Blog 9: EME2040

 As the semester is quickly winding down, I decided to take some time to reflect on my overall experience with EME2040. I enrolled in an asynchronous section for this course, and have so far really enjoyed this experience. However, part of me wishes I took it in person because I do believe that I would have gained a lot more from the class. It is hard to invest a lot of time into online classes, yet I still found myself putting in a lot of effort to complete assignments and finding enjoyment out of all the assignments. This class, unlike the other education classes I have taken, gave me a feeling, almost as if I was actually a teacher. It made me excited for my future and presented itself with a purpose. At no point during the semester did I feel like I was checking off a box, but rather learning a lot of beneficial skills that will carry on into my future. Hopefully, during my time as a teacher, I can recreate this feeling for my students. I hope to be able to teach a class that serves a purpose, rather than a class that is just a requirement. In order to do this, I plan on copying the style of this class and implementing a lot of tasks that do not take much time to complete, but are filled with learning. An example of this would be the portfolio items that we are required to do. 

Open Educational Resources (OER) are resources provided by an individual or group of individuals that grant access to the use of material in order to enhance teaching, learning, and research. Here is a link to an example of an OER. This OER is found on the OER Commons and provides a teacher with a complete lesson and lesson plan. This specific lesson requires students to compare and spot the differences between their picture and their partners picture. This lesson focuses on the use of grammar (prepositions), functional language, and classroom vocabulary. Below an additional link to the OER is posted. 

https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87049/overview?section=3 

As part of the EME2040 curriculum, I was tasked to create a lesson using PowerPoint. I thoroughly enjoyed a lot about this assignment and learned even more. I have used PowerPoint many times in my life before, but my knowledge using the program was very limited. I new the basic functions of PowerPoint. However, after this assignment, I learned quite a bit, including how to record a presentation, how to make my own layout, how to add footers into printouts, and how to use SmartArt. Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment and think that if I were to redo it, I would try to be even more creative with it. Here is a brief preview of my assignment.