Blog 4

Step 1:

Website: Best Websites for Elementary Teachers

www.wmtps.org/techini/bestsite/bestsite.html

Step 2:

This website is intended for elementary school teachers. It offers numerous amounts of information for teachers. It gives out different websites for elementary teachers to look at and use for their classroom. The website gives different teachers names and where they teach and the grade they teach. These teachers explored the web and found numerous amounts of information that would be very useful for teachers that teach in the elementary school level. This really helps out other teachers from having to look all over the web trying to find things that would be useful in the classroom, they only have to go to this one website and it has everything they could possibly think of. This website is very easy to navigate because it tell you exactly what the different websites are about, so all you have to do is scroll down and search for whatever you may think could be useful for your classroom. It also uses different colors of font so you can tell the difference between things. The only thing about this website that I would change would be that its way too long. Some of the websites they use are similar to other websites, so they could have chosen the best website between the two and used that one for their website. Other than that, the website is very useful and helpful for elementary school teachers that teach any grade level.

Step 3:

To: Webmaster

From: Adrianne Ashley

Subject: Website Improvements

Hello Webmaster,

I am a recent elementary education major and I was exploring the web trying to find things for me to teach my students when I begin student teaching. I found your website very useful and helpful for me. I examined your website very thoroughly and found something that may help you improve your website. However, my usefulness may not be what you are looking for to improve your website.

The website is very well organized and very easy to navigate. However, the website could use some more pictures and a better background other than just a white background. Using bright and colorful colors on your website will make people that are searching the web, want to really look at your page and enjoy looking at it. The way you have the website laid out is very useful, just adding some more color and animations will draw the readers attention to more of your website.

Another useful tip I can offer you is to narrow the websites down just a bit. Some of the websites are similar to other ones. I would suggest that you look at both websites that seem similar and choose the one that seems to have the most information on what your trying to show to the teachers and delete the other website. Also, the websites that you decide that aren’t that useful, you could make a list of them at the bottom of your website saying “More useful websites if needed.” This way it will make your website not as long as it is now.

Your website is very well laid out for me to find exactly what I am looking for. I think that other readers will find it very useful as well because, it has titles telling you what each website you are providing is about. This website has a great amount of information and very useful websites that you are providing to all the teachers. I hope that you will consider using my helpful tips for your website. These tips I believe will bring more readers to your website and they will enjoy looking at it as well.

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy reading my tips.

Thank you,

Adrianne Ashley

BLOG 3

https://search.collegedegrees.com/forms/university-of-phoenix/publisher/collegecrunch The University of Phoenix was a little difficult to be able to look at the education department. The main reason is because you have to answer so many questions before you can even look at the education department. Which in my opinion is a waste of time if you are only trying to look and see if you are interested in that department of that college. http://www.coe.uga.edu/ The University of Georgia was a great website to visit for an education major. It was easy to find where you wanted to go and had plenty of information. The information that they provided was very clear and easy to understand. It also had different sections of education that you may want to go to and look at if that is the department you are majoring in. Also, it told you everything, such as classes, that you needed for that major before you could actually start the block.

OVERALL PURPOSE

The purpose of writing this assignment is to make a website that numerous people that are interested in the Elementary Education field, will be interested in looking at this website. My outcome that I desire is that I will lead more students to want to enroll in the Elementary Education department at the school of their choice. I would hope that the reader of this outcome would desire to make the decision of becoming an Elementary Education major.

READER PROFILE

My primary reader is for high school graduates looking for a great major to start working toward, and it could also be for people of any age just looking for another major. My relationship with the readers is that they are trusting me to lead them into the right major for them and they assume that I know about my major since I am trying to lead them into the same field as I am involved in. My reader’s job title would be a full time student or part time student with a possibility of different responsibilities. There could be a variety of people that may read my communication. The reader doesn’t have to be very familiar with the subject just as long as they know some of what they want to possibly major in. I should make sure that the website is very informational and helpful for my readers in case they may not be familiar with this major at all. I should be able to understand that my readers will have different ideas and opinions toward my major and I should be open to what they try to say. I should make sure that my website is available to anyone looking for a major in the education department.

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

With me being an education major I should know how to write in numerous ways since I will be trying to teach kids one day how to write also. I also should know my major up and down so that when any one asks me questions I should always have a response for them.

USABILITY OBJECTIVES (READER’S TASKS)

Some questions that the reader will ask will probably be: Why did you choose this major? Is this major for anybody? Do you have to like children to be a teacher? What qualifications do you have to have? Is this major really for me?

