EDU: Free Write: Dreams

Most people say that they don't remember their dreams, i however dream a lot at night and usually remember at least some of what i dream. Typically these dreams are absolutely ridiculous and make absolutely no sense. I'm not so sure if i believe that dreams mean something that are connected to your subconscious but i'm willing to read up about it and have this theory backed up with scientific facts.

Apparently the recall of dreams is very unreliable and according to studies done, women recall dreams better than men do. Recall of dreams usually occurs when someone wakes up in the midst of a dream causing them to recall what was happening easier. According to studies almost every mammal-humans and animals alike dream every night. There are 4 stages of the sleep cycle which repeat a average of 4 to 5 times a night. Most people dream every night and multiple times per night it's just that we don't remember most dreams unless we're dreaming them in the earlier morning before we wake up.

Some believe that dreams mean something and stand for something in your life. Online you can even find what symbols of your dreams mean. While i'm not sure if this is completely true it might be fun irregardless.

Last night i had the strangest dream that i was in a kayak and saw people on the side of the river i was kayaking on.

now-1.) i've never kayaked in my entire 23 years of existence and 2.) i don't know anyone who would stand on the side of a river at night who i would come into contact with to talk to on the side of a river.

apparently in an online dream dictionary having a kayak appear in your dream means:

Kayak

To see a kayak or go kayaking in your dream indicates that you are emotionally well balanced. You are in tune with your feelings. Alternatively, the dream means that you are succeeding through your own willpower, determination and drive. Keep up your energy!

to see a river in your dream means the following:

River

see a raging or an overflowing river in your dream signifies that your life is feeling out of control. You are feeling emotionally unsettled. Alternatively, this dream means you are ready to confront life's challenges and life's twists and turns. 

to have people in your dream means that you have been thinking about them a lot, or you are trying to solve a problem with someone in your life.

I must say that i honestly don't believe this about the dream dictionaries and what symbols in a dream mean but its still fun to think about how ridiculous some dreams can be and what they might have meant. 

EDU: What/ why do you read?

I typically don't have time to read during the academic year, if i do have time to read it's required reading for classes that take up my time.

It sounds absolutely pathetic that i don't know what i like to read, but i don't. I think this is partially because i don't have time to really settle down and read a good book.  As a kid i was a slow reader, I was a good reader and was good at pronouncing words and sounding things out but i had trouble comprehending what i read and i read it really slow. As a result, reading was something that i enjoyed doing but it took me longer than other students and i recognized this. In 4th grade i thought i was not as smart as the other kids in my class but it happened that i needed a little bit of extra help and after that i was good to go. I think that 4th grade is a pivotal time for students and literature and i think that because i was so discouraged at this time in my life because of reading and literacy i think it translated into my teen years as well.

Sophomore year in high school we had to do a book project where we read a book and watched the movie afterwards and compared the two together. I thought this was interesting because you go to compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the two. Since then i have really enjoyed reading books that are also movies and comparing the two with plot, characters and details.

i've enjoyed: the blind side, the last song, the sisterhood of the traveling pants, the lucky one, and when i was in middle school i had a strange obsession with the princess diaries series.

In high school we were required to read the catcher in the rye and while everyone else in my class hated the book i somehow found it interesting and  a good read. I think this was partially thanks to my english teacher; she was so passionate about this book, she really always liked the book and she was my favorite teacher so i found the book interesting.

I also enjoy poetry in books like-where the sidewalk ends. I like when things rhyme and i found these poems a great source of entertainment when i was younger. I also enjoyed a joke book when i was younger that i only remember one joke out of but i thought it was the funniest thing i had ever heard and asked my parents this joke probably everyday. "how do you know which end of the worm is the face?...tickle it and see which ends laugh!" i thought it was hilarious and felt the need to ask everyone i came across this joke until one day this book went missing. My parents probably hid the book because i was annoying back then especially with this book.

I enjoy reading, i wish i had more time to find books to read that i liked-i'm getting a kindle so i think that perhaps that will encourage me to have the opportunity now to finally find what i like the most with literature.

