Richard Byrne

Comment on Byrne Article...

It did take me awhile to sift through Byrne's enormous amount of info, but I found the "5 Sites Students Can Explore to Learn About Career Options" to be valuable. My student teacher could've utilized these with our seniors this spring when she had them research careers to base their term papers.

As for actively using a blog with my students, I'm not quite comfortable with the process yet. I'm not an active social media user, but perhaps maintaining an active blog would be a way for me to get started. Baby steps...

100 Educational Blogs

I visited the Busy Teacher #13 blog and learned about grammarly.com.  Suggestions were given in how to manage the massive amount of papers to be graded in an English classroom.  It also provided sample intro paragraphs, conclusions, etc.  It might be worth my time to look further into this.  Different supplemental materials are always welcome when having to teach writing to students!

10 Picture Tour

View from second floor into the Commons area

Sign leading into the English/Social Studies wing where I teach

Mission Statement hanging in the cafeteria

Mascot symbol on the south gym court

Thunderdome seating for the student section

District slogan and symbol posted outside of main office

Many state champions and award winners since 1977-78 inaugural year

Circle drive outside the main entrance to the school

One of the computer labs available to students

J. Doe given by the Class of 2003 on display in the media center

first blog to techie friends

     My name is Vicki Hansen and I teach English 12 and FAME classes at Bellevue West High School.  My teaching career spans 20 years, having taught at Barr Junior High in Grand Island for three years, North Platte High School for two years, and at West for the last fifteen years.  In addition to teaching, I'm the Senior Class Sponsor, a member of the National Honor Society Selection Committee, and a Building Representative for the BEA.
     After graduating from Cozad High School in 1988, I attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and graduated in 1993.  I met my husband later that year and we were married in 1996.  He is the head men's basketball coach for UNO, so our lives are centered around practice times, games, and recruiting schedules.  We have two daughters, 14 and 11, who are also basketball players, as well as volleyball.  They attend Mission Middle School and Fairview Elementary schools, respectively.
     As for my experience with technology, I would consider myself a novice.  I used to think of myself as a PC person, but since the introduction of the Macs, I've loving them even more.  I'm in need of a new home computer and am considering a Mac - that wouldn't have happened until last summer!  In my classroom, I don't use much technology, primarily because I don't have a rover cart with the cool tech gadgets on it.  I have sparingly used YouTube and audio clips to help in teaching literature.  However, I am very excited about the possibility of using a blog to communicate with my students and expand our discussions from the classroom outward.  I really am looking forward to this class!