Free Write for EDU 414 (the final blog post for this class as well!)

                You might wonder why I have written both of these so early in the week, why I haven’t waited till Sunday, when everything is usually due. We last night after completing the work I had to do for this week, I made a list of the rest of the work I need to get done before next week or by next week, and for finals. I realized that this amount of work isn’t something that I can leave till the last minute. I usually like to work all day Sunday to get my work done, but at this point that is not an option.

                So right now I am writing my blog post for EDU 414, and I have just written my final blog post for EDU 307, you can see it below. I am writing this because I just came from my 5-7:30 class, and we stayed the whole time. While I am glad we stayed the whole time, we got a lot accomplished for out group project, I find myself to be pretty tired. I worked this morning till 12, went home to walk the dogs, came back to eat lunch, went to SCSU to get some transfer credits for the summer approved (I hope they get approved), and then went to class. It has been a busy day, and while I’m tired I know I need to get some work done.  Even if I just do these blogs tonight, it will be two more things to cross off my list, and give me more time to concentrate on other papers, projects, etc.

                So with this blog post coming to an end (I can’t think of much more to write)I have to say, I think a part of me is going to miss writing up these short but sweet little posts. Then again maybe not! However like I said in my previous post I really like these blogs as a source for our writing in the “W” classes. It was a simple kind of activity to get us to write, and earn that “W.”

Anyway, I am off to start and finish other work. I am glad to have written these blogs for my EDU courses. Good Luck everyone, we’re almost done!  

Free Write for EDU 307 (and the final blog post I have to do for this class!)

                I’m really excited as I begin this post. This is the final post for EDU 307 that I will have to write.  I don’t really have anything particularly interesting to say but I will write what comes to my head for the next few sentences and paragraphs.

                I’m thinking about when this blog first began. I have written on blogs for other classes before, so this was not my first experience. However the only other time I had to blog for class was in 2008 in the fall of my senior year of high school, for a class called 21^st Century Journalism. Back then I thought I wanted to be a journalist, but it was just a glimmer of something that I liked to do. As I have taken all the steps to acceptance into the education program, here at SCSU, and have taken some of the education classes, I truly realize that this is where my passion really is, in teaching.

                I believe that this blog experience hasn’t been all bad but hasn’t been all good either. While there were many free writes, I might have enjoyed having more topics to write about. Often it was hard to come up with things to write about and at times it felt like a hassle to be writing a free write when I had a lot of other homework to be doing. It felt almost like a chore that you do quickly and more on, and don’t think about again until you have to do it all over again. However in a way I did enjoy the free writes. They didn’t limit me. If I was thinking about something that I wanted to talk about, the blog was a great medium to use to do so. The free writes have their ups and downs. But I did enjoy having a subject to write about at times. I also support the use of these blogs as a way of writing for a “W” course. Instead of writing a million papers outside of class, don’t get me wrong we did our fair share of writing during this class, but the blogs were a different type of writing. Not one that made me stress every weekend. Overall I would say I enjoyed using the blogs more than I disliked them at times.

                As this year comes to an end, I find myself considering making a different blog, one that is not only for my education classes. But that is something I will have to consider when I have more time, and less immediate work to get done. I would give thumbs up to the use of blogs in future classes.

Good luck to all those studying and working, it will be over before you know it!

Free Write for EDU 414

My fingers are starting to cramp up. The computer is no longer fun to use. All I am doing on the computer is work, work, and work. This is all thanks to finals.  This lovely time of year finds me missing out on social events in exchange for getting work done. I’m missing friends, skipping work outs, speeding home, all to do work. It gets really crazy, and I don’t know how I manage to get it all done. I feel like my fingers are going to fall off from typing. Every word I spell has a mistake. I think it is almost time that I stop doing work for this night. Although I know even if I relax and go to bed the morning will be here all too soon and I will be doing work for around 9-10 hours tomorrow. The only thing I have to look forward too is the faint glimmer of summer, slowly approaching. I think I should probably write more for this post but honestly I can’t think of anything more to write, as I have already written a free write for 307. And also I’m so sick of typing at this point I just want to get the heck away from my computer. So for now I will say good bye and maybe go read for homework instead of typing something. Good luck to everyone else, I know we’re all going through the same things! On the bright side, being so busy will only make the time go by faster and summer will be here soon! Happy studying and working!

Free Write for EDU 307

                Here we go again with this time of year, the time for a rush of work, everything piled on, one thing on top of the other, the time for FINALS. Right now I feel very overwhelmed, I recently, and by recently I mean about 3 hours ago, sat down and wrote down the homework and projects I need to complete by the end of this weekend. After looking at the list I really had a hard time motivating myself to start getting the work done. I know that even though I got a start on some of the work tonight, that from the time I wake up tomorrow, which is about 9am, till about 9pm at night, when I stop working and watch Army Wives, I will be doing homework and projects, struggling to keep up with my work and even to get ahead with some other work.

                Right about now I begin to regret taking on six classes in one semester. The 18 credit hours on top of work is a daunting task, but I have no other choice. I can’t afford to stay in college for 6 years, like SCSU would like me too, so I’m pushing my way through, and hopefully only graduating a semester after I should technically graduate. Since I graduated high school in 09 I should leave college in 13, but right now the earliest I’m predicted to be graduating is Fall of 2014. So with that in mind, and my advisor telling me that I should have 3 semesters left, I look towards the light at the end of my tunnel and I will work diligently to get through all my work this weekend and beyond.

                I would just like to say good luck to the rest of my classmates, as I know they are all under the same types of pressure and more! We will all make it through this, and be better teachers because of it!

Happy working!

EDU 307 What Picture Book Touched My Life

                The first book that comes to mind when I think of a picture book, is Millions of Cats. This is the picture book that really touched my life. I know this because I still have and think about this book often. And in my future classroom I plan to use this book. Hopefully some child will enjoy the book as much as I did when I was younger.

                This picture book touched my life probably because at the time when I read it I really loved cats. I still do, but at the time I was young and I really wanted to read a book that I could relate to. This was the perfect book because when I was 5 I thought I wanted to grow up and live with a million cats on one farm. However the book also taught an important lesson. The cats in the book all fight over who is the prettiest eventually this leads to all the cats disappearing and only one remaining. The one cat that remained, remained because it did not want to fight over a thing like “who the prettiest is.” As the book ends the cat was taken in cared for and grew up to be a beautiful and loving cat. This book taught an important lesson. It taught me that it does not matter what you look like. It is how you act and present yourself that matters. It also taught me that everyone can be pretty and beautiful in their own way.

                This book was defiantly a good book for me to read because I was able to enjoy the pictures and see that metaphor that everyone can be beautiful in their own way. I believe that it is important to have these books in the classroom so that children can relate to them and learn the important messages that they carry. In my future classroom I plan on using picture books to help my students learn. I hope that they will touch my students lives, like Millions of Cats touched mine!