EDU 414 - Last Post

Here are some pieces of advice for your next class...
For the discussion director questions those are what I really enjoyed. I found them very interesting and I enjoyed seeing other people's opinions. Those I would definitely keep and continue to do for your next class.
The summaries are very iffy. I think they are necessary for you to tell if people read, but I did not like the format. I don't believe that the summaries should require a thesis, they should legit require a summary. I think that you can see how the student's writing improved through the summaries, but I absolutely did not like having to make it a thesis paper.
For the blog posts, those were fun. I found them interesting and I never wrote a blog before. However, I now need to delete my blog because some of the topics I discussed were not appropriate. I think you should require students to write about new topics in education. For example, the educational reform bill or the common core. Also, you can blog about your experience in field work and how you did teaching your lesson plans. We could blog about our reflections on how the lessons went.
As far as case studies, I thought those were great because I liked using google.docs. I ended up using google.doc in almost all of my other classes because it was so helpful. I think that students should be allowed to pick their groups because then they can work with people they already know so it won't be as complicated. Also, I think you need to go over face to face how to create a google.doc, ect.
I really enjoyed this class in general and I loved how it was a hybrid. I have never taken a hybrid class and I found it to be very interesting. If you make some of those improvements, I think the next students will really enjoy your class even more.

EDU 414 - Free Write Week 14 - Philosophy Teachers

Currently, I am taking PHI 370, which is philosophy of education.  I decided to take it with a different teacher instead of the one the majority of the people take it with.  I am not sure if this was a mistake or not.  I have come to the conclusion that all philosophy teachers at Southern think the same way so it doesn't matter.  For my philosophy class he gives five pop quizzes on the readings.  First of all pop quizzes are BULL.  Answering five multiple choice questions in like three minutes does not show whether you read or not. I read every single freaking time and I have yet to get above a 3/5 on the quizzes.  This is because he makes all of the questions like trick questions and I feel rushed every time I take the quiz.  Yet the person next to me barely shows up to class or reads and keeps getting 4/5 and 5/5 because he is a good guesser.  As if the quizzes weren't bad enough each quiz is worth 5% of your grade.  So if you get a 0/5 on the first quiz, the highest grade you can then get in the class is a 95%.  This is really unfair especially to the people who do read and just don't do well on the quizzes.  Next, he is making us write 3 papers.  Each paper we are allowed to rewrite but he takes over 2 weeks to hand them back. The first paper I got a B+, the next paper I got a B+/A-, I wonder what I will get on the next paper maybe a A-/A.  No matter what you write, philosophy teachers want to make it seem like you improve so they will never give you an A on the first paper even if that is what it is worth.  At this point due to the quizzes I can't even get an A in the class, so why would I bother to rewrite them? This is one of the worst classes I have ever had to take at Southern and I cannot wait to write him a review at the end of the semester. Let's just say it is NOT going to be a good one.

EDU 307- Free Write- My Last Blog Post for 307

For my education class, our big assignment was to create a unit plan.  I am currently in the process of creating my unit plan.  I never realized how much work needs to go into a unit.  It was really hard to even come up with a unit topic because our unit had to revolve around social studies.  The reason for this is because social studies is lost in elementary classrooms.  Not many teachers these days spend enough time teaching social studies.  So my education teacher challenged us to create a unit which revolves around social studies.  Every lesson in our unit needed to be taught around social studies.  This was really hard and I think that is because it is like a lost subject.  It is really sad that kids these days are not being taught social studies because it is not on the CMTs.  I am not the biggest fan of history, but I know how important it is to know.  Currently, our education system is depriving younger children from learning about their history.  It is strange because history is important and it is not hard to incorporate with other lessons.  The CMTs are never going to go away, so as teachers we just need to get used to that.  However, we need to adapt our lesson plans so that they touch on all of the subjects. 

