Required Reading for the Upcoming School Year (List Entry)

In the upcoming school year, Decatur City Schools has partnered with A+ College and Career Ready to help move our students forward for today’s post secondary environments. Due to this partnership, the curriculum line-up has changed as well as what novels will be read. The following is a list of books that will be read during the school year in 8th grade English Language Arts. You may purchase one on your own or use a copy that I will supply.


Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a novella by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson first published in 1886. The work is commonly known today as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or simply Jekyll & Hyde.] It is about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The novella’s impact is such that it has become a part of the language, with the very phrase “Jekyll and Hyde” coming to mean a person who is vastly different in moral character from one situation to the next (



A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, suggested by “The Knight’s Tale” from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, written around 1594 to 1596. It portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta, and with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is one of Shakespeare’s most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world. (

EdTech 533 YouTube for Educators Reflection

YouTube for Educators is an elective course I chose to take to meet the requirements for the MET program at Boise State University.  This course proved to be more challenging than I ever thought it would have been. I learn a lot and plan to implement as much as possible into my classrooms!  The following is my reflection on the course that I submitted as part of my final grade for the course. At the end is a link to my YouTube channel where my artifacts from this course can be found.

As the fall 2016 semester ends, I think back to what I have learned and gained from my EdTech 533 YouTube for Educators course. Overall, I loved this class and would not mind taking another one if possible. Dr. Snelson made it easy to follow in Moodle by having due dates stated in easy to find locations and by providing guidebooks for every lesson. For me, the guidebooks are what helped me get through this course. With the inclusion of video tutorials and step-by-step instructions Dr. Snelson was highly methodically in providing everything a student will need and/or encounter in the course.

In the final essay, the class was asked to answer a few questions. Here are the questions with my answers:

  • What were the three most important things I learned this semester?

The three most important things I learned this semester were:

Copy Rights – learning about how important it is to obey copyright laws in creating videos and how to find a license to determine if I could reuse it was one of the most beneficial things I will take away from this class. I have already begun incorporating it into my current classroom.

Video Captions – an educator I need to make sure that all of my students have the same opportunity to be able to understand and learn from any and all methods I use in my class. Providing captions is just a small thing to add to all videos to help ensure I reach each and every student.

Creating a playlist in YouTube – I absolutely love how I can find videos for a certain subject or lesson and curate them into a file that will house them together. I have already used this option several times in my current classroom.  In teaching Language Arts I can find videos for all parts of speeches, on fiction and nonfiction information, elements of a plot, etc. and share the list with my students as supplemental material or use them in class!

  • Has my opinion of YouTube in education changed or remained the same? Describe three or more specific examples.

The short answer to this question is Yes! Before this class, I could “kinda” see the relevance of YouTube, but due to some content not being suitable for some students I was highly hesitant to use. My opinion has changed because I can see how I can actually incorporate it into my classroom. A couple of examples would be to create a page for each class. This would create a space for the students to be able to upload their creations throughout the year in one location. Students would then be able to use a shareable link to possibly distribute to a bigger audience. Another example would be to pick out a video and stop it before it ends and have the students create a new ending based off of what was previously shown. A final example would be to use YouTube to compare and contrast two different dragon videos or to pick out traits of the characters.

  • What have I learned about media literacy and how will that information impact me as an educator? In your response, discuss three or more core competencies of media literacy: access, analyze, evaluate, reflect, or act.

What I have learned about media literacy is allowing for options in a classroom is key. In providing access to many types of media, the students can then analyze each option to determine what would work best for them. By giving the students the responsibility of evaluating the media it provides them the opportunity to think in a critical manner to help themselves be prosperous. Developing critical thinking skills in using all types of media is essential to being college and career ready.

  • In what specific ways will I use the projects, skills, or ideas from this course in my teaching or training? (If not currently a teacher how might you use what you have learned?)

I will be utilizing what I have learned in this course in many ways. I have already incorporated the short-form educational video in my classroom. My students recently had a biography project where they had to complete research on an author of their choice and then create a presentation on them. Many of my honor students chose to use Powtoons because of the animation ability it provided. I can absolutely see how my skills I gained with the mini documentary will and should come into play. Stressing the importance of being a good digital citizen by checking copyright licenses and practicing safe use strategies alone will be most beneficial to them.

I would like to incorporate the use of a Vlog, whether by me, in the form if a daily or weekly newsletter-like item, or by my students where they have to keep a vlog about their daily or weekly assignments (I am thinking more along the lines of a video journal). This will help accomplish many underlining items such as confidence in front of a camera and speaking and enunciating clearly.

Our media literacy assignment gave me several ideas on how to get my students to think in a more synthesized manner. By thinking outside the box I could use videos to help teach such things as characterization by having them identify indirect and direct from an excerpt from a movie; elements of a plot, have them fill in a plot diagram identifying where the different elements take place in a short video, and compare and contrast internal and external conflict.

