WRA week 15 post 2

Class is over! I thought WRA was a very difficult class. I learned so much from it though. I really hope I can 4.0 the class because I have put so much effort into the class and my hard work. In class we had time to work on our final project and the project that we had due at the end of class. I really enjoyed everything I have learned in the classes and I feel that a lot of it will come in handy in later writing classes. I think writing is very important and you need it for almost everything that you do.

WRA week 15 post 1

I thought the article called “Why did you hire me” was very interesting. CREATE A PROJECT JOURNAL! An important thing that you learn from this class is that you need to create one of these. They are very important. They help you get jobs and help people find you. Information is power. Know what you are talking about. Know your facts before you go into a interview. It is very important to be prepared for a job interview. “The bottom line is this: you are responsible for your own happiness, but you should always be aware of the cost.” This article has a lot of very important topics that you should remember for when you are getting the job you want.

WRA week 15 post 3

This has been such a hectic week! Freshman year is over a week from today. That is hard to believe! So much has happened this year. So many new experiences and new people and new things. It has been completely wonderful and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to go to Michigan State. I am really going to miss the people I got really close with this year and even the people I am not as close with. I was friends with a lot of people and they are all really important to me. I hope that I can visit it them during the summer and that they will try to visit me! I really hope I got 4.0’s in all of my classes and if not I hope I did pretty well. I tried really hard and I did my best and thats what matters. Hope everyone has a good summer!

TE 150 post 20

Blog topic. Why should teachers look at schools in other countries? The preschool in three cultures study focused on children from the US, Japan, and China. Of what value, if any, do you think this study is to those prospective US teachers who will almost certainly not be teaching students from China or Japan?

I don’t believe that any country knows the correct way to teach. Each country has different ways to teach preschoolers. Teachers from each of these countries have grown up in all sorts of different cultures so they have been taught to act a certain way. They have been taught to teach kids in a certain way. Usually I can see one country believing they are right over others but I think each country has great ideas and maybe some actually are more effective. I believe that no one way is right. I think that this study is a very great value to those who don’t plan on teaching in China and Japan. Even though they are in entirely different places and cultures I feel that we can learn a great lot by the way they teach. They may have tactics that work on their students where as we can’t get something to work with our students. I think it is a great idea to have other viewpoints on how to work with students or which ways work in situations in the classroom. I think everyone should try to be able to have an experience where they can go to another culture and explore their schooling systems.

TE 150 post 19

Blog entry: Your race, your teaching. Imagine yourself teaching in an urban school in Chicago in a class that has nearly 100% African American students. Of the challenges you’ll face, some will be related to your race. Can you describe a couple race-related challenges you are particularly concerned about at this time? Illustrate your concern by sketching some hypothetical situations you might imagine for yourself.

I really enjoyed all of the articles that were assigned for today. In the first article, Still Crazy After All These Years, By Charles Payne, Payne discussed the baggage that each teacher brings with them to the table that usually has to do with race. The baggage that most white bring with them to the classroom I believe is the fear that they are going to be called a racist. They fear that they are going to be judged by the school. Nobody wants to bring baggage with them when they walk into the classroom but it happens. So being a white female teacher I need to be able to leave my baggage behind me when I walk into the classroom. Obviously this is something that I believe is going to be hard to do because everyone has fears and they don’t just disappear but you need to try to leave them outside of the classroom. I am excited to have the privilege to learn how to be able to properly teach in an urban area. I want to be able to do it and I am excited for the opportunity. In one of the articles we read it talks about how there were two black boys fighting and a white teacher breaks them up. One of the boys says something to the teacher about getting his white hands away. The boy says this because he has learned from experience that saying something like this he will get a reaction. The teacher didn’t react in the way the student expected him to which was rather surprising. I think if I was actually in the situation I wouldn’t have known what to do. You want to show your kids that you have authority but also it does offend you when you know that they are specifically trying to make you mad. I want to be able to show my students that I am not against them in any way. Another thing that I read about was how students can think different things if they see a teacher being shy. I feel that I may be shy when I first start teaching not because I am intimidated by them but just because it is scary to do something new. I am going to have to over come that. Another thing that I think may be difficult is some of the cultural differences. It says in one of the articles that the Black teachers were mad when the students wore their hats in school because they are use to back when they were kids and that was completely unacceptable. Versus white teachers who don’t see anything wrong with wearing a hat. I want my students to know I respect them and I want other people in authority to know I respect them too. I may have different ways of showing affection and other things but that is because I grew up in a different culture. I am going to have to adapt to understand how they accept affection and other things.