EDU 307- Free Write - Why kids are the way they are

Currently for my EDU 309 class I am doing field work in a kindergarten classroom. I have been going every Friday since February. Some of the kids in the class have some problems. Some have been diagnosed and others have not. What is sad, is some of the kids wouldn't have these problems if it wasn't for their parents. It really bothers me that people today are having kids that they can't take care of. Some people have kids when they don't have the money to support them and others have kids when they don't have the time to spend with them. We wonder why the kids today and more and more messed up? Kids are getting more and more involved with drugs and alcohol, bullying, suicide, you name it, it is out there. If kids had parents who truly cared for them and what they do, we probably wouldn't have as many problems. Unfortunately, it is the teachers that have to deal with these problems more so than the parents. Teachers have to deal with these kids acting out for attention since they don't get it at home, or kids bullying other kids because their parents are like bullies to them, and so on. Teachers need to deal with the results of good or bad parenting. It just really makes me angry when my mentor teachers that I have worked with tell me that the child's parents just don't care or don't have time to help the child improve. A parent actually told my mentor teacher that they have a very busy life and don't have time to help the child with their reading. My response would be, then why did you have a kid? Parents tend to blame the teacher when their child is failing or doing poorly instead of themselves or their kid. When I become a teacher, I want to involve the parents as much as possible. This way hopefully what I am doing in school to teach the children will continue at home. This is a dream world though at this point because parents just don't seem to care as much anymore. Now I am not saying all parents in this response, just a select few. Normally that the select few are the parents of kids who actually need the most help and support. I just hope that the parents of the kids in my classroom actually care and offer as much support to their own kids as possible.

EDU 307- What picture book touched your life?

The picture book that touched my life is The Kissing Hand. I remember I was nervous about going to kindergarten. My Mom read me this book the night before my first day of school. In the back of the book, there are stickers. After reading me the book my Mom put a sticker on my hand.  I am pretty sure that I wore that sticker to bed.  I think it fell off in the morning and I remember my Mom put a sticker on my lunch box. This way I would have it there all day. Every time I looked at the sticker I thought about my Mom and how much she loved me. I knew that everything would be okay and I was less nervous about going to school. This picture book meant a lot to me because it brought me and my Mom even closer. We would read this book together just about every night and it is a book that I plan to read to my children as well. 

EDU 307- Original Poem- Easter Poem

Easter

Church on Sunday

Eggs hidden deep in the green grass

Chocolate scattered throughout the house

Bunnies hiding before the kids get back from mass

Pop goes the eggs as the jelly beans spill out

Baskets full of green, pink, purple grass

Dunk goes the eggs in the die

Happy Easter!

I tried to make the poem in the shape of an Easter Egg, however the egg above should be turned on its side.

EDU 307 - What and Why you Read?

Personally, I do two types of reading.  I read items for school and I read items for pleasure.  


When I am reading for school, I read textbooks, articles, website articles, books from the library, ect.  I read whatever I am assigned whether I want to or not. I read these items because they are assigned and if I don't read them, I will not get as good of a grade. Technically, I do have a choice on whether or not I want to read for my classes, but I always ended up doing the reading.  I just can't be assigned homework and not do it.  The only time I may miss a reading assignment is if I procrastinate and don't finish the reading in time, or if I am sick or on vacation or some other circumstance. Other than that, the majority of my reading during the school year is for school and it consists of assigned readings.


When I am reading for pleasure I tend to read fiction books, magazines, and sometimes the newspaper.  Some books that I have read recently are Men are from Mars Women are from Venus, Dear John, Thirteen Reasons Why, and I am currently reading Teach Like a Champion.  I really enjoy books that I can relate to and just get lost in. I know that I am reading a book I enjoy when I don't want to put it down and I will stay up until 12:30am instead of going to bed at 11:30am. Some magazines that I enjoy reading are Cosmopolitan, US Weekly, and National Geographic.  I read Cosmo and US Weekly for fun and entertainment. I read National Geographic for information on what is going on. The newspaper I will read on occasion if I see an article that catches my eye. This will normally happen when I am looking for coupons on Saturdays.  


I believe that reading is important and the more you read the better.  I wish that I had more time to read for pleasure, but I feel like I never do. The only time I really get to read for pleasure is on my one week family vacation over the summer.  Other than that, I feel like I need to go out of my way to make time to read.