An Introduction

Hello Everyone!

My name is Stephanie Brouwer. I am currently in my final year at Redeemer University College in the Concurrent Education Program. I graduated from Redeemer in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts with an English major and Physical Education/Psychology minor. The month after graduating, I got married! I met Richard Brouwer at Redeemer, while both playing varsity soccer. My husband also graduated from Redeemer with a Bachelor of Education and we both wanted to do some travelling before finishing up my final year at Redeemer. We researched a little and decided to move to South Korea for one year to teach English as a Second Language. What an amazing experience! We both taught in different public schools and taught children from grades 1-6. The students were very excited to have a blonde, green eyed teacher from Canada and couldn't wait to get to know me through their Korean, English speaking teacher. I taught in a low-income area of Daejeon and the students couldn't afford to take too many extra English classes. Therefore, they could not understand a lot of English. With the help of my co-teacher I was able to teach and have full conversations with further advanced students. The students always seemed to very interested in taking English classes from a foreign English teacher and always had questions for me. It was quite the experience, adjusting to a new culture and trying to communicate all year long with many people who could speak very little English. I loved learning new things about the culture each day, eating different food, and above all else...teaching!! My husband and I also visited Thailand on our winter vacation and had an incredible time. My interests include playing sports, singing, and spending time with friends. 

Here are some pictures of me teaching in SK as well as Thailand. 

My areas of interest in education include the role of creative arts in the class as well as the role of daily physical activity in the classroom. I believe both of these are components of education that often become ignored or pushed aside when it comes to fulfilling other subjects. I think creative arts play a huge role in education and are a way in which students can showcase their talents as well as improve their attention in other subjects. Daily physical education is also very important because not enough children are getting the daily exercise they need outside of school and this is essential to their health. 

I am taking this course because I don't believe I am technologically inclined enough to include a variety of different computer tools to strengthen my classroom practices. I hope to learn ways in which to appeal to student's interests and abilities through using technology. I also hope to learn useful resources that I can share with them to further their learning. 

I believe educators should use technology in education because there's no getting away from it. Technology plays a huge part in the daily lives of our students and we need to be familiar with what our students are interested in. However, it has to be integrated effectively if it is going to make a difference in the way teachers teach and students learn. 
The website below identifies six essential technology-related skills every good teacher should possess -- or acquire. The website below it has numerous resources and articles regarding technology in education. 

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech227.shtml
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech227.shtml

I also believe teachers have a responsibility to prepare students for today's society. If teachers aren't using technology in the classroom, they clearly aren't fully preparing students properly.