Greetings to all who find this! My name is Victoria Watts and I am a student/aspiring English teacher.  I have always enjoyed writing, though most of my work never leaves my journals or One Note computer program. Unfortunately that's a great way to ensure my work never receives constructive criticism or that my talent develops further. I live in a small town in Texas where the pine trees grow like a plague. It is unsettling to think that when most people think of Texas they envision the dusty old west with tumbleweeds and cowboys.  Part of my mission in life is to prove them wrong. Besides classes and working, I spend my time trying to ride the unicycle I received for Christmas a few years ago. Uni-cycling is a challenging sport that requires more of its rider once one task has finally been achieved.
I can see technology integrated in the classroom through several different avenues.  If computers are accessible to the class the students could keep their own blogs. I would take this opportunity because I feel that self-expression and emotion are key elements in creative writing.  I want students to feel like they have an outlet that only they share with me.  They can discuss story ideas, assignments, and reach out to me through this context.  The internet could be used in class to show videos or clips from movies that are based on books.  Videos could help students visualize the scenes in a text. When a student can see the setting for a scene in a book it can explain the actions of the characters.
My goals for this ETEC course involve learning marketable skills that can be used in the future when I am a teacher with a real classroom.  I want to be able to focus on the lessons and take as much away from them as I can.  Now that I have come this far in my education my classes are much more important.  Instead of taking the core curriculum I am taking specialized courses designed for my specific major. The information provided in these classes is what I will take with me to work as a teacher. It is up to me alone to remember what I am taught and apply it in practice later. Hopefully I will learn the tried-and-true, newest, and most effective techniques for teaching in this ETEC class. I want to learn how to be a great teacher, one who my students can depend on, trust, and most importantly I want to be a teacher from whom my students can learn something of value. My goal is to provide them with information they will use after they graduate and good memories of their high school career. Hopefully this course can provide me with skills to reach my students in a new way that they will accept.
Thanks for reading! Until next time, this is Tori, signing off.