Final Thoughts

So tonight, we took our final in ed psych. It was strange to think that we've spent a whole semester together! If I had to rate the amount of information that I learned in class this semester on a scale of 1-10, I would probably say its probably about an 8. A lot of the things we talked about in class, I had learned in another class either here at Luther, or in high school, but I know I still will be taking a lot a way from ed psych. I really enjoyed nearly everything we did in class. There wasn't a day that went by that I thought that the class was pointless, or that I had no reason to go to class. I found each activity and discussion that we had interesting, and I've really enjoyed going to class this semester. In fact, I've found that about a lot of my classes this semester. I attribute this to the fact that I'm finally taking classes in my area of interest! Not to say that I don't enjoy the regular, english, math etc... but those classes never really interested me like my ed classes do. Its very reassuring to know that I've chosen something that I really like to learn about. I'm very excited to continue on this path! I think that ed psych is a great introduction into the ed program. It gives a great general overview of the teaching profession, and what our responsibilities will be as teachers. The format, with monday night lectures, panel discussions, and movies, is a great way to expose us to many different opinions and thoughts about teaching and the issues associated with it. Again, I've really enjoyed all this class had to offer, and I can't wait to see what else the Luther Teacher Ed Program has in store next!

imovie Process

So I've created my first imovie! Yay! I've done work with movie making in middle school, but I've never used the imovie application, and I guess filming and piecing together a commercial in 8th grade doesn't quite compare to this project. I feel like my group did a great job with the assignment, but I think it might have been due to some extra help that we received in the process. We did have a local high school student help us put together the project. I heard from a few of my friends that we had an unfair advantage, but in my mind, we just took advantage of available resources. I don't consider it cheating, or cutting corners. I'm confident that if we had to, we would have been able to do just as good of a job without help. The high school student just helped us do it more efficiently. We were all there when he worked on it with us, so we were actively involved in the process, and I know I definitely learned from it. All the decisions were made by us, so our project was definitely all ours. The process was relatively easy once we got our ideas down. We had the hardest time just trying to decide what should be in our presentation. I always think that group projects are so much more difficult that individual or even partner projects. To be able to coordinate 7 people was nearly impossible and to be able to collaborate and come up with ideas together was also very challenging. I always feel like dividing the work between several people is the worst part of group project. We managed to do it, but it was somewhat difficult. In the end, it came together, we made our video, and we were pleased with the results. I was so relieved when it was over, but I'm glad we did it, and now I feel like I might be able to pull it off if I had to do a similar assignment in the future. 

click here to watch the video!

Chalk

Back from break! Well, right before we left for Thanksgiving, we finished watching the movie "Chalk". The movie is about a bunch of relatively new teachers, teaching at a high school in stereotypical, middle-class America. The movie was pretty funny, I totally agree that its like The Office for teachers. I think that if I had actually experienced my first few years of teaching already, I might have found it a little funnier rather than slightly scary to be honest. I've been through the public school system, I've seen some these teachers before. I feel like I've been privileged to have had some very very good teachers in the past, but I've known of ones that were not so good. I can think of one in particular, my eighth grade science teacher. He was very intimidating, but was never fully in control of the class. I can remember being yelled at, actually yelled at, in class for talking. I had never been reprimanded for talking in class by any other teacher before, or since, but this teacher he got very angry at me. Needless to say, I didn't like that teacher very much after that. He once angrily knocked over a chair because his slim fast had been stolen from the classroom. He ended up being kind of the joke of the cluster. It was one of his first years (maybe his very first) teaching, and it was definitely his first year at our school. He left after finishing the year out. It is of those instances where you think that that person wasn't really meant to be a teacher. I could see some of those in the movie "Chalk". But in the end, I think the ones who seemed most hopeless actually seemed to have it somewhat under control. I really hope that I'm able to be better beginning teachers than some of the teachers in this movie, and I'm confident that I can be!