. I cannot believe all of the material that is available through the AEA's. I think I will have a fun summer finding items to use in my classes.

I have been teaching and coaching for over 20 years in the midwest. Mostly as a high school math teacher. I have not had much past experience with AEA online at all, but I do appreciate being able to get credit toward recertification through the AEA. I was interested in this topic to find ways to use videos and other online media in my geometry class.

I currently am employed as a substitute teacher before this year however, I was the lead teacher in a one-room classroom teaching K-8.  Before taking this class I knew about the AEA but did not have much access to using it because the one-room school was not an accreditated school and they stopped helping us my 2nd year there (I taught there 8 years).  The main reason I took this course was to get a better idea of what the AEA had to offer for teachers that don't have access to a lot of sources, since I still think about the one-room school often.  After taking this course I wish I would have had access to many of the sites that the AEA has to offer since we live in a world now that uses the internet as it's back-bone to doing many things and help to me as the teacher in spreading that knowledge to my students.

This past school year I taught social studies for 7th grade at Central Middle School in Muscatine, Iowa. Next year I will be teaching a 6th grade Geography course as well. In the past, I used the AEA Online resources in a very limited capacity. When the AEA opted for Gale a few years ago instead of EBSCO, I dropped my use of the AEA Online resources almost entirely since I struggled with the Gale search functions and I didn't care for some of the returns which appeared really biased. About the only database that I was impressed with was SIRS. Also, at the time, most of the sites didn't seem particularly up to date in providing tech savvy resources.

This year, our media specialist did a good job of pointing us in the direction of the AEA Online resources, but I admittedly didn't take the time to check them out, especially since I was still operating under my old perceptions. But this summer, I needed to complete some of my teacher license renewal credits and I also knew I would need some help with resources for  my new 6th graders. Again, our media specialist pointed us to the new online, self paced courses and as soon as I saw this course, I knew I needed to see what was updated and to update my knowledge base of them. I knew I would appreciate the self-paced feature as well, as I needed to concentrate my efforts in a few days, rather than having the course string out over weeks - my summer is jam-packed. The final trigger for signing up was that I saw the CultureGrams site and was really impressed and I knew it would be invaluable for my 6th graders.

For the past 2 years,  I have been a substitute teacher in the Iowa Great Lakes Area. Prior to that, I taught 30 years in Waterloo. I substitute often and in many different classrooms.  My experience in Waterloo helps me greatly as a substitute. However as more and more teachers are incorporating technology in the classroom on a daily basis, I find that I needed to learn more about what is available to them and how to use it when I substitute. When living in Waterloo, I took courses for licensure renewal through AEA267 at their building and online classes for the mandatory courses.  I heard about Iowa AEA online but didn't know there was so much available on there. I took this class for several reasons: I wanted to learn more about Iowa AEA online resources; taking an online class fit my schedule better at this time; and the self-paced course really appealed to me-- again with my schedule but also with learning styles(one can go back and review if you need to). I have always liked the fact that the courses that the AEAs offer are relevant and really helpful in the classroom. This course was great as I learned alot.    

I have been teaching special education for the past 9 years.  I have taught at the elementary, middle school, and I am currently teaching at the high school level.  I also teach summer school.  I have currently, use BookFlix with students.  At the high school, I have some lower functioning students that BookFlix seems to work wonderful with them.  I took this class because I wanted to see what else was available through the AEA online resources.  I wanted to see what other things I could be using with my students.  I didn't realize all this was available.  

After "failing" retirement from teaching math for thirty-six years, I have been an online facilitator for Kirkwood High School Distance Learning math students and a substitute teacher in two local schools for the past six years.  One of those schools was 1-1 this year, and I was not able to help students like I usually do.  The other school will be 1-1 next year, so I need to know how to use the resources that teachers and students access so often.  I had not used any of the AEA Online resources before, and I am amazed at the wealth of information there.  In fact, I had to contact the school to find out the username and password.  I chose this course because it is online, has content that I can use for both the online students and the classrooms students when I am subbing, and it also counts toward renewing my certificate.

I have been substitute teaching occasionally over the last several years while I stay home with my children.  

I had no knowledge of Iowa AEA Online resources prior to taking the self-paced course.    

I was interested in learning what was available.  I was of course familiar with AEA resources in general, and knew that online would be much faster to use, and more available.  The days of ordering a DVD, waiting for it to be available, and then waiting for it to be delivered could be over.  I was also curious why research tools would be needed, in this digital age.  That was covered right off the bat.  How wonderful to have one place to look for trust worthy resources.  The amount of information, and rights to use it in the class are amazing.  

I am a para educator in the high school special education.  I have only used AEA online for taking courses necessary for my license and mandatory reporting, etc. required by the school.  I was interested in this course so that I can be more knowledgeable about where students can find credible resources.  Many of our students do not have the ability to decipher whether it is a credible site or not and take the first thing they find.

I currently teach 8th grade Earth Science at Oskaloosa Middle School.

In the past, I have used the Iowa AEA Online resources for videos in the digital video library.  I, also, used Britannica Online with my students. I was not familiar with the rest of the resources.  We will be going 1:1 in the 2015 / 16 school year and I will need to be one step ahead of my students.

I needed 2 credits and had completed the Digital Citizenship course.  I saw this course and liked how the Digital Citizenship course worked.

