This is the busy time

So this week is going to be a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG WEEK. Have to study for a quiz and test in a class, got the E-portfolio to do (which I will start Tuesday maybe). For those of you who, at the beginning of the class didn't believe that I would wait until the last minute you now know I was telling the truth. Who knows what else there is to do but oh well the semester is almost over, which then means summer, and then another semester only we are that much closer to our goals. I am looking forward to a lot and at the same time dreading a lot.....well kinda. But anyways this week we covered some valued information that I honestly didn't know a lot about mainly due to the lack of use, however it is vital that we know a little about this stuff. When we broke out into small groups we were told to role play. Personally I feel very split between role play, for this I think it should not be used how we were instructed (no offense Heath). I believe for something like these scenarios to be effective you need a prepared person to do the role play or deal with the same thing otherwise the full effect I feel is missing. I do think for a less serious situation that role playing can be effective but I just don't believe it is all there when it is this type. Once again it is time for more things to get done and I will see you all on Wednesday. And just so all are aware and excited this Sunday I believe is another retreat. Jenna don't forget to bring your car just in case :P

Loss for words

Here is a day for all to remember. I really don't know what I want to blog about other than what we were assigned for accountability.
"What can I bring to the table of a group?" well of course I like to bring FUN, however I can be serious. I like to think about things from a logical way and try to solve some problems very quickly.
"What can I improve on?" I can improve on everything however some key ones to improve on would be for me to consider feelings more when I act in addition to taking my time with some of my responses, sometimes they come back to bite me. another big thing for me is to make sure everybody is involved, sometime I do not pay attention and leave people out.

Now back to my random talk, Matt I am pretty sure I dominated your TEST and I would like to say I really want to watch some disney movies now. hahaha

Lesson For Us All

Lesson Plans, Lesson Plans, Lesson Plans. Thats what we covered this week. We broke them down and covered what it was that we should cover and then what each part of the papers given to us with the outcome, assessment, questions, and conclusions. Now that I have lead you away from my point we will begin the actual blog. In class while Heath was talking to us, he covered a topic. That topic basically was keeping everyone focused on the class while in class, keep the students from day dreaming, or just sitting there not paying attention. Now I had gone and talked to Heath and Allie on Thursday because I had to take off a little earlier than everybody and wanted to double check on some things. While I was there we got to talking a little more about this. Now in class it was apparent that we were not completely there, which is not necessarily a bad thing as long as we are still there and active but I know for my case I was randomly going in and out of class with my head. Now while talking to Allie and Heath Thursday we got to talking about how the future freshman are going to take this class. We were wondering what their attitude was going to be. Now for my perspective I told them that we are going to have students that appreciate this class and then others that are just there because they were given some money. When we got to talking about how the students pay attention I brought up this point, for our class we are here because we wanted to be, we applied for this and we are here to get something out of it, and even after that we still are not fully aware in class. Now for them to fully see my point I talked about how I viewed the class when I was a freshman. I was not the student who viewed the class as useful or worth my time other than I was here for the money, now after a while I got a talking to from the lady in charge (Debra :0 ). I know who would have thought. However see talked to me and my view turned for the second half of the semester but it showed them that even for us it is hard to stay focused and we have chosen this and now we have to try to keep students (almost typed kids in) that the Hixson program chose to be here to do the same thing. So at this point I do not have a solution other than trying to connect and prove to the students so as to help them get the most out of the class but otherwise I am clueless on what we should do. So a thought for all if any ideas post a comment or bring it up in class

OOPS

So after talking about accountability in class I of all people forgot when this was to be done. In fact I didn't even look at this stuff until today, so sorry. However I am glad that I didn't blog until know because over break I have something that I would like to bring up. During our amazing week off I went home and spent the entire week doing not much that I would describe as productive when you look at a regular week. I did however come to a realization. While at home I was able to hang with some of my friends that I haven't seen for a long time, those that went to another college, a younger grade than I was or for whatever reason. While hanging with one in particular I found that he has not really matured since high school and is still stuck in that high school stage of his life. It made me think the students that are going to be coming in next year are going to be at very different levels of maturity and it is our responsibility to control and try to connect with each of them. Now in terms of this friend he wouldn't leave me alone the entire week however he never had anything productive to do, as in all he wanted to do was sit and play games. Now I believe that every now then it is worth taking some time and playing games and I do but I cannot do that all day everyday. Now I am not trying to say that he is a bad friend in anyway but he has not really grown up. I just thought that this is a good point to be aware of before next year, we are going to have students that are very productive with their time and have matured a lot while at the same time there are going to be those students who don't really have a care in the world and won't see a point in anything we are doing. It is up to us to reach those students and help them grow and see that there is a point to what we do. So sorry about being late and hope everyone had a good break and will see you on wednesday.

Let it Rock

Alright so this week was a total mind evaluation. WE HAD TO THINK. ALOT. haha I do believe that metacognition is a good thing to do and that it is a good thing to learn about so we are more aware of it. I have found that I tend to do it a lot, sometimes while the situation that I need to think about is happening. However it never hurts to do it again and again. The more I think about it the more I think of the saying there are two sides to every story. Now when I first hear this (and probably most of you) I think there is my side and there is the other person involved side. Well while going into this deep train of thought I have come to the conclusion there is two sides for just me (and sometimes more). We all have our first reaction which in many cases is what ends up happening. Now as Heath was saying in class how he had mentioned that he hated the book, he had said something that came across not as it was supposed to. He of course didn't mean that (at least that is what he says now). So when thinking about this I think of a situation that seems to be reoccurring each week. I dislike a certain part of my Tuesdays and Thursdays (yes a certain class) and my actions in this class are not what they could be. I of course am doing things to make me enjoy my days a little more, however I can think of multiple ways that I am effecting not only myself, but the kids around me and the teacher. Moving forward I can also say for those that have developed a high level of metacognition and can catch themselves (by that I mean think about what is happening before it is happening) have a chance to stop themselves and can act in the manner that is going to bring about the best result. So after rambling and loosing myself a time or two (lack of focus at this point) the goal I believe after all this is to practice this enough to know what the situation is going to turn into and why it is going that way so we have a chance to fix the outcome before it is too late. Thats all I have to say

Teaching

I think that teaching is something that we should cover, or maybe more into different teaching methods. I know we went over them a little in class but there are always ways to better discover a good way of teaching, most of those ways is from experience which we will be discovering next semester but I would like to hear more from people who have some experiences and explain what they did and why it worked. It is something that we are all going to need to know how to do and so we might as well learn what we can before we just jump into the water and find out it is only 6 inches deep.

So.....

Alright so this week we talked about discrimination issues kind of. Well I cannot say that I am the best person in the world to come to while dealing with discrimination. I have feelings and view certain things differently than most people. I will honestly say that I do not agree with a lot of the things on the list from the email. I know that this is a sorter post but I think if we are to fully discuss this it needs to be something that is done on a more personal level but at the same time I want you to understand that I do not mean any of this in a bad way. I am only telling you in a no harm meant kind of way what I think and feel about this topic. If you wish to no more than ask and I will be willing to talk to you about it.