Introduce Yourself

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

I suspect the first thing we need to do is to Introduce ourselves. If you are a student in my TECS 290 class, tell us where you grew up (town, state), what is you major (i.e. elementary, math, science, etc) and what inspired you to decide you to become a teacher.

If you are a teacher out there in the trenches, tell us where you are in the world, what you teach and of course how long have you taught and what is your favorite thing about using technology in the classroom.

[Jill Whitson]

My name is Jill Whitson. This is our tenth year living in Grinnell, Kansas. I have four children, two boys and two girls. Mar E. is 13, Jarrett is 9, Haylee is 6 and Emma is 11 months. I am married to Lew Whitson who is a high school social studies teacher at Wheatland and Grinnell; he also coaches football, basketball and track. I have been employed by the Grinnell school district as a Title I Para for eight years and as a Preschool Teacher for two years. I have been pursuing my teaching degree over a span of several years due to the fact that I have had a full time job and young children to take care of. My family is my first priority. We are very busy with our children’s activities as well as being very involved in our schools and community.
I just completed my Associates in Early Childhood from Colby Community College in December 2006. I have transferred to FHSU to pursue a degree in Elementary Education and then Early Childhood when FHSU has that program all worked out.
My desire is to teach preschoo children. I would also enjoy kindergarten or 1st grade. I like to work with the younger children rather than older ones. My Title I job has allowed me to work with students K-8 so I have had the opportunity to deal with a wide range of ages. I enjoy them all but the younger ones are where I feel I work the best. The benefits of teaching young children are boundless. Working with young children is one of my greatest passions.

[Sky Davis]

WOW! I'm so glad that I'm not the only one crazy enough to go to school with four children and a job!

[Tana]

My name is Tana Gustafson and I grew up Hugoton, Kansas. It's a small town but it's a great community and I loved growing up there! I graduated in 2004 and I've lived in Hays for the past 3 years now. Although Hays isn't a bustling metropolis I still love it!

I'm an elementary education major and I'm super excited about it. Hopefully I will be able to teach in the upper levels of elementary, I'm a history fanatic and want to share it with my students. I decided I wanted to a be a teacher after I had a bad experience in elementary school. I had a teacher who had no faith in me and no faith in herself. I hate to be told I can't accomplish something and she did this a a regular basis, so I set out to prove her wrong. I then decided I wanted to teach so that maybe I can help students understand that they have a great a promising future and they can accomplish anything that they set their mind to. Although this teacher wasn't the best I ever had, she did inspire me.

[Sky Davis]

My name is Sky Davis and I am from Kensington Kansas. It is a small town close to the Nebraska border. I graduated in 1996 for Kensington High School. I went to FHSU, but decided at the time that school wasn't for me, so I got married in 1997 and started having children in 1998! Now I have decided to go back to school and major in Elementary Education with a Special Ed endorsement.

I have been happily married for 10 years. I have four children ages 9,7,3 & 1.

I am really excited to learn more about technology in education and I look forward to this class!

[Christy Buck]

My name is Christy Buck. I am currently in the United States Air Force stationed at Dyess AFB, TX. I have been married for 2 1/2 years. We have a beautiful little girl Meghan, who is 18 months old. I om 11 classes away from completing my degree, and once that is done I plan to get out of the military and join the troops to teachers program. In the end I hope to get to teach first grade back in my hometown, Chesapeake, VA. My mother is the one who has inspired me to become a teacher. I have always wanted to teach but she is always telling me how rewarding it was to teach first grade. She is a reading resource teacher now and absolutly loves it. She gets the best of both worlds. She works with children of all reading levels but yet she is not in a classroom all day long. After teaching for a few years i hope to complete my masters in teaching with an emphasis in reading specialist!

[Bronwyn Smith]

Hi everyone! My name is Bronwyn Smith and I grew up in Lakin, KS - which is where I am still living. My major is elementary education, but I would love to find a job teaching only math to 5th and 6th graders. I have wanted to become a teacher since I was in school. When I first graduated from highschool I changed my major around a bit, but now that I have a 3 year old son and am going back to school, I have decided that teaching would be perfect for me.