I have been teaching music in the DSM metro area since 2006. This year, I am excited to be transitioning to middle school vocal music from elementary general music. It presents a new set of challenges for me, which I am looking forward to - one of them being the instructional use of technology in my classroom.  I have always been a fan of teaching extemporaneously, but have found it challenging at times because of the "appropriateness" of some online resources. This is why I wanted to take this course.  I have always been interested in what the AEA had to offer (because I knew that they offered quality content) but unfortunately I never actually inquired about it until now! So, this class has really given me the opportunity to look into the online resources that the AEA provides school districts and educators. Through this course I have learned SO much about all of the different resources that are actually available.  I know that my MS school students will LOVE them!

My name is Jerry Jerome and I am currently employed as an instructor at the high school learning center, in Keokuk, IA.  Since the educational process is quite different at the LC, in comparison to that of a traditional academic environment, my use of the resources mentioned in this class has been extremely limited.  That said, I do interact personally with my teenage students and assist individuals with their unique learning plans.  I can contemplate uses for some of the various websites/ databases provided through AEA.  I was unaware of the vast resources that are provided to our district through AEA, and am very impressed with the accessibility and ease of their use.  In addition to my job as a teacher, I am also the girls' basketball coach at our local community college.  Since my players are required to perform tasks not far removed from those required in high school, I would love to pass on some of the web information for their knowledge during study table.  

1)  Over the past 20 years, I have taught middle school and high school PE and Health classes in 4 different school districts but the last 6 years I have been teaching 5 different PE and Health related courses at Coe College.  This coming fall I will be starting a new adventure of teaching Elementary PE full-time while still teaching the PE Methods courses at Coe College once a week in the evening.
 
2) I do not have any prior experience with the Iowa AEA Online resources.
 
3) The fact that the course was self-paced and available right now was the number one reason I took the course but  in reading the topic and description before I enrolled, I felt that this course would be a great way for me to get updated on the technology and resources available to educators in Iowa public schools right now.  It has been 10 years since I have taught in an Iowa public school and I have never taught Elementary PE but I do absolutely LOVE technology so I was hoping to learn some things that would benefit me in my new position for the fall.

I have been teaching 7-8th English and literature for 31 years in the Newell-Fonda school district. This past school year the opportunity came up for me to apply for the teacher librarian position. I will be starting this position this fall with a temporary license and beginning the library science program through UNI.

I have had my students use a few of the Iowa AEA Online resources throughout the years for research projects and  the IClip Art.

I chose to take this course because I want to become more familiar with these resources so I can share the information available with my colleagues and use the resources as I begin teaching in the library. I really had no idea so much was available!

     I teach at Issac Newton Christian Academy in Cedar Rapids.  I am the Pre-K teacher and preschool director.  This next year will be my 22nd year of teaching and my 6th year at Issac Newton.  Prior to teaching preschool I taught several different grades - K, 2, 4, 6, and 7.
     I have not had much experience with AEA on-line resources.  I hear about them and am very interested.  I was involved in several ICN projects when I taught jr. high.  That was great learning and lots of fun as I got to meet astronauts and other science professionals.
     This class was of interest to me since I really enjoy learning about science, history, and other subjects.  My middle school children do research for classes and I wanted to better understand what tools they could use.  I would have wanted to do this class even if it was just for my personal edification.  

I have taught middle school reading and English for the past 16 years. I previously used EBSCO and Searchasarus to locate articles that were at the appropriate reading level for my students. My students also used these resources for research. I have used Atomic Learning to brush up on and learn more about Excel. Excel is a great program for creating spreadsheets for formative assessment data and for sharing learning growth with students. I also used Atomic Learning for my 7th grade technology class as an additional resource. I was interested in this class, because I thought it would be a good way to explore additional resources that I could use in my current curriculum.

Hello, I have 18 years of teaching experience. I currently hold both a 5-12 science endorsement and a middle school endorsement in my employment with Essex school district. I teach middle school math and MS-HS science. My experience with AEA online resources has been limited to the Learn 360 videos. I took the course in hopes of broadening both my horizons, and my students.  I like how the AEA provides resources that I could not afford within my classroom budget.  I appreciate the opportunity to achieve some credit on my own time.

I finished my 4th year of teaching at East Buchanan Community Schools in NE Iowa. I am a Resource teacher in the high school. I have been taking advantage of classes through AEA 267 and Grant Wood and have learned a great deal. This has been my first opportunity to learn about the website. Our media specialist has provided us with information about the AEA and provided the staff with the username and passwords to access the different resources through the website but I have not taken advantage of all the resources like I have liked. This has given me a chance during the summer to examine the website thoroughly and learn how I can incorporate the materials in the classroom.

For the past two years I have worked as a teacher in the Winterset CSD. This year however I will be working as a fourth grade teacher in the Ottumwa School District. My focus over the last year was reading/language arts. This school year I will teach all subject matter.

I had very limited experience with Iowa AEA Online. My main use for the site was to access iClip Art. I never felt like I had the time before to explore all the available resources.

When I saw this class was available, it peaked my interest. I had always wanted to know about all the resources available and how to utilize them, but never seemed to take the time to learn about them with all the other "teacher stuff" we have to do as educators. This course allowed me to learn about them on my own time, during the summer when I have more time to explore each resource and determine how I could use them in my classroom.