Hello dear readers!  Allow me to introduce myself.  I'm Jessica, and I am a master's student at Fairmont State University.  I am studying multicategorical special education.  I have not had any formal teaching experience, but I have worked with teenagers and youth for a few years now.  I found my calling when I started working with troubled youth in a residential setting.  I decided I wanted to pursue ways to  help young people with behavioral disorders or other issues, and here I am!  I am currently employed as a counselor for a program called Upward Bound.  Upward Bound is funded by the TRIO program through the US Department of Education.  My role is to help students with low income/first-generation to find their way to college.  I get to work in schools in the area.  My program serves approximately 90 students in 8 different high schools.

I am passionate about helping young people, but I have many other loves and interests in my life.  My boyfriend Zack and I have been together for 8 years this September.  We are currently apart because he took a job in the Pittsburgh area.  We will be reunited in September when we relocate to Morgantown.

I love to spend time with my 3 adorable dogs, Gypsy, Indy, and Red.  I love the outdoors, especially kayaking or canoeing, backpacking, hiking, foraging for wild foods (it's elderberry season right now!), gardening, and riding my bike.  I love live music, and I would follow Phish on tour if I could, and someday I hope to get the chance!  I also love music festivals, farmers markets, and all kinds of cultural events that get people together.  I have friends from all over the world that I met over shared music and experiences.

I am excited about this class!  I love media and technology, but I find myself falling behind as I grow older and get stuck in my ways.  I think this class will help me progress with technology, and I will gain many resources from the course materials as well as my peers.  I am especially interested in finding new ways to reach students with special needs through technology.



A little about me!
It’s funny. As I am completing this assignment I realize that just a few hours ago, my colleague and I had a discussion about youth and media/technology over lunch. We came across the topic as we were discussing the recent viral fundraising campaign for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the Ice Bucket Challenge. My colleague noticed that someone on her social media feed was making negative comments about the campaign, which launched us into conversation about how young people today seem to believe anything they read on Facebook. My colleague told a story of a relative who shared a false video about a shooting in the Midwest. She knew the video was fake as soon as she saw it, because, like me, she came from a generation of students that were taught how to discern critical information. However, it seems that with the onslaught of social media, the skills that are necessary to pick through all the information that is everywhere we turn have been lost in the mix. Therefore, it is extremely important for current and future educators to place some focus on this area and teach students how to be media literate. Students who understand how to critically think through the information that is given to them will be able to make much more informed and accurate decisions. These students will be less likely to share false information. As far as myself, I would like to learn more resources for using media in my classroom. I would also like to learn ways to teach students how to analyze information on the internet. It is easy to hand students a magazine article or scholarly article and show them how to critique these forms of media. I do not, however, think it will be so simple to sit a student in front of a computer, press play on a YouTube video, and ask them to dissect what they see to determine its validity. I want to be better at this so I can begin to end the cycle of ignorance that comes from believing everything one sees on the internet. My only concern is that I am able to be an influence to students when it comes to this. I know many young, stubborn teenagers who value what they see on the internet over what they hear from actual, educated adults in their everyday lives. For this course, MOST assignments will be due on Sundays, one week from when they are posted. However, assignments requiring peer or professor feedback may have different due dates. If an assignment is going to be late, I know that I must contact the professor within 24 hour of the actual due date to be considered for partial credit once I turn it in. The best way to contact the professor is through Gmail, preferably the video chat function, or by calling the professor’s cell phone. If I decide to work ahead in the course, I must first contact the professor. Assignments tend to be changed to meet the needs of the students.