  • Select at least three of the projects you created this semester and read the description of the related AECT standard. Then answer this question: How do these projects demonstrate my mastery of the AECT standards?

The mini-documentary and short-form educational video demonstrates my mastery of the AECT Standard 3 in Ethics because we had to provide attributions on items such as video footage, pictures, or text we did not create ourselves.  It showed how plagiarism can be very easy in video creation if one does not take the time to take the proper channels in ensuring sources were cited correctly.

Vlog with captions demonstrates my mastery of the AECT Standard 3 in Diversity of Learners because it was created with a certain level of students (6th graders) in mind and that was intended to be able to reach the many different ways a student can learn. It is an excellent method to use for those learners that are more visual and hands-on ordinated.

The media literacy assignment demonstrates my mastery of the AECT Standard 4 in Assessing/Evaluating because I had evaluated videos that would fit into my topic of study. In evaluating the videos I had to keep in mind my topic and key points I wanted to convey to my students but I also needed to keep my target audience in mind. Meaning, I needed to find videos that would keep my students focused whether it was through animation and/or music and pertained the correct content.

My EdTech 533 YouTube Channel

Sylvia Plath mini-documentary




EdTech 503 Reflective Synthesis Paper

As part of our final segment in the Instructional Design Project, we had to write a reflection describing the Instructional Design Process in metaphorical terms. The following is my reflection.

The instructional design process can be compared to having kids for the first time. When parents-to-be (PTB) first find out they are pregnant they are excited and joyful, just like one would be when given the opportunity to complete an instructional design. Then when the PTB settle down, the worry of “what will we need to do,” and “what do we need in order to do what we need to do” kicks in. This is the same as an instructional designer. At this point, the PTB and instructional designer go out, looking for someone or something that will aid in gaining the necessary information to help answer the important questions. PTB will go out and find books, talk to friends, and find possible subject matter experts (SME) like a doctor to help gather the necessary information. An instructional designer will go and gather information from those that will perhaps use the instruction, conduct research with the intended company or by giving a survey from those impacted by the design. Determining the needs is critical for PTB so they can understand what they will need to do and acquire during the nine months of pregnancy. Needs analysis is also a critical step for an ID, because this will help determine the focus of the design. Next, PTB need to start making plans, where will the baby sleep, what type of milk will be used the first year of life, will a daycare be needed and if so which one should be chosen. For an ID, planning is answering the following: what is the role of the instructor (if there will actually be an instructor or will it be computer-based instruction); what are the learning objectives and how do they tie into what the needs analysis data revealed; how will the instructor motivate the learners to stay focused and on task; what will the instructions for the instructor look like and how will they be conveyed to the students; what materials and what technology will be needed for this design to be able to fully function. Then there is the evaluation plan. Right before the birth of the child, PTB need to evaluate the steps they have taken to ensure all (or most) of the needs have and will be met. Things to be considered (evaluated): was the right pediatrician chosen; is the place where the baby will sleep ready; have all of the necessary items for a newborn baby been purchased i.e. car seat. The ID needs to evaluate the instructional design plan by ensuring the intended goals of the plan have been met by the design. The use of an SME to help evaluate the plan would be a good idea for an ID and for the PTB.  Parenting is an ongoing, ever-changing process, so is an instructional design project. The project will need to be evaluated every year (or every time it is implemented) because the learners will constantly be changing.

This course, Instructional Design, challenged me to think about all of the little things I took for granted. The things I took for granted were things such as what materials I would need to deliver the instruction, the readiness of supplemental items to help differentiate my instructions, and being more conscience of the learners’ actual needs versus what I thought they needed.  When I walked into my classroom for the first time I did not think about what went into all of the materials that were at my disposal. Now, I am more appreciative of the fact that there was (is) a process that helps guide the course. In Report #1 the Analysis of the Learning Context was probably an area I did not take into consideration before I took this class. Teaching in the classroom I am in, I have learned to “make do” with what I have, or do not have…like a door. So, in thinking about the little details that could hinder or disrupt learning I had to take a step back and try to look at it with fresh eyes so to speak. Then in Report #2, the Instructor’s Guide I saw how the little things could be forgotten. When I begin a new lesson and introduce it, I base a big part of checking for understanding on watching my students for their nonverbal cues. In the design process, I learned that I needed to include the instruction of observation to make sure someone else could understand. Again, it is the little things I do automatically that took the longest to put on paper in the design.

How will the design process relate to my future work in educational technology? I believe that with the knowledge of the ADDIE model (analyze, develop, design, implement, and evaluate) I will be able to use and implement this skills no matter what area of educational technology I will be working within. I think the design process relates to my current position because it has helped me understand I need to pay more attention to how I create lessons, choose lessons, and how I decide to implement the lesson. I am more conscientious as a teacher now.

EdTech 503 Final ID Project