UEN (pt.1)

What?

This time we learned the ins and outs of the UEN (Utah Education Network) website. We also created our own webpage there, and designed it to our tastes.

So what?

As a student, I have to say that UEN is a very useful tool to have while going through the teaching degree. It has many very useful pages that can help me create possible lesson-plans for my student-teaching days, and also cool links to other sites that might be helpful in the future. Certainly the link to Pioneer Library will become a big asset to my future as a student. Although I will add that I am not as comfortable with the UEN site as others I have visited, mostly because it is so cluttered and busy all the time. It is intimidating trying to find specific things that I might be looking for in the maze that the site seems to be.

That said, this site would be good for my colleagues, if they want to see where I am at in lesson plans or just to catch up with what I am doing as a teacher. As there are many teachers and professors that have professional pages there, it will be helpful to look through other profiles to see what those who are teaching in my same grade-level are teaching or finding helpful in their classrooms.

Now What?

This is where I have to go off the beaten path a bit. As I am planning to teach out-of-state and in a low-socioeconomic area, I am not sure what my future school-district will allow when it comes to UEN. As it is a Utah-based network and focuses on the education expectations of this state, it might not apply or be appropriate for where I plan to teach in the future.

If I were to stay in Utah, however, it would be a wonderful asset for my students. I plan on teaching first-grade to third-grade kids, and there are many fun games and activities that my students could play, that are educational as well. And as said in the “So What” section, my colleagues and I could use it as an invaluable tool for seeing where we are in correspondence to each other and other teachers outside of our school.

Video Reflection

As a student who has been a part of the “real world” for some time, I can say that I agree with most of what President Obama said in this video. HOWEVER! Seeing as he was addressing students K-12, I believe his speech was slightly inappropriate for the age-group. He spoke way above the understanding of most elementary school children, and seemed to be speaking AT and not TO the older grade-levels. I did like how he put in the stories about his own education and life, and the stories of students around the US who overcame everything and are now attending college. That added a more personal edge to the speech.