Free Write EDU 307: Fieldwork

This semester i am taking 2 EDU classes that require fieldwork-312 and 309. For EDU 312 i am in a 2nd grade class and for EDU 309 i am in a kindergarten classroom. Both of these placements are in the same elementary school: Jerrome Harrison Elementary School in North Branford. I only go to the school on fridays all day as the rest of the week i have full days of classes where i start classes early and don't get out of classes until late at night. This friday my fieldwork placement experience was a unique one to say the least!

Yesterday was Dr. Seuss' birthday-and read across america! The school had a school-wide celebration! it was hollywood themed. The students were dressed up-the boys wore suits and dress pants with jackets and ties and the girls wore dresses! the entire school was dressed up including teachers who were wearing tuxedos or floor length dresses and sunglasses. The students throughout the day would get to go to the gym where they had a red carpet set up with plants lining the side of the red carpet, velvet ropes marking off the red carpet, tents with strings of lights, an area where students can get interviewed on the red carpet and video recorded. Students were asked "what are you wearing?" "what is your favorite book?" "what book do you have with you today? whats it about?"

students then got to go to the other side of the gym to the snack tent where they had rented a wedding tent they put round tables with center pieces, had different snacks like red velvet cupcakes and juice in fancy plastic cups. There was a violinist playing music in the gym as well. When students left the snack area they went out the gym doors onto a party bus limo to set a 15 minute timer and read on the "rockstar reading limo" then they went back into the gym where they were read a story by someone who works for the town and they went back to their classroom. taking about 45 minutes all together. Its a fun day set aside for students to have some fun and have the emphasis on reading and literacy. After the kindergarten class got back into their room they talked about their favorite things that they saw and that happened and wrote it down.
all in all the day was somewhat interrupted by this unique section of their day but the students loved it, as did all the teachers.

EDU 414: Free Write- Life of an RA

Resident Assistant...known to SCSU as CC's (community Coordinators) or CA's (Community Advisors) don't just get free housing, we work for it. There are many responsibilities that CC's face everyday especially in a freshman / sophomore residence hall that aren't necessarily always seen. To better understand some of the questions residents ask or some of the things they do that all RA's, CC's or CA's encounter watch a short youtube clip from another university.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5XA7_8_FvA

i can give you a different account-things residents say or do and think that their CC's won't find out or don't know:

-drinking in their room with loud music on-as if we don't know

-stealing things out of the common area, or bathroom.

-moving tables and couches in the common area into their bedrooms and claiming that "thats just a big pile of clothes" in their room covering it up.

-locking themselves out of their rooms and blaming their roommate

-"forgetting" their hootloot they needed to swipe into the building and somehow they "lost it last week" 

-choosing to not leave the building during a firedrill

-coloring on floor meeting signs hung on the CC's doors or walls

-vandalizing door tags

-ripping things off bulletin boards

-not showing up to mandatory floor meetings and saying they "didn't know we had one" oh? you didn't see the signs we put up ALL over the floor? 

-i "fear for my life, living with my roommate" 

-"if i get hit by a car in the crosswalk... i get free tuition

-"this building is a communist community" 

Most residents don't notice all the things we do to make the floor and building a welcoming, positive community. 

-monthly bulletin boards

-monthly door tags

-9 programs per semester, per CC or CA

and so much more.

the residents who do remember 

Free Write: EDU: Volunteering!

"I was taught that the world had a lot of problems; that i could struggle and change them; that intellectual and material gifts brought the privilege and responsibility of sharing with others less fortunate; and that service is the rent each of us pays for living, the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time or after you have reached your personal goals." 

I have always been an involved person since i can remember. As a child my parents used to take us to volunteer at walks, and charity events all the time for various causes. I grew up understanding that volunteering was a good deed that doesn't require a pat on the back or any recognition.  

In middle school i was involved in after school activities and of course dance class everyday after school. When i got to high school i was on the track and field team and i danced everyday after school after practice, i was also the editor of the yearbook junior and senior year, i was on the latin JCL team, peer mentors, helping hands, SADD, service crew, both the musicals, as well as volunteered outside school with MADD including MADD Youth Leadership Power Camp every summer. Being involved and volunteering was just something i did-it makes me who i am, and i enjoy it! 

