About Me

Hello, my name is Joe Stoltz. I am currently a student at Lorain County Community College and will soon be a student at Bowling Green State University. I am studying to become a social studies teacher, certified to teach grades 7-12. Since I was young, I have always wanted to become an educator and in the past few years, I have made steps to fulfilling my dream. In these recent years, I have learned much about the learning and teaching process, due in part both to my studies and my several field experience assignments. In the future I hope to have my own classroom full of students, teaching my favorite subject.

 Technology Skills 

Throughout my education, I have inevitably come across and become acquainted with several different programs and technological tools. Although I have always been a PC user myself, I have had efficient experience and training on Mac systems as well. In terms of programs, primarily, I have used Microsoft Office for years in school, probably beginning in middle school. Having so much experience with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, I like to think of myself as being proficient in my use of these programs. Into my college career, I have become acquainted with other programs and software, such as various SmartBoard applications. For both general studies and education classes, I have found myself becoming more proficient in the general navigation and use of the SmartBoard software. Additionally, I have worked both with blogs and wikis; adding, editing, and removing content from pages and postings. Outside of the classroom I have developed strong SmartPhone and Ipod skills from my years of working with such devices. With both I have learned how to download apps, store information, etc. Additionally, I have had some experience in working with Adobe Photoshop and movie editing software for various projects that I have been apart of, both inside and outside the classroom.

My Resume

My Favorite Educational Resources

1) FedFlix - Being an aspiring history teacher, I found Fedflix to be a great resource to use in the classroom. The website holds thousands of governmental videos that focus on a large variety of topics. From videos covering the Vietnam and Cold War, to interviews with prominent politicians, and videos of experiments such as the Atom Bomb, the website is absolutely full of valueable primary sources. Instead of simply teaching my students about these topics, I could actually show them video footage from the era itself. On top of all of this, this website is also in the public domain, so all videos are free to use in the classroom.
https://archive.org/details/FedFlix

2)  Kidspast - This is yet another website that I personally found useful due to my desire to be a social studies teacher. The website has a very comprehensive history of human civilization broken up by landmark events that have occurred throughout history. Despite covering many large and sometimes complicated topics, the website does a good job of keeping the information in very simple, easy-to-understand English. This type of resource could be helpful for students who may be unclear on certain points in history, as they could refer to these short and simple explanations for clarification. In addition to being a great information source, the website also features a number of interactive games that can help reinforce learning and understanding of certain historical concepts.
 http://www.kidspast.com/

3) Prezi - Although I was not in the Jigsaw group that was assigned Prezi, as it was presented to me, I saw much potential value for the program in a classroom setting. Though Prezi is very similar to PowerPoint in many ways, it has many defining features that make it unique and frankly, an improvement to PowerPoint. Prezi allows one to create an interactive presentation that creatively and engagingly presents varied types of media and information to the viewer. The program would be a great replacement to a teacher's general PowerPoint or Keynote presentation. Prezi could also reinvent ways in which students can be assessed. Teachers could easily assign students to create their own presentations using Prezi in order to teach their classmates a particular concept. Overall, Prezi seems like it will be a useful tool for both educators and students in the future and will likely replace PowerPoints.
http://www.prezi.com/