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.

EDU 414 Free Write - The Best Spring Break!

Previously I had posted about my plans for my Spring Break.  I went to the Bahamas for five nights and six days and I was nervous about going.  I thought of just about everything that could go wrong and I blogged about it.  Now I am here to write about how all of those worries and fears were for no reason.  I got back from the Bahamas two days ago and all I want to do is go back.  Coming home was like a culture shock because I was having such an amazing time there that being back in the 203 was just not as good.  I would have loved to stay for the entire break because it was one of the best vacation I have ever taken.  I ended up becoming closer to the girls I went with and surprisingly there wasn't any drama.  This was a shock to me because four girls constantly together for six days is just asking for trouble.  Luckily we all got along really well and I would definitely go on vacation with them again.  The plane rides were quick and easy and our luggage managed to get there and back on the right plane.  The weather was beautiful.  It was at least 80degrees everyday, but there was always a nice breeze so it was never too hot.  Our hotel wasn't a five star, but it didn't have bed bugs either.  We spent the majority of our time at our hotel's beach/pool, but we also went to a public beach and Atlantis for a day.  Atlantis was amazing! It is such a huge resort, the aquarium was great, the water park was a blast, and I even swam with the dolphins.  The public beach was called cabbage beach and it had huge waves and sand that was so soft and clean.  We also went on a booze cruise to a private beach called sandy toes which was absolutely beautiful.  The package deal that we purchased allowed us to have free food and drinks at our hotel.  We basically didn't need to spend any money unless we wanted to which was nice.  Every night we took cabs to different clubs around that island.  One of the clubs was actually in the movie "Into the Blue".  We made a ton of friends from all different states.  I now know people from Tennessee, Texas, New Jersey, DC, and Massachusetts.  Overall, it was a very relaxing vacation and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  I can't wait for Spring Break next year!  

EDU 307 - Free Write - A letter to one of best teachers I have ever had

Dear ___________,

            You were my professor for Psychology 100 last spring.  You were by far the best teacher I ever had and I wanted to write this letter to you to express my gratitude.  When I took my first college level psychology class at Stonehill College, I received a grade in the lower B range, and I did not learn anything.  The professor that I had was awful.  The lectures that the professor gave were both confusing and boring. The writing assignments and tests were all extremely difficult because I felt that I was not learning anything in class. After my final in that class, I was so thankful I would never have to take another psychology course again.

Then I transferred to Southern Connecticut State University my sophomore year and I found out that I would have to retake PSY100.  My psychology credit from Stonehill College transferred in as PSY210 so once again I was going to have to take that awful psychology class. I went on ratemyprofessor.com because if I had to retake the class, I was going to at least try to take it with a good professor.  I originally signed up to take the class with Bev Lavin.  She had a great review and everyone seemed to love her and her class.  On the first day of my PSY 100 class, her name was not the name written on the board.  The name written on the board was yours, and I am so grateful now that there was a change in professors.   

The main reason why I consider you to be the best teacher I have ever had is because I still remember almost everything you taught me.  The way you conducted your lectures was amazing. I learned more in your class every Tuesday and Thursday than I did in a lot of my college classes so far.  You made everything so simple.  Every single big idea, psychologist, theory, etc in psychology you put into words that I could not only comprehend, but that I could remember.  We were responsible for reading the textbook, which I did, but I did not always understand what I read.  Some of the concepts in the textbook were complicated and confusing.  It made it very hard to relate to.  By going to your class though, everything was put into perspective.

Not only did you make all of the psychology concepts so simple, you also made them very relatable.  You would use your children and other life experiences as examples.  Also, in class you had us come up with our own examples.  When I am able to relate something to my own life, I am able to remember it more easily.  I was able to recall many psychology concepts or experiments because I had a real life example to relate them to.  In addition to examples, you had us do in class activities to help us understand different concepts.  We did these activities in groups so we could learn more from our peers and individually.  One activity I can clearly remember was when you were teaching us about short term and long term memory.  First you gave us a phone number aloud and we had to write down what we remembered.  This had to do with our short term memory because we can remember seven (plus or minus 2) objects.  When you listed more than nine numbers, no one could remember them all. Then you had us write down as many states as we possibly could.  The people who were able to write all fifty states did so using a mnemonic device.  They learned a song back in elementary school which helped move the names of the fifty states from their short term memory into their long term memory.  By using these types of activities and examples in class, the majority of the information you taught is now in my long term memory.

