Introduction to Lindsey McDill

My life as an educator:

Hello everyone! I am so excited to start blogging and for you all to be reading my blogs. My name is Lindsey McDill, and I am currently teaching first grade for my fifth year. Starting this school year, this is my seventh year as a teacher. My first two years, I was teaching second grade. My second-year teaching was when COVID started (what a time that was)! After COVID, I was asked to teach first and second grade in-person. That was probably my hardest year but also my favorite year. Then I moved to my new school where I have been teaching first grade for four years. I absolutely love teaching and sharing with everyone what happens throughout my days. 

Why I became a teacher:

My story is as to why I became a teacher is a lot like other educators' story. Growing up, I struggled so much to enjoy school that I fell behind quickly. My first couple years as an elementary school student, I did not connect with my teachers. This caused me to not enjoy school, however, my twin brother Dan excelled in school. When I went to second grade, I had a teacher who took the time to get to know me and make me feel important in the classroom. She helped me develop skills to be the best student I could be by teaching me the way I learned best.  I took these skills into my later years in elementary school, middle school, high school, and even college. In third grade, I was able to experience a class being with my twin brother. At this point, my brother was beyond the third-grade level, and I was still below it. Our teacher worked hard to meet the needs of my brother and meet the needs of me. I fell in love with the idea that teachers could help everyone as individuals. I try and do this with my students every year. I work hard to understand that each kid has their own skill level, and I have to figure out how I can help them grow as individuals and not as one whole class. 

My relationship with technology:

I love technology and I use it/help others understand how to use it. Growing up, I was always the person that my family would go to when needing help with anything technology. My grandparents always said, "we will wait for the master to help us". Both of my grandparents are on social media and understand how to use it. My grandma comments and likes everything and it keeps her busy. I think that I do a good job of "playing around" to understand how to use certain things or figure out problems. My family had an old computer that would not turn on and I spent months fixing it just by literally "playing around". At my school, I am someone who everyone goes around and asks for help. This probably started because I have always loved helping people figure out how to use it. For technology, I like to use all the social media platforms, my favorite is tik tok. If I wasn't a teacher, I wish I could be tik tok famous. I also like to use different photo developing websites like shutterfly. For this, you definitely need to have an understanding of how to use technology to make the project come out perfect. 

In my school, my students are one-to-one tablets. Last year, the district switched from ipads to tablets. The tablets are Microsoft tablets. This was a hard adjustment for myself and my students. We took it slow and together; we figured out how to use it. Unfortunately, since my students are younger, every problem, every question, goes through me. This causes a lot of distractions in the school day. I try and teach a couple students how to solve the problems so the students can first ask them and then if they still are having trouble, come to me. My students use many different applications. To start, they use clever. Clever has all of their online platforms in one place, which is super nice. They also use googlekids for projects. My students love to create projects on this, and I can trust that the platform is safe and user friendly. Recently, I have been trying to figure out a way to get them to create movies with incorporating their learning. As a class we play blooket and kahoot! 

Feelings about the course: 

I am very excited to continue to learn new ways to integrate technology into my classroom. Right now, I have a very outgoing and silly class. I have been having a hard time getting them focused and staying on task. I think this class will help with this because I can learn new ways to use their outgoing personalities to keep them engaged through technology and working together. The meme that I picked is showing how excited I am to get started and learn from this class and my peers! 

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