A little about..

 

My name is Jacob Amstutz, "Mr. A" and I am the Elementary Technology Teacher at Bluffton Harrison Elementary School (K-4) 

 

I am a 2013 Graduate of Ball State University with a Bachelors in Elementary Education and a concentration of Kindergarten & Primary Grades. During my Senior Year I was a student teacher here at BHES in the 3rd grade with Mrs. Crickard. Here I practiced what I had learned from my lectures and practicum courses at Ball State. I have since continued my education by becoming a Common Sense Media Certified Digital Citizenship Educator and a Google Certified Educator on Google Apps for Education. Most recently I was selected to be a S.T.E.M. curriculum developer for the DOE and Indiana Migrant Education Program. On this team I worked collaboratively with other educators in indiana to create an engaging curriuculum that encorporated state of the art technologies. During this time the EdTechHeroes were developed, which is a team of innovative educators sharing their knowledge and ideas with others. 

 

   My interests and hobbies include spending time with my wife and our two dogs, discovering new music, DJing, watching movies, and drawing. 

 

          As a new educator I am learning new things about my teaching styles, classroom management, and lesson planning. Along with being a new teacher I have a lot of energy in the classroom and like to try out new ideas or resources within my lessons. My teaching philosophy values and implements creativity, teamwork, diversity, and engaging lessons. 

 

"Not every student has the ability to become an astronaut, but they all have the ability for success. For students to succeed, the educator must fulfill their role as the one to inspire and push them to their goals. I believe I have the ability to fulfill that role; it is my passion to guide students through their goals in education. It is crucial for the family, school, and community to be involved and work together with the educator to see that the student is progressing. Diversity is what will hold our classroom together, the power of individuals working together for the common goal of having a positive learning process and environment. Students have different needs and I will be flexible enough to do what it takes for a student to fully grasp a concept. For sociological growth and teamwork students need group work to brainstorm ideas and solve problems together. As an educator it is my focus to make concepts applicable by making them valuable and by making learning exciting to get the students engaged."

 

As a Technolgy teacher I believe that the most important concept to teach elementary students is digital citizenship. With this belief I have extended my education on digital citizenship through the company Common Sense Media, this a great resource for students, educators, and parents. I have become a Certified Digital Citizesnhip Educator by submitting  a sample of my lessons and use of Common Sense Media materials. In this day and age with technology being used daily by all ages it is important that young people learn about safety and what it means to be a responsible digital citizen. When students learn about digital citizenship in my classroom we discuss balancing time with and without technology, appropriate use, how to be safe, ways to positively use technology, and the issue of cyberbullying. Even though I am the technology teacher I also teach the concept that technology is great but our lives should not revolve around it, hence the component of balancing time. 

 

"Computers have lots of memory but no imagination." -unknown author