When i got to college i decided to join Habitat for Humanity because i had always wanted to volunteer with habitat but my high school didn't have a habitat chapter. While in habitat i had the opportunity to go on builds in the new haven and hamden area as well as 2 spring break trips in 2010 and 2011. These experiences were some of my very best times in college. I held office on the E-board of Habitat for 2009-2010 school year as the Treasurer. During the same year i was also the treasurer of Southern's Future Teachers Organization where i attended CEA (Connecticut Education Association) once a month on friday nights where we had the opportunity to sit in a board room in hartford with CEA state members and discuss education as well as plan events for the connecticut universities: SCSU, CCSU, QU, UCONN, ECSU, and WCSU. This was an experience like no other, i really looked forward to those late night friday meetings every month to talk about the career i have always been so passionate about! because of my office position and my subsequent affiliation with NEA and CEA i was able to volunteer with kids at schools as well as attend conferences with elementary school teachers. 

After getting into Delta Phi Epsilon sorority on southerns campus i decided to run for a position my first semester and for this year i was the coordinator of community service! i was able to coordinate community service for our chapter to participate in! This year we were able to participate in the day of service with SCSU service team, we made cards for the troops, mailed care packages to the troops, wrote cards to the hartford children's hospital, wrote personal cards to 3 girls on the website 'make a child smile', held 3 American Red Cross Blood Drive's on campus, and are working on planning an event at a elder care facility to have a tea party where we do arts and crafts and get to know them! 

We just finished our 3rd and final blood drive of the year! in total this year over 900 lives were saved from the 3 blood drives that were held on southerns campus. 

I have always known community service as a part of life, i try and live by the quotation: 

"Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you." -Princess Diana

I whole-heartidly believe that if everyone were to give to others and do nice things for others then the world would be a better place. 

Blog Post 414: Free Write-Stumble Upon

The internet can be a great resource as well as a place to kill time or distract yourself if you're a procrastinator. I myself, don't procrastinate- but sometimes you can get lost on the internet and kill an hour.
A friend told me about a website called "stumbleupon" stumble upon is a website where you can get random web pages based on the interests you input.I put traveling as one of my interests and have been stumbling upon traveling places! I love to travel-i didn't get on an airplane until 2009 and i was a junior in college. My older brother was graduating from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott Arizona and my family flew out there to see him graduate. After flying to Arizona in 2009, in 2011 i flew to florida with SCSU habitat for humanity. After taking these trips it has made me have the itch to travel ever since. I want to teach during the year and travel during my summers. A few of the places i want to go to:

-California
-Florida
-colorado
-Nevada
-North Carolina
-South Carolina
-michigan
-minnesota
-Arizona
-Ireland
-Italy
-Greece
-norway
-Austria
-Australia
-England, london
-Canada
-Oregon
-France
-Netherlands
-stonehenge
-Chicago
-Switzerland


Stumble upon website: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2oGtWA/consumerist.com/2010/08/10-tips-for-first-time-travelers.html/

tips for 1st time travelers! good information to know!

I want to travel during the summers and take tons of pictures and collect artifacts to bring back to my classroom to make my classroom a culturally enriching environment!

Free Write: CC All Hall Program!

As a CC at Southern each hall staff is required to do a an All-Hall program where all the CC's work on an educational program together! Each semester this is a requirement. Last semester my staff decided on doing a program as a spoof off of the book "The other Wes Moore" This book was the freshman read book so we decided to use it to help us in creating an educational program around choices. Because our building has 2 CC's named Marcus-we decided to make our program called "The other Farnham Marcus!" each floor in our building had a different activity and a different choice. I was on the student involvement floor which helped students get involved and learn about the different activities that were offered on our campus!

This semester our staff decided to do an education program about southern campus myths called "better watch yo back!" Our program is all about what myths students hear about our campus since freshman year, just a few:

-Everyone gains the freshman 15
-If you get hit by a car in the crosswalk you get free tuition for that year
-if your roommate commits suicide you get a 4.0 GPA for that semester
-if theres a fire in your dorm and all of your stuff gets ruined, southern pays for everything
-all of the dorms are haunted

For our program all of the CC's took videos of each scene and made a movie out of it for our program presentation! Basically its a video with serious myths proven wrong while the CC's that the resident usually see as strict or "the bad guys" completely embarrassing ourselves. It was so much fun to film as well as fun to plan, i think our residents will really enjoy it! and hopefully learn something about the SCSU myths!