The last reason why I believe that you are the best teacher I have ever had is because I always felt 100% ready for every test in your class.  Not only was I able to remember all of the theories, experiments, terms, etc from the examples, but you made us a study guide for every test.  Most of the teachers that I have had in college will give out study guides, but never go over them.  They pass them out and it is your job as a student to work on them and email the professor any questions.  You are the one and only professor that would actually give us class time to fill in the study guides.  Then you would go over the study guide with us before the end of class.  This way we left class with a study guide that was not only filled out, but filled out with all of the correct information.  I was able to use the study guide to really review and prepare for the exam.  Every test that I took in your class I received no lower than a 90%.  Before the test, I knew exactly what I needed to study, and during the test I could remember all of the information we learned.

After taking your class, I decided to minor in psychology.  By having you as my teacher, I went from hating psychology and thinking it was the worst subject ever, to loving psychology and realizing that I could actually do well in it.  Since your class, I have taken three more psychology classes and I have really enjoyed each one.  I never knew how interesting psychology could be and how much of an impact it would have on me studying to be an elementary school teacher.  I do have to say that even though I have enjoyed the other classes, no teacher has had as big of an impact as you.  You are an amazing teacher and I am so happy that I was able to take at least one class with you during my time at Southern.  You truly are one of the best teachers that I have ever had.

                                                                                                            Sincerely,

                                                                                                             Lauren 

EDU 307 Free Write - Where did my imagination go?

For My EDU 307 class we need to write an original piece of work. I chose to write two short children's books. When I was younger, I would have been able to come up with two very imaginative and detailed stories very quickly. It would have been no problem to write my own story. It may not have been as good of quality as far as spelling and the plot line, but it would have been very creative. However, the other day when I was sitting in class trying to brainstorm a story, I could not come up with an idea for the life of me. I was going to switch topics and do a memoir or something else, but I decided that I should be able to come up with a story and I should stick to it. So currently, I am still in the process of writing the story, but it made me think, what happened to my imagination? What happened to pretend play? Why is it so difficult to do such simple things now at the age of twenty one, when I could do it with such ease at the age of five? Does your brain just get rid of those abilities or store them away? I am very good at reading and understanding stories now, but I have a lot of difficulty making up my own.   I thought it would be so much easier than it actually is. I am currently being challenged to write a children's book.  And as far as pretend play goes, I don't normally whip out my old barbies and play with them for hours like I used to. I guess as adults you just grow out of the love you used to have for your toys. It reminds me of Toy Story 3 when Andy gives away all of his toys to a younger girl because he is going away to college. It is just crazy to think that at one point in my life all I wanted for Christmas was a new barbie or baby doll and now I want an iPhone. Sometimes I wish that I was five again just so I could have my imagination back.

EDU 307 - Topic of Choice - Bahama Mama (before)

For the first time in my life, I am actually going somewhere for spring break. I am going with three of my friends from my sorority. We are going to an all inclusive resort in the Bahamas. I have traveled outside of the country before, but the three other girls I am going with have not. This will be the second time that I will be traveling by myself. I am a little bit nervous only because I hope everything goes as planned. Since we booked it through a student travel agency, there is no plan b, there is only a plan a. If plan a doesn't happen, then I don't know who to call or what will do. To put it in more simple terms, if everything doesn't go exactly as planned, we are screwed. We each had to pay for the trip in December and if anything goes wrong there are no refunds. I am trusting our travel agent that he booked everything correctly and he didn't get us seats on the plane next to the bathroom. With this agency, you know where you are departing from and what time, but that is about all of the information you get. I am not sure if this was a good idea to go through them instead of just booking the trip ourselves, but I guess we will see. 