WRA week 14 post 3

Last week I was so happy to go home for Easter. I was sick all week with a horrible headache, runny nose, sore throat, ear pain. and a fever. It was horrible and all week I couldn’t wait to see my Family. Friday morning I woke up at 8:31 and my train leaves at 8:30. I was so upset and I called my Mom and I told her what happened and she was going to try to figure something out. I ended up going to Amtrak and finding a bus that left at 12:15. The Schramm’s drove me to the train station at 11:30 and then I ordered jimmy john’s and waited for the train. I just wanted to get home. It got there on time and then I found out there was internet on the train so I was super happy. I was able to do homework! I got into the bus station at around 5:15 and my Mom picked me up. Then we drove home and went to the Good Friday Service at our church. It was very well done! Then the Bonanno’s came over and we all hung out and ordered pizza and beef sandwiches. Then we dyed Easter eggs! It was a blast. I went to bed early because I didn’t feel good though. Then Saturday morning we had a lot of Family Friends come over for our annual Easter egg hunt. A bunch of my Friends came and a lot of Family Friends came and two of the Families I babysit for came. We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids and one for the adults. The one for the adults had alcohol in them! We ate lots of good food and it was nice to see a lot of people! Then everyone left and I got a flower delivery to the house! I was so excited and surprised! I had no idea who they were from. It didn’t say who they were from either. I put them on my desk along with the nice note! Then I figured out who they were from. Then I worked on homework the rest of the day. Then at night I went to Brittany’s house and got to hang out with a lot of my other Friends who were home. Then I went to bed early because I was still sick. Then Sunday aka Easter, we went to church. Before church we got to collect eggs and look for our Easter baskets. After church the Bonanno’s came over. We flew kites and ate lots of food. Our Grandma came over too! It was great hanging out with them! Aurora’s boyfriend Brock came too, and he was super nice. Then I went to bed and Monday I headed back to school on the bus which this time didn’t have internet.

WRA week 14 post 2

This weeks readings were all about portfolios. We got to look at other peoples portfolios to create our own. I thought it was interesting to see others ways of making a portfolio. I also thought it was very helpful to help us make our own portfolio. I think they can be very complicated and having someone else to get ideas from really can help us. I think that it is great to have papers and other students work to look at as references.

WRA week 14 post 1

I thought the article 10 tips for a killer presentation was pretty interesting. The first tip about not abusing your visuals is really important. I talked a lot in my reflection about how I love using pictures and bullet points because that makes your project straight and to the point. You don’t want to have too much information because then no one is going to want to read your project. The second rule has to do with looking at your audience. it is important to make eye contact. When you do this the audience knows you are talking to them. It also makes you seem more confident. The third rule has to do with showing your personality. You want your audience to be able to get along with you. The next rule is you want to make your audience laugh. If you can make your audience laugh that shows that you aren’t nervous. You don’t have to be a comedian to make your audience laugh you just need to try to be confident and have fun! Then the next rule has to do with talking with your audience and not at them. This kind of goes along with a few of the other rules. You need to interact with your audience to keep them interested in your presentation. The next rule has to do with being honest. You don’t want to present stuff that your audience wants to hear, you need to present stuff that you believe. Then next you need to know to not over prepare. Over preparing will make it sound like you practiced too much and that you are just reading from your note cards. Next, try to walk around the room a little bit. If you stand in one spot the whole time you are going to look boring. The next rule you need to remember is to be careful of what you say. Try not to say like and um a lot because people can really notice that and it is annoying. Rule number ten is to differentiate yourself. Be unique and do something fun with your presentation. I learned a lot from this website and a lot of it was stuff I knew but more was added on to it.