Blog Post: Free Write 307-my life as a tall person

What is societies definition of "tall"? for women its far different than for men. A 6 foot man is considered average height while a 6 foot woman is considered tall. 

"ok everyone, line up by height: shortest to tallest." ....my worst nightmare. I'm not quite sure when it dawned on me when i was tall, but i've always been taller than most people my age since Elementary school. I think i might have realized i was above average in height when i was 13 and a random woman in the grocery store asked for my autograph because she said she saw me on TV and couldn't believe she saw a UCONN Husky basketball player in person-i'm no UCONN husky-but i was also only 13. I've been told since i can remember that i was tall-but never really thought i was. In my house-i'm the shortest person-growing up in a house with a 7 foot tall dad, a 6'1 mom, and a 6 foot 6 older brother, I never thought i was out of the ordinary. 

Why is it that in society people feel its necessary and socially acceptable to approach a stranger and rudely ask them about their height or comment on my appearance and the fact that i am somewhat taller than average? i have come up with a few creative answers for the ridiculous questions people ask me about being tall...

1.) Do you play basketball?

Response No...do you play miniature golf? 

2.) You dance? you don't play basketball?

Response: i'm also a gymnast and i clothesline myself on the uneven bars every time!

3.) wow! you're really tall...for a girl! 

Response: since when is it not ok for girls to be tall? ...i'm human too.

4.) You're so lucky you're tall! 

Response: ...try finding clothes that are long enough...not so jealous now are we?

Questions people have asked my dad:

1.) hows the weather up there?

response: its sunny up here...but if i spit on the ground it'll be raining where you are.

2.) are your legs real?

response:  there is no answer to this question...this is merely peoples stupidity and inconsiderate behavior for human kind. 

On a daily basis being tall is something i have to accommodate to. My old car wasn't the most roomy car for someone who has unproportionately long legs. I wouldn't consider myself to be an out of the ordinary tall-person but i get used to people staring wherever i go. I would love to be average height, i've always wished this-but i guess ya get what ya get and ya don't get upset!

EDU 414 Free Write: Dance

I am a dancer. I have always been a dancer for as long as i can remember. When looking back at my life in retrospect i cannot remember a time without dance. My first memories are going to pick out ballet shoes and tap shoes and going to dance class. I started dancing when i was 4-my parents saw me dancing around the house and didn't know where i picked up acting like a ballerina but thought it was time to sign me up for dance classes. I started at age 4 taking ballet and tap classes for 2 hours a week. Wednesday nights were dance night and i looked forward to wednesdays all week because i knew it meant dance day!    As i got older every year my parents would sign me up again for dance classes-each year adding a new dance. I took Ballet, Tap, and Jazz from the age of 5 to the age of 10 when my dance teacher put me on the competition team and i took Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyric, Modern, and Hip-hop. I danced 15 hours a week-3 hours a day 5 days a week and depending on when competitions were that season-i'd have practices on saturdays and sundays or be away at competitions all weekend. 

For a few years i took pointe as well but never competed in modern or pointe. When i got to high school i still danced, everyday. I would go to school all day and after school have club meetings, then i'd run off to track and field practice and go straight to dance rehearsals at night, go home, do homework, eat dinner. My days were busy and full of involvement! My parents would always tell me that maybe i should stop dancing because it took up so much of my time-but i got good grades in school and enjoyed being involved and really active! When i graduated high school i thought that would be the end of dance for me, but i got to college and after that many years of continuous dancing i couldn't just not dance. Out of all the styles of dance i've done Tap dancing is hands down my favorite. I decided to keep dancing Tap and hip hop at my studio once a week just to keep active and try and have a form of stress relief in my life still. 

I'm 23 and i still Dance, i help teach kids dance classes and take adult tap classes with my dance studios alum on tuesday nights. Dance has made me who i am. Dance has taught me so much since i was 4 and the past 18 years wouldn't have been the same without it. I live, breathe, talk, and obsess over dance still. I could have far worse habits and i remind my parents of this. I love to dance, i love everything about it. Dance taught me discipline, hard work, team work, perseverance, commitment, dedication, and has brought me nothing but happiness. I've been injured so much in the past mostly from running injuries and dance injuries but i wouldn't trade it for anything and i would take all the injuries all over again if it means i can dance. 