[Lucas Moll]

Hello, my name is Lucas Moll. I am from Stockton, KS, a small town in the northwest area of the state. I have spent the majority of my life here in Stockton. I come from a large family, with 5 brothers and 5 sisters, 7 of which still live in Stockton.

Currently, I am teaching high school biology and chemistry courses at the local high school. I am enrolled in the transition to teaching program through the state, and I am taking internet courses in order to obtain my full certification. I have just finished my first year of teaching, and just recently signed my contract to teach next year.

I feel as though I have gotten behind technology-wise in recent years, and hopefully this course will force me to catch-up with all the things I have missed.

[Leigh Grass]

Hello All,

I apologize for the delay in getting signed in, but for some reason I was not able to access the TECS course. Please let me introduce myself....

My name is Leigh Grass and I teach at Central Aroostook High School in Mars Hill, Maine. We are a very small school with 250 students in grades 7-12. I teach 7th and 8th grade science and a high school forensics course. I started teaching forensics at the University of Maine at Presque Isle this past semester. I just finished up my seventh year in the classroom and I can't believe it. This is my second career...I worked as a medical technologist in a hospital laboratory for six years before entering education. I love lab work, just hate shift work. :) I am married and have two children and teaching has a better schedule for family life.

Since I teach in Maine, I am fortunate enough to be part of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) where the state gives each 7th and 8th grade student an ibook. We are now in the fifth year of the program and have loved every minute of it. I have been the teacher leader at our school since the program began and feel very passionate about how technology should be used in the classroom. Therefore, I started my master's program last summer in Instructional Technology at the University of Maine.

I use technology in a variety of ways in my classes: class web page, moodle discussions, Quia, webquests, portaportal pages, and probe activities to name a few.

I am looking forward to working with you and am more than willing to share any ideas/resources that I have available.

Leigh

[Lyndi Wolf]

I grew up in Bennington KS which is a very small town and at the time we didn't use a lot of technology. When I graduated high school I moved on to KSU and received a degree in Kinesiology. In college I learned minimal technology and did not search out for more. Most of my classes were more hands on than anything else. I currently work fulltime in Wichita KS as a Medical Assistant for a Neurosurgeon and have decided that I wanted to fulfull my dream of being a health and PE teacher. So here I am working 40-50 hours a week and trying to take classes. Lets just say I'm tired already.
I do want to day I am very interested in learning about new technology that will help me and my students out some day. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear about them.

[Veronica Deines]

I grew up in Hays, Kansas and my major is elementary education.

I have always wanted to be a teacher. When I was a kid I loved school, and as I got older I realized how much I enjoy children. There is nothing more exciting than teaching a child new things!

[Alice Mercer]

I'm in my 10th year of teaching. I started out as a substitute on an emergency credential in Oakland, CA, and have since moved up to Sacramento, CA. My first three years here, I taught in a special behavior school (not mine, the kids). I have since moved to a regular elementary campus, where I have taught fifth grade. The vast majority of my students are and have been poor, minorities, and English Language Learners.

I was a supervising/master teacher the year before last and loved it! I learned a lot from that experience myself. I hope that I can help in the areas of technology, but my experience dealing with behavior issues, and teaching language learners maybe useful here.

I love using technology, but I like, and the kids can see I like it, so they are more willing to go along for the ride when we use it to learn.

[AbbyMaska]

My name is Abby Maska. I was born and raised in Hays, KS. My majors are History and Secondary Education. For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a teacher. I really began questioning why that was this past year of school. I almost just cut and run after finishing all my History credits, but what would I do with a degree in History? I finally figured out the real reason I wanted to be a teacher after student-teaching. Its an amazing opportunity to invest in the lives of young people. They are so full of potential and they have such high hopes, which often times get diminished as they grow older. As a teacher I think it is a great opportunity to keep encouraging kids to dream big. I just love the day to day interaction with young people. They have such a unique perspective on life. I also love History and Social Studies in general. It provides great opportunities to teach kids to think beyond their immediate surroundings and encourage cross-cultural understanding. I'm also trying very hard to figure out ways to implement teaching strategies that will enable students to see themselves in a global context. Technology is a great way to do this.

Anyways, thats a little bit about me. I look forward to learning more about technology in the classroom. I realize this is really late, but I figured I would still contribute to the forum.