A Little About Myself & my Educational Technology Background

Hello readers and welcome to my very first EDTC 300 blog post! I am so excited to express my experience within this class through various blog postings.

Currently, I am 20 years old and enrolled in the Faculty of Education Pre-K to 5 program. The original plan was to graduate in Winter 2023, but I have been taking extra classes to move graduation up to Fall 2022. While going to school, I work at a PreSchool two days a week, coach figure skating, and volunteer with the Special Olympics Saskatchewan Figure Skating Program. Although I am not currently coaching or volunteering due to the pandemic, I am still able to partake in a teaching role at the PreSchool. These experiences at the PreSchool and coaching have introduced me to the idea of connecting with other educators to further my knowledge of teaching.

With COVID-19 affecting the lives of several people, I have also experienced impacts due to this pandemic. In Winter 2020, I was placed in a grade one classroom for my ECS 101 field, but this time got cut short due to COVID-19. While in this classroom, I was able to connect with my cooperating teacher and learn about a few educational technology resources. I was introduced to GoNoodle which is a resource used in the classroom with principles similar to Just Dance, but this version is educational. Additionally, I was shown Teachers Pay Teachers, which was is clearly a useful resource in the classroom. However, these were the only two resources that I was introduced to since my time with this cooperating teacher was shorted quite a bit. Therefore, I do not have very much experience with educational technology, which is solely the reason why I felt that taking this class is so important. Through this class, I hope to learn about various technologies and social media to use in the classroom in order to further strengthen my student’s learning.

Along with resources to use in the classroom, I feel that networking should play a large part in my teaching career. The idea of working with other teachers, or sharing knowledge with other teachers leaves the possibility of furthering my own knowledge around teaching. While I had not created one in the past, I now have a Twitter profile that can be used to network with other pre-service or practicing teachers. If you would like, you are more than welcome to check out my Twitter profile.

Interestingly enough, I have a goal to become a blogger while I am a teacher. To date, I have not been able to blog very much but I try my very best to anytime that we are given the opportunity to do so in classes. However, this class will pave the way towards my blogging and teaching career. Perhaps, I might be able to connect with other teachers during this class through social media and other educational technology. I always think to myself during University classes that it would be cool to connect with my current classmates on social media to begin relaying teaching ideas to each other. This class will allow for that thought to become a reality for me, which is an exciting step to take! Overall, I am looking forward to the knowledge gained in EDTC 300.