Techie by Nature

            If the pandemic taught us one thing; it was how to pivot. Many teachers across the U.S. had to change from in-person to virtual, practically overnight. Not only did teachers have to shift their instruction, but they had to change their approach to teaching as well. Often we discuss how the pandemic impacted our schools, students, and families, but we really do not discuss how the pandemic affected education and the positive shifts that it made for education after the pandemic. Many times, parents equate pandemic learning with online learning, but distance education is much different. Danchikov et al states, “p ractice has shown that in the current conditions, the existing resources of educational institutions can effectively transform formal education into online education with the help of virtual classes and other key online tools” (Danchikov et al, 2021). Emergency Remote Learning vs. Online Learning     According to John Watson, author of The Post-Pandemic’s Digital Lear

      In my experience as a distance education student, I have had to learn a lot of things. Self-discipline, time-management, work-life balance, the list goes on.  Sometimes, I felt like Elle Woods when she was studying for her LSATs.... (her determination was UNMATCHED!)                  Self-Regulated Learning Skills in Online Learners Self-regulation is a set of behaviors that an individual adheres to, without direct input from others. For example, children won’t inherently brush their teeth, but after they are conditioned and encouraged to repeat the behavior, they will no longer require input and reminders from their parents and continue to complete the task on their own. Similarly, self-regulated learning skills are a learned behavior as well.  According to Simonson and Zvacek, “self-regulated learning skills can have a significant impact on student success in any educational environment.” The authors go on to state that “distance education learners would especially benefit from

A Little Bit of Backstory        As I started my post-secondary education, I was under the impression that I needed to have in-person teaching and lecturing to be the most successful student. After all, I had just graduated from 12 years of previous in-person learning from public school. It made sense. As I progressed through my educational journey, I found myself struggling more and more in in-person classes. I found that if a subject was not interesting to me, I would be present, but my mind would wander and before I knew it, the class or lecture was over. This caused me to be ineligible for my chosen program and I had two choices: change my major or transfer to another institution.       I took a chance, chose the latter, and am so happy that I did. Although I was a little nervous about transferring, after meeting with my advisor, I was completely at ease. My advisor informed me that a majority of the program was online (which meant I didn't have to travel) and that I was onl

Early College Pathways Program and Student Success Presentation The Early College Pathways Program     I selected my research completed with the The Early College Pathways program that I help to manage.   The Early College Pathways program is a partnership between the local community college and school district to allow students to earn high school and college credit simultaneously, in order to graduate with a high school diploma and a college associate's degree. There are three degree tracks for students to choose from. They are the Associate in Science, General Education, Associate of Applied Science, Medical Assisting Technology, and Associate of Technology, Welding. The goal of this program is to have students graduate and ready to enter the college or the workforce.       The first associate's degree allows students to complete their prerequisite courses and seek to complete a bachelor's degree in a specific field. This degree is fully transferable in the state of Alab

     ATTENDING THE ACHIEVE CONFERENCE     I was fortunate to attend the ACHIEVE Conference with the Northwest Shoals Community College Advising department. Throughout this conference,  I was able to meet with different college and university professionals from all across Alabama.      The ACHIEVE Conference is in it's 6th year and was hosted at the University of South Alabama. In addition to USA being the host school, Coastal Alabama Community College and Bishop State Community College. The conference's main goal is to gather advisors and other college and university specialists to discuss and learn how to best utilize the Alabama Transfers guide to facilitate students transferring from 2 year to 4 year institutions and from institution to institution. This allows students to have the peace of mind knowing that their classes will transfer, if they ever need to change institutions.  ALABAMA TRANSFERS     The Alabama Transfers agreement is a legislative agreement between communit

       In order to be a competent and effective leader, one must understand the vision of the organization that it leads. According to the CETL framework, Professional Category 1: Leadership and Vision has three main components: leadership and vision, strategic planning, and ethics and policies. Leadership and Vision ED 621 Technology Plan      In the subcategory for Professional Category 1, leadership and vision, I selected a technology plan that I created for a class titled, "Instructional Technology Leadership and Management". In this technology plan, I was tasked to analyze and evaluate potential problems concerning internet safety and security that would be addressed as an instructional technology professional for a school district. Some of the questions answered in the technology plan addressed issues of supporting student achievement, creating an effective and sound plan to address the issue of internet safety and security, and bolstering support to carry out the techn

          Before we began our coaching cycle, the cooperating teacher and I sat down and discussed what he wanted to improve in his instruction. Although he is very knowledgeable in his subject area (English), he mentioned that he is struggling with teaching English to ELL and special education students. While completing my first observation for this teacher, I made sure to not only observe the lesson itself, but also how the students reacted to the lesson well. I tried to think of ways to accommodate and reach these students without having to rewrite the lesson.  Although I have not had the opportunity to teach English to high school students, I do have experience of teaching ELL students an English based subject, United States history from the 1800s to 2008. I believe that my experience was a little more difficult because I had to consider that not only do my students not have the academic vocabulary to comprehend the lessons, but they also did not have the background knowledge as