EDUC 630

            When I was first hired as a kindergarten teacher, my principal mentioned a phrase that impacted every choice I made in the classroom: with purpose, on purpose. I believe that every choice I make as an educator should reflect my reason for choosing this career in the first place. I do what I do with purpose, to show every student love and support while guiding them to success. I also strive to be intentional when incorporating things into my classroom and lessons. I want the lessons and activities that I provide to serve a purpose toward my students’ educational goals. This takes more focus and planning than simply choosing an activity that covers a standard, but I hope that in doing so, I create an environment that allows my students to foster a love for learning, rather than just becoming good at taking tests and completing tasks. This is especially relevant in the integration of technology.         ...

Discussion Topic: How does the effective teacher balance the demand of a standards-based curriculum catered to the individual needs of each student? What tools do we have at our disposal to help us comply with both demands? What best-practices regarding technology in your instruction do you incorporate into your lessons? Transcript: “One of the biggest challenges I faced this year in my classroom was being tasked to utilize a wonderful resource for reading instruction that went against all parts of our standards-based reading report card. Essentially, we were using a program that taught analytic phonics, then assessing our students based on synthetic phonics rules. So how, as teachers, did we balance this demand? We had to teach both, which produced very confused kindergartners. This is not what technology use should be in the classroom. Technology is not a tool that we should use because we are forced to integrate technology in some way; technology is a resource used to en...

Hello hello!  My name is Megan Minor and I am a grad student at Liberty University. This page is centered around course work for Education 630: Technology Practices for Instructional Improvement. A little bit about me... I am from Dawsonville, Georgia near the north Georgia mountains. I have a husband, an almost two-year-old son, two dogs, a cat, and 26 kindergarten students! My husband and I are from Georgia, but spent the last four years living in North Carolina while he was in the Marine Corps. He got out last year and we were able to move back home, where I got a job teaching at the elementary school that I went to as a child! I absolutely love my job and look forward to expanding my abilities as an educator in this course.  Technology has become an essential part of education, even at the kindergarten level. This is especially true now that most of the nation is conducting online learning! As a teacher in the classroom, one of my favorite educational tools is Wixie. M...