I don't stick with blogs, journals, etc. I get really into it and then I lose interest and get too busy. I need to be more consistent so rather than scrap the entire blog, I'm jumping back in. Lots of changes happened since I last posted. I am now a Master's student at Calumet College studying Education. First I'm completing courses for my license, then I am continuing for my Master's in Education (holla!). I am beyond stoked to be in the classroom again.
I was talking with Mom today and I had to stop when I told her how happy I was to be back in school. I'm the last person she would ever expect to hear that from. I never hated school, I was just apathetic. I "didn't apply myself to the fullest extent," basically. But something changed at Purdue when I started studying English - I found my home, my little niche. My place where everything made sense to me. I was excited about school. That's how it was today: I couldn't wait to get to school and get started on lectures, notes, group work, and....homework!
We got our first assignment. Not only do we have a 10 page literature review paper to write, but we have six hours of field experience to complete in the next two weeks AND a fifteen minute presentation (largely covering what our paper is about). Wow. I'm ready to get on this horse and ride it into the dust (not that I want the horse to die...I hope you know what I meant) - I can't wait to do these assignments. I've started researching and I have seven articles so far. Scholarly, peer-reviewed articles that are current. Yes, I know my stuff.
And my classmates are saying, "OMG, when is this due?!" I'm just secretly smiling and pumping myself up. English majors are a crazy bunch, eh?
I'm also doing a podcast for a Technology workshop and my Ed Psych class. I'm doing more than necessary (I'm an overachiever, but I'm actually not being one in this instance) so that I can have a record of the classes and the important things I learned so I don't have to re-read notes. I want to be able to develop a podcast to use in the classroom. I'd even like to see students developing their own as an actual assignment (it would take the place of an essay) since we do so much communicating in the virtual realm.
We learned about professionalism, knowledge (pedagogical content, general pedagogical, learners & learning, and content) and I could tell you about all four, Piaget, Vygotsky, styles of learning, brain's memorization function, cognitive learning theory, how we learn, a bit about neurobiology...and tons of other stuff.
The eight-hour day is brutal, but it's nice to just be done with it in one day. Each class is only three weeks long - so each class meets only three times. It's a pretty sweet deal. The catch is that participants must be disciplined and focused. I'm on. I'm ready.
I'm starting to fill out my field experience letters tomorrow to submit Monday. I'm looking for schools to visit (preferably high schools, though I'm spending one hour each in elem. and middle school in addition to the time spent in secondary) and I need to start making the appointments for the following week. Gotta keep my head in the game, get my name out, and meet as many people as possible. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment