EDU 307. Glogster mishap

Last night i was working on my homework and decided to start my glogster. After getting used to the layout of glogster and all the tools right there at my disposal i started to work. An hour went by and i was so enticed and concentrated on it. I loved that it was a cool dynamic online poster and i'm always up for anything creative. I would consider myself a very artsy and creative person so i really enjoyed adding photos of my favorite books, i added photos of my favorite children's books, i even added a video of my favorite song that puts me in a good mood whenever i hear it. The background i chose was very much like my personality and i liked dragging and dropping all the elements of my page exactly where i wanted them. Each element that i added i think really represents who i am as a person.
1.) the photo i added of myself is me taking pictures with my nikon digital SLR-one of my most favorite past-times-photography!
2.) the tags i wrote words on represent luggage tags for me-i love to travel and can't wait to have the opportunity to travel outside of the US and go to all the countries or even just other states i dream about.
3.) the shadows behind the book covers because in photography i enjoy black and white photography with a lot of contrast and shadowing.
4.) the background is my favorite print because i for some reason think its happy.
5.) the children's books that i used to read as a child or the children's books i read to my preschool class in the summers when i teach!
6.) my favorite song "good life" by one republic just puts a smile on my face. life is short and it makes me happy.
7.) the notecard i wrote on halfway down my glogster is because i have always been organized-at times even too organized.

After spending a good amount of time playing around with glogster and moving things around i finally finished-i tried to save it and it wouldn't save. I tried to save my glogster a dozen times and it still wouldn't save. I'm blaming this issue not on my computer-as macs in my opinion are the far superior form of technology, But rather on the residence hall internet. Needless to say i took screen shots of my glogster so i can try my best to recreate it when i am not within range of any residence hall wireless. Having backup plans is always a good idea-especially when you're a teacher-you have to always be prepared to expect the unexpected.

Memory of Language Arts EDU 307-02

6th grade was my very first memory of language arts. 6th grade was also the first year we moved around to different classrooms-we had reading and writing: language arts. In this class i remember reading a lot! we always had reading assignments for homework and writing responses or summaries of our readings for homework as well.  I also remember one big project we had to do in our language arts class was writing a story. We had a story book packet and had to fill out and answer the questions in detail before moving onto actually writing our story. We had to answer questions about who our main characters were, what their personalities would be like, how they would dress and their role in the story. Questions about the setting were a big part of our story book packet as well-where would this story take place? describe in detail the setting and draw a picture of it. During the writing of our story book we would write and draw our pictures for our book. I also distinctly remember doing drafts and revision after revision after revision and peer review after peer review until we had our final copy. In language arts we also sang songs my favorite was the preposition song sang to the tune of yankee doodle. In 7th and 8th grade we didn't call it language arts-we just had english class. I remember a vast majority of my 6th grade year but don't remember 7th or 8th grade english classes that well-they start to blend together with my first 2 years of high school. I always remember enjoying language arts because i always loved to read. Its a sad reality that in college there isn't quite enough time to read what i want to read- doing so much reading of what is assigned to read-and some of the time they do not coincide.

"The Road Less Traveled" Reaction

The article "The Road Less Traveled" i thought was a great article to read. I felt that it had many great points that i don't think i necessarily would have thought about otherwise. "Teacher knowledge of the social, emotional, and cognitive domains, coupled with the ability to effectively apply strategies based on developmental principles, translates to increased student engagement and improved learning outcomes." Its a simple point that you need to know who you're teaching in order to successfully teach them. "In a national sample of over one hundred thousand sixth to twelfth graders, only 29 percent indicated that their school provides a caring, encouraging environment" After i read this statistic i thought back to my public school career in grades K-12. I have to say that maybe it was just me or maybe it was my town or school district but i loved my school system and my classrooms so this statistic was a little bit shocking to me. "Youthful energy, excitement, and enthusiasm often reside in the hallways and lunchrooms-not in the classroom." So many times i have asked the kindergartners i assist and teach for camp "whats your favorite thing about school?" i get the answer "recess" or "lunch time" one child even said "the bus ride to school with my best friend" This is the same as in middle school and high school if you asked me what my favorite thing about high school was i would probably throw back the answer of either track practice after school or child development and future educator courses i took. I also find the quote "In the past, pundits might have concluded that the best teachers are born-not made." I have to say that i agree somewhat with this statement. I feel that teaching is a profession unlike any other." I know it used to be said that teaching is a "calling" something you're meant to do above all else, for me i feel like this is true. In kindergarten i came home from school on the first day and told my parents i wanted to teach just like Mrs. Foreman. Year after year, grade after grade, it held true and i couldn't picture myself doing anything else nor did i want to think about other life paths. Spending time with children, helping them learn and that wonderful "ah!" moment they have when they finally understand something, and reading about teachers, education, or anything involving the development of children really intrigues me! I really enjoyed this article and honestly can't wait to see what other readings my education courses this semester will expose me to!