All of these questions should hopefully be answered throughout my website and if they are not then the reader will be able to email me anytime to ask me any questions they wish.

PERSUASIVE OBJECTIVES (READER’S ATTITUDES)

Hopefully my readers attitude will be a positive one because they are learning more and more about being an education major and I hope they have an open mind about my major and will have a very positive attitude about this field. I also hope that the reader’s attitude toward me is a positive one as well because I hope they can understand my reasoning for choosing this major and can trust my knowledge toward this major so they can become a wonderful teacher one day.

STAKEHOLDERS

The stakeholders in my communication would be any faculty that I may include in my website and any instructors that I may have had in the past that helped me throughout my major. They will all be affected in a positive way because everything that I may state about them will only be great things and they will get the credit for everything they have done.

CONSTRAINTS

One thing that can limit the way I write is that I am not an actual teacher yet so there may be a few things that I have not experienced yet that they may have questions about. So as of now I don’t have the creditability as a teacher and wont have that until I graduate with my degree so I only know things out of a student’s point of view.

Rhetorical Analysis--Assignment 2

In a recent education class I was required to read an article called “Love and Math”. In this article, researchers tested the mathematical knowledge of first and third grade teachers and then examined the impact of that knowledge on gains in mathematics over the course of a year. The researchers also found that two kinds of mathematical knowledge were important for teachers to possess in order to increase student learning. There were many consequences resulting from the mathematical foundation. The writer was a national board certified teacher with a master’s degree in education. The article was published in a very known mathematics journal. I feel that the writer was trying to tell the readers that teachers own knowledge of math has a substantial impact on a student’s learning ability. The researchers discovered two kinds of teacher mathematical knowledge that are critical to a student’s learning. The first being common math knowledge which is just simple basic math concepts. The second mathematical knowledge is called specialized. This type of knowledge goes way beyond the common math skills. This includes teachers who are especially gifted at figuring out where a student messed up in multiplying or dividing several digit numbers. I believe that it needs to be beneficial to a student when a teacher is able to evaluate and examine the problems rather than just having the simple basic math skills. Also, according to the researchers in this study, effective mathematics teaching requires a solid comprehension of the subject. Some other crucial requirements are a teacher’s fluency and accuracy in the use of math terms and symbolic notations. In addition to all of this research, many teachers are benefiting form well-designed textbooks, software and updated instructional materials to effectively provide important mathematical support. It is my belief, that it would be easier to accomplish the required mathematical skills for teaching while in college. For instance, college students are eager and excited about learning and experimenting with different concepts to math. However, I do believe that a teacher’s math knowledge can be increases through a specialized professional development course that focuses on communication and mathematical analysis. This article tells me that his writing was intended for teachers and parents of the students. The writer assumes that the audience is some sort of well educated and understands the concepts that occur in the classrooms. Craig D. Jerald wrote this article in March 2006. Craig’s article seemed pretty good to me. This article would be perfect for upcoming teachers because it explains that we need well-educated teacher’s to be teaching our children. I was very privileged to have a well-educated teacher to teach me this course and I plan to have many better-educated teachers in the near future. I also hope that once I graduate I will be classified as a well-educated teacher and can teach my students the best and the best way to understand what I am teaching. I also hope to be an inspiring math teacher with a caring and nurturing attitude that helps students achieve, believe and succeed throughout their life.

Assignment 1: Student Profile

Hello, I am Adrianne Ashley and I am from a small town known as Raleigh, Mississippi. I am part of the Chi Omega sorority and I am a Diamond Darling for the USM baseball team. I am currently majoring in Elementary Education with an endorsement in Math and Science and I am looking forward to a great semester. I hope that I will be a great teacher and can teach my students lots of things and help them widen their knowledge. I currently do not have a job but once I finish school I plan on living in Hattiesburg and teaching in the Lamar County school district. Writing had never been one of my favorite things to do in school. English was by far my worst subject because I hated to write. So I'm hoping that maybe throughout this class my outlook on writing will change and I will grow to like writing a little more than I do now. However, I am a little concerned that because I hate writing so much that it will affect my grade for this class and I will receive a grade that will not satisfy me. Although, throughout this summer I hope that I will learn how to write different types of papers and can be taught useful ways of writing these papers. I'm sure that I will learn many things throughout this class and I am looking forward to a great summer class that I will hopefully enjoy and receive a pleasing grade.