In my opinion, teaching isn’t just either a science or an art. It takes both to be a great teacher in my opinion. Clearly, there is science to how children learn and what stimulates their brains and furthers development. This science is needed in a classroom, I can’t deny that. But, it takes a level of creativity and artistic touch to truly grasp students. I don’t believe a classroom can just start to finish be taught strictly on a science of how kids learn. Student’s needs stipulation, they need a change of pace through the day. This can be achieved through artistic ways to incorporate what science tells us and allows children to have fun and expressive ways to understand subject concepts. I believe both science and art is involved in teaching and that you can’t just depend on believing in one or the other. The best way for students to thrive is to incorporate both ideas.

Fund for Teachers

Elmer’s Teacher Tool Kit Grant

I would use the money from these grants to help enrich my classroom. The money would go to supplies and technology so my students get the best possible learning experience they can. This money and its use can be used to changed students life and help me help students succeed.

https://www.donorschoose.org/ helps people donate supplies and money for teachers so they don’t have to pay out of their own pocket for their materials.

https://www.getedfunding.com/c/index.web?s@vfx0GVsXxjha helps teachers find grants they need specifically for their field of teaching and their specific classrooms.

Khan Academy helps students and teachers has the a PLN for practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom.

https://www.khanacademy.org/khan-for-educators/teacher-toolbox/getting-started-teacher-training-us/implementation-strategies-us/classroom-strategies/v/homework-khan-academy-teacher-training-2018?modal=1 is about homework and the best methods to get homework to be challenging enough to test students knowledge and to still keep them involved.

https://www.khanacademy.org/khan-for-educators/teacher-toolbox/getting-started-teacher-training-us/implementation-strategies-us/classroom-strategies/v/review-and-test-prep-khan-academy-teacher-training-2018?modal=1 I know very little about test prep and how to help students with it so this video came in handy for me.

I believe that in good portion, worksheets are more beneficial to students. I don’t believe teachers should rely on them everyday but they do offer tons for students academically. They promote logical, lingual, analytical, and problem-solving learning. Also, majority of worksheets can be worked on by multiple people and this helps students socialize and learn team work. Plus, you can find some extremely creative worksheets that allow students to be more imaginative and grapple their attentions on the material.

https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/generators/wordscramble.php#ws

I decided to make a worksheet around spelling and grammar of school supplies. I used a word scramble template because they are like puzzles and keep a student involved and their minds going.

My concept map is on a lesson about World War II. I covered basic important topics about the subject.

A personal learning network is things like: email, groups, blogs, news and social media used to social network about any of your needed fields. For me specifically, I’d use it for my career in teaching and share and use colleagues to learn more, gather information and tools needed to do my job. It’s important to bookmark and organize the things you use in your personal learning network. Plus, it helps you document your growth in the profession.

5 Professional Organizations:

1. https://www.globalautismproject.org/ is an organization that works with autism and helps students and teachers use different tools and resources to get the most out of teaching and learning.
2. https://www.naset.org/ is a national membership organization dedicated to rendering all possible support and assistance to those preparing for or teaching in the field of special education.
3. https://tash.org/ works to advance inclusive communities through advocacy, research, professional development, policy, and information and resources for parents, families and self-advocates.
4. https://www.cec.sped.org/ is a professional association of educators dedicated to advancing the success of children with exceptionalities.
5. https://stmsc.org/ works to help older special education people and teacher that look to help them.

5 Blogs or Websites:

1. https://www.eduguide.org/content/blog/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjt79mNS75wIVkozICh3rEguCEAAYAyAAEgJsQ_D_BwE provides multiple blogs a special education teacher can use to expand their personal learning network.
2. https://www.teachforamerica.org/ is a blog where different teachers post and provide tools and resources to help other teachers across the entire country.
3. http://www.breezyspecialed.com/ is a blog ran by a teacher named Brie who has worked 5 years into specail ed and what she uses daily to teach.
4. http://www.autismadventures.com/ Offers lessons for teachers to use. Step by step how to do the lesson and what benefits it has.
5. https://www.mrspspecialties.com/ is written by a special education teacher with over 20 years of experience teaching at the elementary school level.

3 Workshops for Teachers:

Garden State Summit is every year and they invite Google to come teach how to use their tools to help us teachers in the classroom. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/garden-state-summit-featuring-google-for-education-2020-tickets-62438015786

NJECC Annual Statewide Educational Technology Conference is a conference that views presentations and workshops on professionals teaching in K-12 school and universities. They usually cover libraries and special education. http://www.njecc.org/conference/

Educon isn’t directly about technology but is all about the future of classrooms and some part of that is technology and how much it’s part of our lives. http://2020.educon.org/

1. This webquest is nice because its a fun topic and clear and accurate. It’s about first grade students role playing as a news meteorologist. There are clear with the objective and purpose, as well as how to score the students. It also comes with an award for students, which i think is cute. http://zunal.com/att-export-pdf.php?w=105126

2. This webquest is organized and simple to follow. Everything is separated into groups and just a click away from getting any information you need for the webquest. It even gives process of the lesson and a conclusion. http://questgarden.com/153/33/0/130103144823/task.htm

3. Like the second webquest, this one is set up the same way and oragnized. I personally picked this one because its a retrospective for students of their senior year. I just think that’s a really neat idea and good topic specifically on webquests. http://questgarden.com/153/36/8/130107173030/