Blog Journal 6

The website I decided to look at was for Florida State University Schools. FSUS website content and organization is great because it is easy for parents to navigate in order to stay updated with current school news. On their website, you can actually pick elementary, middle, or high school along with specific grade level or subject. This will navigate you to direct teacher pages. For example, I found a geography teacher's website for 6th grade listed in the middle school section. The website allows me to see all of the content and can even navigate me to google classroom if I chose to do so. This is a great tool because it saves paper and parents always have a direct guide to view necessary information. (https://www.fsus.school/Page/1070#calendar4226/20191017/month)

Technology is critical in order to enhance the learning experience of a student. FSUS has TruTouch (or touchscreens) in all of their classrooms along with individual student laptops. Having access to these technologies allows teachers to implement software that will benefit student learning in specific subject areas. I envision using similar tech to fulfill my professional responsibilities as a geo teacher. Having a virtual globe to zoom in and play with is significantly more effective than a model in this case.

Which brings me to my next point, about how my sandbox experience really made me reflect on real life. There was one tech cube that could be ordered or printed and created that pairs with an app to created virtual 3D models. This would be amazing to use in earth studies and in my own classroom. The second piece of tech that caught my eye was a VR headset that could use a teacher training program. You can lecture virtually and practice in front of a fake classroom to get a feel for what will be effective. My experience in the sandbox made me think about where schools will be 10 years from now.