I have talked to a few people who have gone on this kind of trip before, and they said that it was fun. They said that I should bring my own set of sheets, shower shoes, and Clorox wipes for the room, but it is fun. They said that I probably won't get to sleep because everyone is drunk and loud, but it was fun. The reviews I read when people were having issues with their rooms or whatever the employees response is "just go get drunk and have fun". This is the kind of thing that makes me nervous. I am sure that I will have fun, but I am under the impression that everyone I talked to only had fun because they were completely smashed the entire time. Now don't get me wrong, I like to have a good time, but I am not some out of control party animal. The people I am going with however are closer to out of control party animals. They are a little more enthusiastic when it comes to drinking and having fun. I have this slight feeling that I am going to have to play "mom" and make sure that everyone gets back okay and holding their hair as needed. This is not exactly the spring break I signed up for.

I guess we will just have to wait and see how it goes. Hopefully I have a great time and an amazing spring break. Stay tuned for the after I get back from this great trip post...

EDU 414 Topic of Choice - Do you know anyone who graduated from SCSU on time?

Southern has a way of keeping students. If you choose to go to SCSU for your college education, you most likely will not graduate on time. If you choose to transfer to SCSU, you will most likely graduate one to two years after all of your friends in your class. I am not sure what it is about Southern, but I guess the administrators (or whoever) really just like to keep sucking money out of every student for as long as possible. If they have to make students take a ridiculous amount of gen. ed. classes they will. The other option is to not accept transfer students' credits, so they need to retake the exact same class again at Southern. The last option would be to require three pointless W courses or to not offer any needed classes over the intersessions. I have come to believe that Southern will do just about anything to prevent a person from graduating on time.


I transferred to SCSU last year. I am currently attempting to graduate on time with my class. I took two winter classes, I am going to try to take five summer classes, and then additional winter classes next winter. I am also going to be taking six classes this semester and next semester. Since I am going to be an elementary school teacher, I need to have all of my classes completed before I student teach. My goal is to be student teaching Spring 2013 so I can graduate that May. As of right now though, I am not sure if my plan is going to workout. This is mainly because Southern requires elementary education students to double major, and for my second major, no classes are being offered that I need over the summer. I am praying that the community colleges offer the classes I need or my dreams of graduating on time will be crushed by, you guessed it, the one and only SCSU. So I will have taken way too many gen. eds., four W courses, and I will have retaken classes because Southern didn't accept my transfer credits just to graduate a semester late. 


What is even more ridiculous is the fact that for my second major, Liberal Studies, the people made it so that education students could only choose from a certain list of minors. Instead of being like every other student who chooses to major in Liberal Studies, education students have a limited number of minors to choose from. My second major will prevent me from graduating on time because instead of minoring in what I wanted, I had to minor in Psychology and History. There are no History classes being offered over the summer that I need. Thank you to the History Department and Southern, you are crushing my dreams, and possibly making me stay at Southern for another whole semester which I get to pay for out of pocket.


I can't wait to graduate from this oh so wonderful school which keeps students from graduating on time.

EDU 307 Write about Writing

I think that I stopped enjoying writing once I got to fifth grade or so. Whenever I started having to write specific types of essays is when it started to go downhill. Writing just wasn't fun anymore after that. Writing became more of a chore rather than something enjoyable. Having to write essays for classes now in college is not something I like to do. Every time I am assigned an essay, I dread actually sitting down and writing it. Personally, I feel like some teachers don't even read the essays that I write. I get essays back with absolutely no comments and just a grade. That bothers me especially if I don't receive the grade I wanted. At that point I have no idea what to fix or what I did wrong. On the other hand, I currently have a professor who spends two weeks grading papers and he gives 1-2pages of single spaced comments back. He also lets you re-write the papers as many times as you want until you get the grade you want. I am not totally against writing, but I would much rather write a paper for a professor who gave me comments and the opportunity to re-write. Also, I prefer shorter writing assignments. Writing these blogs is so much better than writing an 8-10page paper. Not only are the topics broad or free choice, they are also topics that interest me. I don't dread writing them because I can write them quickly and to the point. I don't need to fill it with b.s. and such just to complete the page requirement.  Writing about writing is difficult because I guess I don't hate writing, I just hate having to write essays for school. They suck the fun out of writing. I don't learn more from writing the essays I just become more stressed out. I just wish that instead of saying "you need to write a paper this long on one of these topics" they would say "i just want you to write a paper on a topic of your choice that relates to this class and it can be however long you want to get your point across...it just has to show me that you learned something and it has to be long enough that i can tell your writing has improved over the semester". Even though that would be really broad, I would enjoy that challenge more than trying to write a 10page paper.  

EDU 307 Collaborative Learning and Literacy

Does collaborative learning support literacy?


Collaborative learning is when two or more people try to learn something together. Collaborative learning is different then independent learning because with independent learning, the person is attempting to learn something on their own. In collaborative learning, students are trying to learn something together with other students. Some examples of collaborative learning are jigsaws, group projects, think pair share, debates, study groups, and joint problem solving. With a jigsaw activity, the class can be divided into small groups. Each person in the group has a specific part or "piece of the puzzle". In order for each group to complete the task at hand, each group member needs to contribute their individual part. This way if everyone doesn't participate the "puzzle" can't be completed. 


I do believe that collaborative learning supports literacy. For me personally, I tend to really understand something if a peer were to explain it to me. Sometimes teachers tend to explain things in more complex terms. This makes it difficult for students to understand. However, if we are given an activity after the teacher lectures that involves group work, I can normally understand the lecture. By discussing questions or topics with peers, it clarifies what I was confused about and puts it in simpler terms. So if my students were able to collaborate with each other they would most likely learn better and understand a text better. If we were reading a book as a class or if a group of students were all reading the same book, they would be able to comprehend what they read better if they were able to talk to other students about it. If one student was confused about a certain part in the book, by talking it out with another student, they could probably understand it better. Another way that collaborative learning could support literacy is through partner reading. By reading a book with someone else, if one person doesn't understand something they can learn through their partner. By seeing another student's insight it may help the child understand what they were confused about in a different way. Collaborative learning can also support literacy through writing. By giving students a chance to peer conference about their writing will help them learn through other students. If they didn't know how to end their paper, another student could help by giving them ideas. Collaborative learning can support literacy through both reading and writing.

EDU 307 - Reader's Workshop

Reader's Workshop is known as a more effective way to teach reading. After reading the article, "Organizing for Effective Instruction: The Reading Workshop," written by Reutzel and Cooter, I plan to have five components of RW in my classroom. First, there will be sharing time. This will last between five and ten minutes. During this time, myself as the teacher, will share new things about literature with the class. If I have nothing to share on a particular day, I will use this time to introduce the mini-lesson. The mini-lesson comes next. The mini-lesson will last for about ten to fifteen minutes. This is where  I will lead a discussion pertaining to the skill I want my students to focus and improve on. I can also use this time for pre-reading activities. Following the mini-lesson will be state-of-the-class. This will last for around three to five minutes. We will have a state-of-the-class chart in our classroom. This will help to keep track of the students' progress. So during this time I will quickly review the progress made as well as telling my students their responsibilities during the workshop period. The workshop period is known as self-selected reading and response time. This will last for forty minutes. During this time, the students will do self selected reading, literature response, and individual reading conferences. For the conferences, I plan to meet with students individually and privately. During these conferences I will discuss with the children their progress and I will give them a goal to work on during this period. Reader's workshop will begin and end with sharing. After the workshop time, it will be time for student sharing. This will only last for around five to ten minutes. Students will have the opportunity to share books, poetry, projects, etc withe the class. I will make sure that this sharing time doesn't go over ten minutes.


