Technology Autobiography

Hello!  My name is Marissa Melin.  I am a vegetarian and have been one my whole life!  I got married in November but had dated my husband for nearly 10 years- we are high school sweethearts.  I am a crazy budgeter and track every penny my husband and I spend!

I have always been interested in technology.  You could probably blame my father who was a big Apple fan back in the day.  We always had the newest computers in the house and I have been hooked since then! 

The first year I started teaching language arts (8 years ago), I had a problem with how I was teaching.  I was teaching students to write using pencil and paper and I personally never used these tools.  I wrote every paper in college on my computer and was just getting into my first e-reader.  When I stepped into the classroom excited about teaching, I immediately felt like how I was teaching was incredibly out of date.

3 years later I went to a conference for English teachers and went to every tech talk I could.  When I returned to my school, I developed a plan. I convinced my principal to let me float into a lab during the 1 period it was open, so in January, my 5th period and I moved online! 

After seeing what my kids could do on the computers, my administrators moved me to the lab full time.  For the past 4 years I have developed my own curriculum (or rather how to teach my curriculum on the computers) and have had incredible success.  This year, they moved another language arts teacher into a lab to do what I do!  I am so excited to help her on her own technology journey.

I use Google Apps for Education and email students almost daily, email parents almost weekly, and keep an updated class website/calendar.  But what is REALLY cool is watching students collaborate real time as they read through a text!  I also love to watch students write and SEE their process in a way I never could on paper.  The ability to give feedback is tremendous and has totally revolutionized the way I teach.

Personally, I have followed in my father’s footsteps.  I am typing this up on my Macbook, with my iPhone and iPad nearby.  I also have a fit bit (which I shamefully don’t use), digital cameras, and my Kindle PaperWhite(perhaps my favorite device I own).