Post #3: OTEN Conference

This is an audio response to the Keynote speaker and one of the workshops i went to at the OTEN conference.

Post #2: How can a blog be a useful tool in education?

Ways a blog can be useful in education:
- It provides an easily accessible place to store information for students
- Can provide a place for students and teachers to interact outside the classroom
- Could easily be used as a work portfolio for students to store pieces
- Great resource that parents can access… either their student’s work or a teacher’s work or expectations and assignments for a class.
-Great educational marketing tool
- Post event dates and invite followers to see information
- Teachers and students can use it as a place to ask questions or ask for recommendations
- Updates are instant
The options and tools that a blog can provide for both the teacher and student are near limitless!

Post #1: About Me!

                   Hi everyone! My name is Ian Mansfield, and welcome to my blog for my EDUC 520 class in the Willamette MAT Aspire program for the fall of 2010!
                 For those of you who don’t know me all that well I will quickly map out my short 24 year long life story. I grew up in Hillsboro Oregon, a relatively large suburban town just west of Portland.  I was the only man in a household of three holding down the fort with my mother and sister until I left for college. I got involved with a multitude of sports at an early age and through those accrued a strong passion for competition and involvement. I spent my high school years playing basketball, soccer and running track while staying busy with all the facets of school leadership as well as volunteering. All of my involvement in extracurricular activities and decent grades got me a full ride academic scholarship that brought me to Willamette University.
             While at WU, I studied psychology. I very much enjoyed learning about developmental, behavioral and cognitive psychology. Being able to understand how the human mind works is an incredibly fascinating thing. I also played basketball and competed in track at Willamette. After graduating from WU, I jumped into the workforce and got a position at a treatment facility for developmentally disabled troubled youth. I really enjoyed working with the teens and decided I wanted to explore what other opportunities there were to work with kids with disabilities. So in 2009, I applied to and was accepted for a position at McKay high school in the Special Education Department's Emotional Growth Center.  It was near the end of the school year when I realized that I wanted to pursue a master’s degree to teach special education.
             Teaching as a career has always been in the back of my mind because of how much I love kids and want to be a positive role model for them like many teachers and coaches were for me. I am very excited about our program and can not wait to have my own classroom!!!! Along with teaching special education I am very passionate about the topic of health and feel like pursuing an endorsement in health education would also make me very happy. As I mentioned above I also was involved in many sports as an athlete, I have also now taken the plunge into the realm of coaching. I have been a volunteer basketball coach at South Salem High now for 3 years and plan to continue coaching throughout my teaching career.
           Outside of education I really enjoy trying to keep up with technology, all kinds of sports and sporting events, good music, food (gosh I loooove food), microbrews, hiking, the beach, the forest, ANIMALS (doggies especially), DIY home repairs, running, eating healthy on occasion, a few video games, sleeping and Netflix. Im sure I left quite a few things out but I might just add them in later. Hope you enjoy my blog!