I see mini-lessons as a crucial part of reader's workshop. I think that mini-lessons are perfect for getting something important across to my students, while keeping their attention because it is such a short lesson. My mini-lessons can focus on skill and strategies, different genres, and sustainable habits and behaviors. Mini-lessons will last for about ten to fifteen minutes. Each mini-lesson will end with some type of model that students will use in their own learning. I will use mini-lessons after the short teacher's sharing time. The role of the mini-lessons is to give students something to work on during workshop time. For example, for my mini-lesson I can talk about predicting. During the workshop time, the students can practice predicting on their own and in groups. I really believe that mini-lessons are important and should be incorporated in reader's workshop.

EDU 414 Blog of Choice - My Birthday :)

Last time that I wrote on my Blog, I had talked about why turning twenty one was such a big deal. I discussed how nervous I was about turning twenty one, what I was going to do for my birthday (because I had no idea at the time), and why turning twenty one was such a big deal to me and to other people.


Well my birthday was this past Saturday and I am now officially the big two one. Needless to say after all of that worrying, I had an amazing twenty first birthday weekend. Friday night, I went with my boyfriend to see the movie "The Vow". I really enjoyed the movie and my boyfriend said that it was not as horrible as he thought it was going to be. Going to see, "The Vow," on opening night however was not the smartest idea I have ever have. The movie was sold out, and we did not get there early. We sat in the fourth row from the front and we had to look up for the entire movie. The movie was also filled with eighth and ninth grade girls. Basically, we felt like the oldest people in the theater. Other than looking up the entire time and girls "ooo-ing" at Channing Tatum with his shirt off, the movie really had a strong impact on my boyfriend and I. For those who don't know, this movie is about a young couple who were head over heals in love, they had just gotten married, and then a car hit them at a stop sign and the girl's head went through the windshield. She suffered from severe brain damage and when she woke up from her coma, she doesn't remember her husband. The last thing she remembers is being engaged to her ex-fiance. I don't want to give the whole movie away, but basically it is about her husband doing everything he can to make her remember him and make her fall in love with him all over again. The reason I said that this movie really affected my boyfriend and I is because that type of accident could happen to anyone. We were talking on the way home about different scenarios. Would you rather have the person you love die? Or would you rather them not remember you (never regain their memory of you) and you would have to live the rest of your life both trying to get them to remember and trying to make them love you all over again? My boyfriend said that he would rather the person he loves dies. I was taken back by this because I at first felt I would rather have them be alive with no memory. He made a strong argument for his view though. He said that, "if they wake up, don't remember who I am, and then never regain their memory of what we had and can only remember people and events before me, they may never love me the same way again." He went on to say that at least if the person died he would be able to mourn their death and some what move on with his life. This way he wouldn't constantly be playing the what if game. I eventually agreed with him, because to know that the person you love more than anything says they don't know who you are, would absolutely break my heart into a million pieces. I would not be able to go on living everyday trying to put the pieces back together for them when they may never remember.


 Come Saturday, I was so thankful that we didn't actually get that snow storm that was suppose to ruin my birthday day. Saturday during the day I just  relaxed and got my hair done for my big birthday night. For dinner, I went to UNO's  in Milford with my family. UNO's is one of my favorite restaurants. After dinner, I decided to try my luck and I purchased two power-ball tickets. I didn't win, but at least I tried. I am not sure what I would have done with $325 million anyways, but I probably could have found something. Around nine o'clock my two friends and my boyfriend picked me up. We ended up going to three bars in Fairfield and I had a lot of fun. I remember the entire night and I didn't throw up, but I had a great time anyways. Even though I didn't do anything huge and I didn't black out, having my friends there to celebrate with me made it a great time. I wish I could rewind and relive that night again. You only turn twenty one once, and I had a wonderful twenty first birthday experience.


Sunday was my family party. My parents had invited just about everyone who had known me since I was a baby. I had my family there and family friends, and I could not have asked for a better way to end my birthday weekend. I felt so happy inside that all of these people wanted to come and spend their Sunday with me celebrating my birthday. I received so many nice gifts, which weren't necessary, but were very thoughtful. I am now going to spend this week writing out all of my thank you notes. We all ate  a delicious brunch that my mom cooked and yummy cupcakes for dessert. 