WRA week 13 post 3

I had such a busy weekend this past weekend but I enjoyed it to the full extent!  Thursday night I worked on a lot of homework so I could get it all out of the way for the weekend. Then on Friday I made sure to clean up our room and then I went and hung out with my friends on my floor. It was a boy on my floors birthday so we were all hanging out and I made him signs to decorate his door. He is a really nice kid and we were all having a good time. Then at like 2:40 I left to go help set up for Relay For Life. I was not dressed for the weather that is for sure. When I got there we started setting things up but we weren’t allowed on the track until 5 pm because the track team was practicing. This was a little annoying because people could start coming to Relay at 6 pm. We had people blow up balloons and tie them to this really long string so we could attach it to the sides at the bottom of the stage. This was a big process  because the balloons like to blow away in the wind. One of our balloon strings blew away in the wind. We worked for about two hours making that balloon string. At like 4:15 I walked back to Brody to get warmer clothes because it was so cold out. I came and hung out with the birthday boy, Jake and the rest of my friends for like half an hour to warm up. Then I came to my room and borrowed some gloves and an ear warmer thing from Dorothy. I made some Mac and Cheese and then said bye to the group and then trekked out back into the cold. Once I got back to Relay we finished setting everything up and then people started coming in. We couldn’t let them in till six so we had to stand and block them for awhile. Then once everyone came in we started with the opening ceremony and we let all the survivors walk around the track. It was very touching and after they walked around once they all stood in the middle and let their purple balloons fly up in the air. Then we started the event and everyone was allowed to walk around the track. The first activity was the activity I was in charge of and that was an ice cream eating contest. Not many people wanted to participate because it was so cold out but I had a some people do it so it was fun. There was this one little girl who did it and she was dancing all around and it was adorable. Then I had a friend do it too and then a few of the committee members just ate the rest of it because no one else wanted to do it. After that I went and helped at the bake sale. Not a lot of people wanted desserts either but we tried are best to sell them and we got some people to buy some. It was really cold and rainy, oh and windy out so it was an adventurous night. We had lots of fun activities and food to entertain people. Then at around ten pm we had the luminaria ceremony. It was so windy that we couldn’t light the candles but it was still really cool. It is a very emotional ceremony and I cried during it. I texted a few of my friends from back home because I usually do Relay For Life with them so I missed having them there with me. Then after that was over they kept having games go on and other activities while people still walked the track. Since it was still raining and cold and windy a lot of the teams left. I was getting pretty tired but I was so happy to be there and help out that I was still having a great time. Greg called everyone to the stage and we all didn’t know what the surprise was but then he brought his girlfriend Kelly up to the stage. They are both on the committee for Relay For Life and they have been in it since high school.  They have been dating for five and a half years and it is really cute. On stage in front of everyone at Relay, Greg proposed to Kelly and she said yes and it was the cutest thing ever. Then we kept hanging out outside even though the weather wasn’t the best. The activities they had plan were a lot of fun! They had Mr. Relay which is always funny and then there was a dodgeball tournament which didn’t get to happen because it was so windy and then we had a food factor which we didn’t have many participants because the food was really gross but it was still fun! I thought everything we did was a blast. At around 2 am Ben came and visited me! That made me really happy! I am friends with a lot of the people on the committee but none of my close friends did Relay so it was nice to have one of my close friends come visit! We talked for like an hour and then I told him to go back to the dorms and go back to bed. It was nice hanging out with him though. Then the power went out because of the high winds and we thought they were going to have to cancel Relay. The police came and figured out how to put the power back on so Relay was saved! I don’t think I fell asleep the whole night and if I did it was for a minute tops. By seven am when we did the closing ceremony there was only about six tents left and we were so proud of those people. By the time I went to bed it was 8 in the morning. I woke up at 11:30 and had some breakfast then went to bed, then woke up and had some dinner and then went back to bed and then some of my friends down my hall woke me up and then we all hung out for a good fun night before we are going to spend out next few weekends studying. I had a really great weekend!

WRA week 13 post 2

This week in WRA we focused on working on our remixes. I had such a busy week last week that I didn’t get a lot of it done by class so my outline wasn’t as filled out as it should of been. After class on Wednesday I worked super hard on my remix. I am really proud of it. I put in lots of pictures and made it very colorful and inviting to whoever wants to read it. I think that college freshmen would enjoy it and I think it is something that they can relate to and maybe even want to read. I like that we were given the opportunity to present our project in a different way and that less us be creative in ways that we like to be creative. I really enjoyed this project and I think I did a good job.