Tech Task #1

I was born and raised in Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, a mining town. For a matter of fact Esterhazy is known for the largest Potash mines in the world. I lived with my mother, step father, little brother Chris (22 yrs old), little sister Lindsay (12 yrs old), and my cat Sabrie. My entire extended family lives in or around Esterhazy.

I have had a busy past 6 years:

• Through gr. 12 I worked as a snowboard instructor to save money to go to university.
• 2001 - I went to the University of Calgary (at the end of the year, felt I needed to see more of the world)
• 2002 - I went to Fort Macmurray to make some quick cash as a contract painter.
• 2003 - Jan-Mar I went traveling in Thailand with my boyfriend (him and i made it through and have been dating for over 7 years).
• 2003 - I took a makeup artistry certificate at Marvel college in Saskatoon.
• 2004 - I decided I wanted to go back to school, took my core classes at the U of S. (second university attended).
• 2005 - I then decided i wanted to take visual arts at the U of R.
• 2006 - present - I have a year and a half left of my visual arts degree and 2 and a half of my Arts Ed degree (accepted spring 2006). So I will be leaving the U of R with a BA and a BED.

That brings me to the present day. It was a journey to figure out that I want to be everything. And teaching is such a great career that provides a wide variety of experiences.

I have not worked with a lot of technology outside of my personnal use. Although, for the past 2 summers I worked for MOSAIC Potash Esterhazy in the Safety and Training department. I learned a lot more about Microsoft Word and the Access programs. Technology can truly speed things up and sometimes slow things down. For example, computer crashing, photocopier breaking down, or a bug in a Word document.

I believe that technology is a great research tool not only for students, but also for the teachers teaching the students. I also believe that communicating on the internet maybe changing peronnal and social communication skills. This is my own and personal opinion, email and msn is great to talk to people that live across the world because it does not cost anything, but we as humans need to learn facial, body and eye language. I am not sure if this is being lost or not, but it is something that I am keeping myself aware of.

In this class I expect to learn more about what technology has to offer me and my students. I hope to learn how to use the internet more effectively, which I already have and we have only had 2 classes.

I am very much enjoying ECMP 355 and am looking forward to the rest of the semester.