All in all, I had a great twenty first birthday. It still has not really hit me that I can now go buy alcohol and gamble at the casino, but soon enough it will. Turning twenty one was a big deal, but there really was no a need to stress out as much as I did. I spent my birthday with my family and friends and I couldn't ask for anything more. I feel as if you will always have a good time if you are with great people. I was told that now that I am twenty one, it all goes down hill from here, but I will save that for another blog post.

EDU 414 Blog About a Family Memory Related to School

I have so many family memories related to school. I feel very fortunate in that my family was very much involved in my school life. My parents came to every parent/teacher conference, band concert, chorus concert, and parent/teacher night, you name it they were there. My parents always made an effort to ask me "what did you learn in school today?" even if I would respond with nothing. My Mom always helped me make cupcakes or cookies to bring to school on my birthday and she always gave me a present to give to my teachers for the holidays and the end of the school year. 


I remember in first grade, every student got the chance to run the morning announcements. It wasn't my turn yet, but for a reason I don't remember my Dad came into my first grade classroom, and my teacher let me run the morning announcements. My Dad sat there and watched while I took attendance, talked about the weather, talked about the date, and whatever else we did during that time. It made me feel like I was on top of the world to have my Dad there watching me. I felt extremely special and important because my Dad got to see me do the announcements and it wasn't even supposed to be my turn to go.


Another memory I have is when my parents told me we were moving and I was going to go to a new school. I was in second grade going into third grade so it didn't really have that large of an impact on me. I was not nervous until the day before my new school's orientation. My new school allowed anyone who was new to the school to come in a day before school started to check out what the school was like. I remember walking in with my Mom and Dad to meet my third grade teacher. I remember I was really nervous and really shy. I met the other kids that moved to Fairfield that same summer because they were meeting the teacher as well. We were the new kids at the time, and I am still friends with them today. 


I remember every year on the first day of school since I was in kindergarten that I would get to pick out a new outfit. After I was dressed in my first day of school outfit, I would go outside and wait for the bus. Every year my Dad would make sure to take a picture of me before I got on the bus. My Dad would also walk me down the to the end of the driveway and wait with me until my bus came. He did this every year until I was in high school. 


My mom would pack my lunch for me everyday. I occasionally got hot lunch, but the majority of the days my Mom would pack my lunch. Every single lunch that she packed, she would always write me a note on my napkin. She would always write something along the lines of "have a great day, I love you, love Mom." These notes are something I will never forget. Even when she makes my lunch to this day (which is rare), she will still write a note on the napkin. Every time I read that note in school it always made my day a little better.


Family and school when combined can be very helpful to any child. It is so crucial for a child's parents to be involved in their school life. Parents really need to be there to help their child with their homework or practice their addition facts. Without family support, it is very hard for a child to do well and succeed in school. As I mentioned earlier, I feel very fortunate that my family was so involved in my school life. These are just a few memories I could think of at the top of my head, there are so many more. If my parents weren't there for me, I don't know if I would be where I am today. I don't know if I would have memorized my multiplication tables, or if I would be able to count change back, or if I would be able to tie my shoes. I am so lucky and I hope that every child has the same experience as me.

2/2 Blog Post EDU 307 - Why is turning 21 such a big deal??

In our society, I feel that people (including myself) think of a twenty first birthday as a big deal. When a person turns thirteen they become a teenager, when a person turns eighteen they can buy lotto tickets and cigarettes, when a person turns twenty they are no longer a teenager, and when a person turns twenty one they can legally drink. There will always be a debate on what the drinking age should be. Some people say that if a person can go to war and die for their country, they should be able to have a drink. These people want the drinking age to be lowered to eighteen. Other people say that if we lower the drinking age it will cause more accidents.  This meaning that kids who are eighteen are not responsible enough to be drinking and making good decisions. In my personal opinion, when I was eighteen of course I wanted the drinking age to be lowered, but now that I am almost twenty one I believe that it should stay twenty one. I consider myself to be a responsible person and I think I could have handled myself if the legal drinking age was lowered, but some of my friends would not have been able to handle it. 


