Hello, Welcome, Thanks for stopping by! My name is Allyson Browning and this is my attempt at a basic webpage for my Web Development course through The University of Missouri. Web Development has been a challenging course that has tested my ability as a graduate student. I am excited to share what I learn through my very own webpage this semester.
I am starting my sixth year of teaching this school year. I started my teaching career in a small rural district located in Southwest Missouri. Last year I left my position as a seventh grade social studies teacher and was hired to teach eleventh grade government at a larger district in the area. I had always envisioned teaching high school and I have felt right at home in my new role and district. I obtained my MSed through Missouri State University in Elementary Education with an emphasis on Reading in 2013. After a few years of settling in to my teaching role I got the itch to continue my education further. I had always had a special interest in using new tech tools and supporting my teaching with the use of tehcnology. After some reasearch I decided to get my specialist in the Information Science and Learning Technologies with an emphasis in Technology in Schools during the spring of 2019. My plan is to use this degree to become an Instructional Technology Coach. I really enjoy working in the classroom, but I also love helping others understand the potential technology can have in their classroom if used accurately.
I grew up in St. Charles, Missouri a large suburb about 30 minutes west of St. Louis. I was active in my schools booster club, student council, and I was a varsity cheerleader for 3 years. I decided to further my education at Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University). I was initially a part of the Hospitality and Restaurant Program with the intention to become a restaurant general manage in the future. I quickly realized that the long hours and lack of retirement options would not work for my future. I knew I loved history and decided to go into secondary eduation. I graduated in 2009 when the economy was in a bit of a nose dive and teaching jobs were scarce. I took a position as the General Manager at a local BBQ restaurant until I obtained a teaching position in 2013. Between my graduation and first day of teaching I had two daughters and got married. I always tell everyone that I really have three kids, because my husband is just as hopeless as my kids are sometimes. We enjoy volunteering for a local dog rescue, spending days at the river, or binge watching Netflix documentaries. In my personal time I try to keep up with the daily government agenda and issues so that I can keep my students informed and challenge them to discuss what is going on around them. It is a difficult time to teach government to young people because of their access to everything on the internt. I try to make sure that they are supporting their opinions with truthful facts and are able to respectfully agree or disagree with their classmates. After all that is what makes the United States so unique, everyone can have their own opinion without any fear of repercussions. My hope for them is that they will leave high school to become productive members of society who make decisions based on research, facts, and their own beliefs.
By the end of the semester I hope to have a nice website that will support teachers looking for tech tools that match a particular DOK from Bloom's Taxonomy I envision this website to be split up by the different DOK's and then providing drop down menus that would include different types of tech tools for those specific levels. For example if a teacher is planning out their lesson and they want to use a new tech tool that supports the creating DOK level, a teacher could go to my page, click on create and then see a varity of options along with examples. Technology is a part of education now, teachers can embrace it or fight it. I personally want to help teachers and support their steps to use technology to support their teaching.
"...a student attains 'higher order thinking' when he no longer believes in right or wrong". "A large part of what we call good teaching is a teacher´s ability to obtain affective objectives by challenging the student's fixed beliefs. ...a large part of what we call teaching is that the teacher should be able to use education to reorganize a child's thoughts, attitudes, and feelings".