About Me:

My name is Katherine Perkins and I'm a Junior at the University of South Alabama majoring in Special Education K-6.I have been wanting to be a teacher since I was younger. I was born and raised in Birmingham, AL. This spring semester(Spring 2010) I have gotten the opportunity to gain experience from a special education classroom. I have really enjoyed gaining a lot of information from the other special education teachers. I knew that there was a lot of work going into being a special education, but I haven't quit yet and I doubt I will. Being a teacher is definitely a dream of mine and I hope to be a great teacher.

Why I want to become a Special Education Teacher

Ever since I was a little girl I have enjoyed school and learning. Since my love of being in a classroom to learn, I knew that becoming a teacher would fit me just right. I have never talked about having any other career except being a teacher. I couldn't imagine doing anything else, but teaching. I was the type of child who would play school all day. That was my favorite game, regardless if I was playing with others or by myself with my dolls. I was so into playing school that I when my mom purchased our first computer and printer I would actually type up an attendance with fake names on it and call role. I was really into it. Well I have grown up and I'm ready to stop playing school and actually start teaching children.

I never knew what I actually wanted to teach, I always thought perhaps math because I was good in math, but I was a bit skeptical of teaching math. I wanted to make sure before I graduated from high school that I knew which field I was going into when I started college. I didn't want to start off in college with having an undecided major. I knew that I wanted to teach in an elementary school setting. So I knew that I would get to teach math along with the other subjects, but that still wasn't enough for me.

I thought long and hard about who I wanted to teach in the elementary school. I remembered back when I was in elementary school and I how I felt when I got the opportunity to help and go on field trips with the special needs children. I felt that I was doing something right and that job would fit me in the future. So there it is, special education will be my career. I don't look at special education as being a career, but more of new opportunity for me. It's not about the money to me, if it was then I would be in medical or law school right now.

Becoming a special education teacher has become like a dream of mine. It's my passion. I want to change the way special needs children learn. I want to provide them with more opportunities than they already have. I want to teach them more about technology like other children. I look at special needs children as being special not because they have a disability, but because they are special just like all children. I want to give them the opportunity to learn so much about the world just like other children. Most importantly, I want my students to know that they are able to do and be anything they set their mind too. They can make a difference if they want to.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Tools I have learned to use

This school year (Spring 2010) I have learned so much about different technologies. A lot of the technologies I have learned can be used when I begin teaching. I would like to incorporate technology in my special education classroom.

Microsoft Office-
  • Microsoft Works
  • Powerpoint- I love working in Powerpoint and creating slide shows. It's a great tool for creating lectures to introduce new material to the students.

Google
  • Google Sites
  • Google Earth- GE is a great tool for finding places around the world. I have been able to look at places outside of the United States. Google Earth also is created for making your tour of different places.
  • Google Docs- I have used Google Docs to create surveys for others to respond to. Also through the Google Presentation, which is similar to Powerpoint, but I would rather use Powerpoint because I can do more in Powerpoint than in the Google Docs presentation.

Blogger- I have learned to create a blog and comment on others blog post. I would describe Blogger as my online journal for my thoughts on different topics and issues. It's also a great learning tool because people can learn about different information that you have talked about on your blog that they may not have known before. I have learned a lot by looking at other teachers blog. Also with blogging has allowed me to see students from other countries class blogs that their teacher created for them.

I would like to use Blogger to create a class blog which will give students information about the class and show assignments and other activities students could look at. Parents would also be able to access the website and look at their child's work in the classroom. It would be very safe and private.

Educational Websites:
I have found many websites that can be very helpful in my classroom.

  • BrainPop- This is a great website for students of all ages. I found it very informational for every subject that is used in the classroom. It also has a separate website for Spanish speaking students. BrainPop provides educational videos for different subjects and also provides lab activities for the students to do in class.
  • Crayola is also another great websites similar to BrainPop. Worksheets can be printed off for students to work on in class.

PLN
I have learned to create a Personal Learning Network which are websites that are useful to me and my teaching career. The websites that I use give me information regarding teaching careers. I follow different teachers who are from different states and teach different subjects.

Timeline TimeToast
Timeline Timetoast is an website where I can create timelines on different events. It's a very great and useful website.
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