When I hear stories about people's twenty first birthdays it almost makes me nervous. The majority of people say, "I don't even remember my twenty first birthday." The reason behind this is they drank so much that they blacked out and the last thing they remember is taking their first legal shot. Our society makes this okay. In our society, I feel that when someone turns twenty one it is okay if they go out, get completely hammered, and then spend the rest of the night throwing up. The next morning, everyone is so excited to fill them in on what they did the night before, while that person is sitting their with the biggest headache of their life. A twenty first birthday is like a right of passage in our society. You are suppose to go out and get drunk, but is that the best way to start out the path to real adulthood?


I am turning twenty one on Saturday February eleventh. That is about two weeks from today. Everyone wants to know what I am going to do on my twenty first birthday. The problem is, I have no idea! I want to do something amazing that I will remember for the rest of my life. I just don't know what that something amazing really is. I have thought about going to NYC or Boston to go bar hopping. Then I think to myself, well if it snows I will have to cancel and then have no plans. Another idea was to go out to dinner with my friends underage and then go to a bar in New Haven with all of my friends of age. Then I think to myself, well do I really want to spend my twenty first birthday at a bar in New Haven, that is not amazing. There are so many things that could go wrong that I almost don't even want to plan anything. This way when the day arrives, I just go with the flow and then I can't be disappointed right? The answer to that question is no because I can definitely be disappointed if I don't think of something that I will remember for the rest of my life. 


In order to keep myself from going crazy, I just think, well as long as I am with good friends I will have a good time doing anything. I am just hoping that somehow I will have a great twenty first birthday. I am just hoping that somehow it will be something amazing that I can remember forever. The sad part about birthdays though is they are one day out of the entire year. So I am getting all worked up over one day that will come and go so fast that soon enough it will be February twelfth. So why does society make turning twenty one into such a big deal?

My Memories from Language Arts (EDU 307)

The thing that first popped into my head was SSR also known as Sustained Silent Reading. Everyday we were given about thirty minutes of SSR. Everyone would be reading the book they checked out of the library that week and there was absolutely no talking. I enjoyed this time for reading, but at the same time out of the thirty minutes I probably read for about fifteen. I would sometimes write notes back and forth with one of my friends or just become distracted with something. I don't think I ever read for the entire thirty minutes unless I had a really interesting book. Another thing I remember about language arts was learning to write essays. We had to learn how to write essays for the state tests. I remember the essay was very structured and outlined. At first we learned to write and intro, middle, and end. Then we learned how to do an intro, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. We learned how to make different outlines to make our essays better. I am struggling to remember more about what I learned and did during the language arts period of the day. I know we were able to go to the library once a week to pick out books which was always exciting and a nice break from class. Also there were always reading competitions. Every few months you had to write down all of the books you read. At the end of the contest the person who read the most received a prize, the class that read the most received a prize, and the grade level that read the most was recognized. We also had to read over the summer. Summer reading was always such a nuisance. We were assigned books to read which were never interesting and we didn't get to choose which books we read until high school. Language arts was never my favorite subject which could explain why I chose not to minor in English for my Liberal studies major.

Blog #1 for EDU 414

This weekend I went to Vermont to go skiing. I went with my family and my boyfriend. We have a condo at Ascutney Mountain Resort, but since that is currently not open we ski at Okemo instead. I taught my boyfriend how to ski this weekend. He did a lot better than I thought he would and I was very impressed. We made it to the Waffle House which was great. For those of you who don't know what the waffle house is, it is a little building on the slope where they sell waffles. These waffles are basically coated in this sugar syrup and they drizzle chocolate on top. If you ever go to Okemo Mountain, you need to get a waffle from the Waffle House. Skiing is something I learned to do when I was about four years old. I have been skiing my whole life and I even learned how to snow board as well. I also taught kids how to ski at the resort my condo is at. I taught kids from ages 4-12 how to ski. It was a very rewarding experience and I absolutely loved it. It is something that I will never forget.

-Lauren B.