A little teacher inspiration

This week, I had a very pleasant experience with all my professors during a very unpleasant time. My mom had a very serious surgery Monday and had a lot of complications throughout the week. Worried about her, I knew I wasn't going to be mentally prepared for my classes, so I e-mailed all of my professors and let them know what was going on. All five of my professors were more than willing to give me time off, as well as work with me to catch me back up. Compared to my freshman year when I went to Central Michigan University and had to have a surgery myself, all my professors demanded documentation before they would even consider being sympathetic. After the emotional and exhausting week I had, I came to really appreciate my MSU professors. I decided that when I have a class, I want to trust my students and take their word for it when they say they are having a rough week, or need a little extra help. If anything, I have a little more respect for my MSU professors who were so willing to work with me, as opposed to those who were so concerned about following common procedure so they wouldn't get "in trouble" by their boss or university. I am inspired to be a better teacher, just because of the care and time my professors put into my situation.

Blogging

     I have been on the fence for a long time with my feelings on blogging. I have read professional blogs, but I'm not quite a "professional" myself yet, so I couldn't picture myself creating a blog. My brother's rock band has a blog to keep friends, family, and fans up to date with things they are working on, upcoming shows, and so on. Well again, I haven't related to this idea of blogging. Then there's the stereotypical high school blogger... yeah, I'm not about to air all my thoughts, feelings, relationship statuses, drama, and song lyrics on a blog. However, I am open to this idea of networking through blogging. Posting ideas, news, and sharing sites about the realm of education is in fact something I can relate and contribute to.
     Through a blog, I think a person can have the time and space to be expressive and get all their thoughts down so colleagues, friends, and others interested can read, reflect, and learn a little more about education. One of the reasons I love to e-mail is because I can get everything shared with the recipient and I have a hard copy of what was discussed, what was settled, and their response. Through blogging, I will also have the hard copy of things I have said along with what others post, and we have the opportunity to use the comment feature. I see blogging as a public e-mail, and I like it!

--Lisa Dexter

Hello!

Hi! I'm Lisa Dexter! I am an elementary education major, specializing in language arts.
     As for my technology background, I would consider myself a fairly mainstreaming/adapting technology user. I am certainly not on the brink of all the latest and greatest technology, but after I see other people test new things out, I will typically jump on the band wagon if it is something that fits into my lifestyle. In working with the internet, I tend to stick to my daily routine of checking e-mail and facebook in the morning and at night, googling when I am in need of anything, and when I have lots of time, checking out anything I happen to stumble upon from friends sites, google suggestions, etc.
     My expectations for this course are to find new technologies to implement into a classroom setting that are not only easily accessible for students, parents, and colleagues, but that help me too. I love to be organized, so taking advantage of online calendars, e-mail, a classroom web page, are all technologies I could foresee being beneficial to others as well as me. Through this course, I hope to become better acquainted with useful resources for my classroom and my professional and personal life as well. 

--Lisa Dexter