Blog Assignment 13

The Alabama Learning Exchange, also known simply as ALEX, is a development of the Department of Education. It is a website that shares many kinds of educational tools for both students and teachers. It doesn’t only provide resources for the core classes in schools such as English, social studies, math, and science, but also has information on the arts, health, technology, physical education, foreign languages, and driver’s education. The website lists the courses of study with the grades they are usually taught in, and then it provides links to other websites and lesson plans to further education on those topics. There are also places for podcasting, creating lesson plans, finding lesson plans that other educators created, and communicating with other teachers. It is a way to exchange knowledge and information.

When I become a teacher, I think it will be very useful to use ALEX as a teaching tool. I can have my students use it to help clarify what I teach, especially if they’re having a hard time understanding the material. Also, I can use it to get ideas for my lessons and help my planning of the lessons. Since I will be able to talk with other teachers, I can get opinions and advice on how best to present topics that will be more interesting to my students.

Now, ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, & Students Statewide) I am more familiar with because in my senior year of high school I took Latin I and Latin II using it. It was set up similarly to the USA Online website with the dropbox and other various tabs. Students are able to take classes through ACCESS that normally wouldn’t be available to them in their own schools. Their teachers may be teachers at a nearby school, and the students can be from any other public school in Alabama. Since it is completely online, you are given assignments at the beginning of the day with all the instructions of what to do and when to turn it in. If you need help, there is a moderator that supervises and is specially trained to answer questions and help out when necessary. In my case, it was a wonderful experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is unsure of whether or not to participate in ACCESS.