Blog Journal 6

       Teacher pages are pages created by a teacher at a particular school who post a multitude of material regarding what is currently taking place in their classroom and other relevant information online, either on the school’s website or even their own personal blog. Teacher pages are extremely beneficial as it allows the teacher to post information regarding classroom assignments, due dates and contact information. I visited Redlands High School home page which provided a link labeled “Teacher Pages” which then led to an alphabetical list of all the teacher’s pages. Th information publically presented in all Teacher Pages are their contact information, course description, assignments, and teacher calendar. The teachers also. Provided an “about” link that discussed the teacher’s expectations of the class and even provided a grade breakdown. I looked at multiple teacher’s pages and the grades range from 9^thto 12^thgrade as Redlands High School only caters to those grades. 

        Based on the learnings and readings from my EME 2040 class and interactions with other educator’s on social media and blogs I can say that I can envision myself using technology as a way to communicate with my students and parents. I can see myself having a personal blog where I post articles and discuss my thoughts on certain topics discussed in class and even have my students reply with their own opinions and perspectives. I would also want to create a teacher’s page where I can put an assignment calendar and my contact information. I would definitely want to keep an open space for parents to see what is happening inside the classroom and have a link to allow appointment requests as I feel that it is my professional responsibility to keep parents/guardians informed of their student’s performance. Along with this, I would use technology as a way to incorporate fun activities into my lesson plans such as Kahoot to help engage my students into the lesson. 

           My imagination and prior knowledge of what a sandbox is created an image of what I believed the "Tech Sandbox" would look like. Upon entering the room, I thought of a giant room filled with sandboxes like the ones found in a child's playground, however, that was far from what laid behind the door. The room was filled with different gadgets and touch screen projectors and other high-tech equipment. The significance of this technology was how useful it could be inside a classroom. Prior to this experience I believe that technology for classrooms only included projectors and tablets, however, after my Tech Sandbox experience I understood so much more of how a teacher can incorporate technology into lessons. I was given a tour of the sandbox and the first technology shown to me was probably the most interesting of all, the 3D printers. 3D printers print out any given picture in a three-dimensional form that range in size, color and detail depending on the plastic and picture used. An example of how this new form of technology is beneficial to a classroom setting is how a 3D printer can print out items in braille! Braille is a pattern of bumps that is form of communication amongst deaf people. Technology comes in many helpful ways to better enhance one’s learning experience inside a classroom.