Mary's World

      As a prospective middle school English teacher, I plan on using data in my efforts to continuously be improving my class. Surveys from students can tell me what activities they like the most, the teaching techniques they are more receptive to, and what popular genres/topics I should implement into the lessons. I can also use data collection to observe what practices are not benefiting the students as well as what methods might work better. I will also use the parents as a source of data collection; the kids might have struggles with homework that I am not witnessing. Parents also might  notice a lack of organization and other signs of disengagement/disinterest in the material.      The topic that most interests me amongst all of the class blogs is Web 2.0 tools. We don't realize it, but there are countless free resources available to us through the internet....

     Although I know many students who would argue with me, I have honestly enjoyed distance learning this semester. I think that as long as you can stay committed to attending your classes over video calls, balancing your school and personal life can be quite easy. I've been able to broaden my work hours as well, since I no longer have such a strict schedule. Being able to complete my work on a more personalized schedule has definitely made school less stressful.     Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational resources, activities, tools, etc. that are accessible, and usable to everyone. While using an OER, you are free to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute the work based on the creator's wishes, and set your own restrictions on how your work is used/changed. Using OER's, teachers can save a lot of time developing lesson plans and  activities/assignments. This article   summarized the importance of OER, how to use them, and...