First Blog Post

 Hey Everyone. My name is Ariel Jefferson and I have future aspirations to be an elementary school teacher and teach kindergarten students everyday for the rest of my career so that is why I am in this class. I am a Tallahassee native so I have attended several Florida State events and games since I have been young. I currently work at an after school and I've been there for 3 years now and that's where my love for children truly started. My family is also a large part of my teaching aspirations because I am the oldest sister to all 8 of my siblings (including my biological father and mother) so I've been caring for children for a very long time. In my free time, I like to play the piano, watch YouTube and write poetry/essays about my life. Also, I am a YouTube blogger and I really enjoy recording videos of myself doing beauty, lifestyle and college videos. I am really excited to see what this class has to offer me and my future kindergarteners. 

I use technology often at my after school job for specific games, movies and activities that we offer during enrichment classes. For example, I frequently go to Gonoodle.com to turn on music for my kids to dance to and I often go to Disney Plus to put on movies for them. However, the only technology I've ever used in a classroom has been on a smart board or a school computer. As far as educational experiences, the technology that I used as a student was just a computer or the smart board for a presentation in class. This class will be very beneficial to me because I don't know how to use any monitor, sound system or Microsoft programs (besides Word)  and I know that I need to know that when I begin to teach. 

The learning experiences that I use to support my learning needs are on and offline. When it comes to online resources, I utilize canvas, Chegg, Math Way, and Khan Academy when I need instruction on how to solve and answer questions on my homework. These resources not only write out step by step rules to the problems but they also give lectures that are way easier to understand then my professors sometimes. Another online resource that I use is YouTube for math specifically because it displays math problems that are similar to what I see on my worksheets and it gives me something to relate to when solving my own. As far as offline resources, I depend on my older college friends who have taken the same classes that I am struggling with so I can see their old notes from the class. Also, I rely on the group chats that my class creates if I have a question about an assignment or I don't get what to do. I think it's also really helpful to look at the actual textbook for the class because it contains all the facts and information about the course in ways that my professor may forget.