(ACCESS)

Access, Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide, is a program that allows students throughout the state of Alabama to use today's growing technology to their advantage. By 2010 the program will be mandated state wide. Students will be able to take courses that are not offered at their schools. Electives, foreign languages, advanced placement, and much more will be available. Some schools will now be able to offer advanced diplomas, this would not have been possible with the lack of teachers and resources at some schools in AL.

The possibilities of the ACCESS program are endless when it comes to the use of the Internet. With the virtual classroom, teachers can instruct countless numbers of students from one end of the state to the other. Also, teachers specializing in rare arts can now offer their instructions to students who would never, otherwise, have the opportunity. Its exciting to see how the world will continue to accept and incorporate the use of technology in all aspects of life. Cant wait to see how ACCESS works for my nephews!

This is a picture of me and my wifes nephew in Cambodia. His name is Aya.

Alex In The Classroom

I feel that all of Alex's resources would be very valuable to me. I believe all of the tools would help throughout my learning experience as a teacher. I would definitely use the lesson plan feature to help me stay organized. Also, I would check out the web links for alternative ideas and methods towards teaching. Maybe I would use the personal workspace to save some information for future use or share some ideas of my own. Also the section on grant opportunities would be very useful to me. I plan on teaching where I grew up, in a very poor community, so having access to grant opportunities would be very beneficial when trying to keep my students as well equipped as any other student.

I believe that all educators should observe one another and consider different opinions and approaches towards accomplishing a common goal.

My Presentation

My presentation will simply be a brief description of my family members and a few influential people from my past.

Little Bit About ME

Alabama Learning Exchange

The Alabama Learning Exchange, or ALEX, is an online reference site full of useful tools for educators and students. Alex offers quite a few useful features. For one, it provides lists of helpful websites and help with mapping out lesson plans within its "Lesson Plans" feature. There is a "Personal Workspace" feature that allows users to store, share, and access lesson plans, as well as lists of teacher friendly websites. The "Course Material" feature has mapped out grade level appropriate class work and content standards for students. Alex also offers a "Distance Learning" feature which allows students statewide to engage in courses they may not otherwise have access to. Also, the "Professional Learning" section offers a list of websites offering development opportunities, teaching and learning tools, and links to pages offering resources to promote growth as a professional and communication skills.

Alex has much to offer both veteran and rookie teachers. The sharing of information and ideas over the Internet should be used as much as possible within Alabama's school system. Having these tools available over the Internet is also a good way to encourage teachers, (both young and old) to understand and use the technologies which our students will be undoubtedly have grown up using.

The Fischbowl!

Technology has quickly improved and spread to all corners of the planet in the past few years. This technology is helping to improve the overall quality of life and most importantly, I feel, the spread of information and ideas. Karl Fisch brought to my attention that children who have never held a book will soon have access to computers and the Internet. This will give these children access to endless amounts of information. These communities where it would take much donation and fund raising to open new schools and staff them, could now offer online educations for the poorest kids in the world via the Internet. The possibilities are endless. An entire generation of the young people living within the confines of their impoverished third world communities, could band together, educate themselves, and develop ideas to improve their communities and even their countries. Technology, at the rate of its improvement and spread worldwide, will surely reveal unimaginable possibilities in years to come. Thanks Karl Fisch!

Welcome

I want to welcome everyone to my first blog. I will try to make these posts as interesting as possible. Bye for now.