Richard Byrne's Website - Explaining through Visual Aids

I looked at the article on Richard Byrne's website that focused on DNA being explained visually. I teach English, so clearly the DNA model has nothing to do with my classroom. However, I do feel that reaching out to students through visual aids (such as this video) is a great way to meet certain needs of students. I would like to be able to create something like this for my classroom. I have a lot of lessons that focus on character analysis. While it's great to read about different characters, being able to visually see the differences would be a great tool for my classroom. I realize that these videos typically cost money to create -- or take an extensive amount of knowledge to create -- but this is something that would be a great asset to our building if SOMEONE had the capability of creating it. I think that in the future we will be looking at a lot more of these videos in our classroom as our learners are becoming more and more dependent on technology.

TedTalk

This TedTalk video is by Ken Robinson. He speaks about how to escape education's "Death Valley". While watching this video, I realized that it was like most of his other speeches. He always talks about new ways to teach our students. He encourages us to find what our students are good at. Every student is an expert at something. Whether that's video games, literature, or sports, they have something that they can bring to the table. This video inspired me to find that something in every one of my students. I have a pretty good relationship with my class, but there are a few students who are hard to crack. I'm going to make it a goal for myself to find out what sparks those students, and I will challenge myself to teach to their strengths.

Ten Picture Tour

This is my wife Winter

These are my babies.

These are my best friends from my college days. 

This is me.

This a picture of my grandpa. 

My daughter Jayna loves the outdoors. 

Claire likes to make wishes.

I am a Notre Dame fan.

I coach football at West.

I enjoy teaching Shakespeare. 

Article Review

After reading from the blog: Finding Common Ground - Not All Reading Has to be Assessed, I couldn't agree more with the argument.  The main idea behind the article was to remind us as educators that reading, although it should be challenging and productive, it also needs to be fun.  As a teacher who teaches primarily British Literature, I know that this can sometimes be a challenge.  That is, to make the reading in my classroom both engaging and rigorous.  But as mentioned in the blog, the teacher needs to allow for some choice, and for some "fun" reading times in his or her classroom.  We want students to be able to pick something up at home and read for enjoyment as well as reading what is assigned in class.  

Here are 3 of my favorite links:

http://www.edtech411.net/
http://espn.go.com/
http://www.tedtalk.com/

My name is Adam Heuertz.  I am currently teaching at Bellevue West High School.  I also coach varsity football.  Before this last year, I taught at Benson High School for almost 12 years, and I was the head football coach there for 4 seasons.  I went to Asbury College in Wilmore, KY.  I graduated from there in December of 2000.

I really struggle when it comes to technology.  I admit it is one of my weaknesses, but I am excited to hopefully learn how to use this in my classroom.  The purpose of the blog will be to have another platform for my students to learn about and to discuss the literature we read in class.

Finally, I am not sure if I am a Mac or PC person.  I would say that before this school year I was definitely a PC person, but having used my computer from school, and going through some of the tech training as a new teacher this year, I am much more comfortable using Macs.  Although, I know there is still much more I want to learn about them.