Tap dancing is something that i think you can't just decide one day you're going to pick it up and start tap dancing. Tap dancing is something that usually you have to start learning at a younger age to gain the basic skills. I think this is what i like about it! i also love the way that you can make music while you dance. Making sound and an expression of art i just adore. 

I don't have time for TV much these days with everything else going on in my busy life but my favorite TV show is "So You Think You Can Dance?"  here is a youtube clip from So you think you can dance-a tap dance clip!! one of my favorites!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul1RJ0gvdLg&feature=related

EDU 307 Free Write

Resident Assistant...known to SCSU as CC's (community Coordinators) or CA's (Community Advisors) don't just get free housing, we work for it. There are many responsibilities that CC's face everyday especially in a freshman / sophomore residence hall that aren't necessarily always seen. To better understand some of the questions residents ask or some of the things they do that all RA's, CC's or CA's encounter watch a short youtube clip from another university.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5XA7_8_FvA

i can give you a different account-things residents say or do and think that their CC's won't find out or don't know:

-drinking in their room with loud music on-as if we don't know

-stealing things out of the common area, or bathroom.

-moving tables and couches in the common area into their bedrooms and claiming that "thats just a big pile of clothes" in their room covering it up.

-locking themselves out of their rooms and blaming their roommate

-"forgetting" their hootloot they needed to swipe into the building and somehow they "lost it last week" 

-choosing to not leave the building during a firedrill

-coloring on floor meeting signs hung on the CC's doors or walls

-vandalizing door tags

-ripping things off bulletin boards

-not showing up to mandatory floor meetings and saying they "didn't know we had one" oh? you didn't see the signs we put up ALL over the floor? 

-i "fear for my life, living with my roommate" 

-"if i get hit by a car in the crosswalk... i get free tuition

-"this building is a communist community" 

Most residents don't notice all the things we do to make the floor and building a welcoming, positive community. 

-monthly bulletin boards

-monthly door tags

-9 programs per semester, per CC or CA

and so much more.

the residents who do realize all that we do for the building, enjoy stopping by my room when my doors open or come to programs we put on for them. residents come and ask for help with homework or just talk to you about whats going on with their day. I love my job for the  wonderful hall director and CC staff i have and i also love my job for my residents-even the ones the cause issues or unnecessary floor/ building drama. It happens that there are times when my CC phone will ring at 4am and i have to wake up and respond to an incident and at that moment i'm not entirely too fond of my job or the residents causing the issues. However, at the end of the day-its all worth it. 

This semester i am taking 2 EDU classes that require fieldwork-312 and 309. For EDU 312 i am in a 2nd grade class and for EDU 309 i am in a kindergarten classroom. Both of these placements are in the same elementary school: Jerrome Harrison Elementary School in North Branford. I only go to the school on fridays all day as the rest of the week i have full days of classes where i start classes early and don't get out of classes until late at night. This friday my fieldwork placement experience was a unique one to say the least!

Yesterday was Dr. Seuss' birthday-and read across america! The school had a school-wide celebration! it was hollywood themed. The students were dressed up-the boys wore suits and dress pants with jackets and ties and the girls wore dresses! the entire school was dressed up including teachers who were wearing tuxedos or floor length dresses and sunglasses. The students throughout the day would get to go to the gym where they had a red carpet set up with plants lining the side of the red carpet, velvet ropes marking off the red carpet, tents with strings of lights, an area where students can get interviewed on the red carpet and video recorded. Students were asked "what are you wearing?" "what is your favorite book?" "what book do you have with you today? whats it about?"

students then got to go to the other side of the gym to the snack tent where they had rented a wedding tent they put round tables with center pieces, had different snacks like red velvet cupcakes and juice in fancy plastic cups. There was a violinist playing music in the gym as well. When students left the snack area they went out the gym doors onto a party bus limo to set a 15 minute timer and read on the "rockstar reading limo" then they went back into the gym where they were read a story by someone who works for the town and they went back to their classroom. taking about 45 minutes all together. Its a fun day set aside for students to have some fun and have the emphasis on reading and literacy. After the kindergarten class got back into their room they talked about their favorite things that they saw and that happened and wrote it down.
all in all the day was somewhat interrrupted by this unique section of their day but the students loved it, as did all the teachers.