Hi. My name is Charity Stoll. I attend Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and I am majoring in Secondary Education in Chemistry. I really enjoy discovering how different things work and over the break, I even made my own lava lamp from scratch. I also enjoy helping others learn and I volunteer at the Writing Center in the library three hours a week. I was a member of the Edinboro Spirit of the Scots Marching Band last semester and I plan on participating again next fall. The video above is our show from this season. I am currently a member of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble this semester. I play clarinet for marching band and I play french horn for wind ensemble. I am the drummer for a band that members of my church youth group formed. We perform at different churches in our area when all of our members are home.
My hometown is a small village called Chewton which consists of about 250 people (that may be overestimating), two churches, and one bar. I went to Lincoln Jr/Sr High School in Ellwood City. I was an honor graduate and I participated in many musical ensembles. I auditioned on contra alto clarinet and went to All State Band my sophomore year. I also ran cross country and still enjoy running in my free time.
My views on technology in general are very different from most of my peers. Unlike most teenagers, I have serious problems while using touchscreen devices. I chose a cell phone that still has actual buttons. I have no desire to own an iPad or iPod touch. I prefer reading actual books instead of staring at a screen. The main function of my computer is to play my music library. I only use one social networking site by choice (Facebook) and this is because Facebook is almost necessary in a student's life because all clubs and extracurricular activities give updates through their Facebook pages.
I really dislike using technology as a student. I would much rather have a hard copy of an assignment and turn in hard copies of my papers instead of digitally handing them in. Digital "drop boxes" make me very nervous because technology often fails. I dislike staring at computer screens because they are so bright. When a professor assigns online homework, I also feel nervous because the Internet often crashes. As a student at Lincoln Jr/Sr High School, I have seen many technology failures. Sometimes we did not even have class because the projector did not work or the Smartboard was not being so "smart." From the student point of view, I absolutely hate the way most of my teachers and professors have used technology in the past.
As a chemistry teacher, I feel that I would use technology to present notes and printouts of the notes. I could also use YouTube to help students understand more difficult concepts. Technology would definitely make life easier as a teacher. My boyfriend is currently a graduate student at Kent State University who teaches a few lab classes and he really likes the fact that most of the grading for undergraduate classes is done online. There are no messy papers to deal with. However, I do not believe that I will make my students use things like drop boxes because I know how nervous they make me feel.
In general, I love to teach people and I feel very accomplished when they finally understand a concept. Teaching is one of the few professions that will never go out of style. Teachers cannot be replaced by computers because most students need to be motivated to work and only a dedicated teacher can motivate students.
