Wow.

That’s all I can say.

Why?

Because today was a BLUR!

“Today” started for me about seventeen hours ago, yes youheard me, SEVENTEEN hours!  I woke up at5:00 this morning because our dog Zhaxci decided he was lonely and that it wasa great time to bug Megan.  He wouldn’tleave me alone so I decided to just get up and take my shower (wasn’t gettingany sleeping done anyway).  After I wasshowered and dressed it was a little after 6:00 and my stomach told me I washungry.  You know, sometimes I am verygrateful for my stomach because otherwise I would not think to stop and eat; I’mjust too busy ALL OF THE TIME!  So, I atebreakfast and by that then it was time for me to start my morning battle withtraffic… I arrived on campus at 8:05, promptly when I had meant to.

Before my reflection with Sister Mary I went and printed myguided reflection questions off in Financial Aid where I struck up a conversationwith Mary Beth Lampe about how close the end of the semester was and howexcited I was.  Then I made my way backto the classroom and sat down with my peers as we waited for Sister Mary tostart the session.  By 9:40 (an entire 40minutes before our allotted time was up, but a good 45 minutes after my brainhad already traveled to my next exam) we were all finished reflecting on ourservice learning placements and I was headed to the food court to CRAM!

From 9:45 to 1:00 my friend and I studied our little heartsout trying to prepare for what was sure to be our demise in Dr. Green’s 1:15exam.  The time passed too quickly and asthe clocked turned to 1:00 we both felt those all-too-familiar pretest jitterssetting in.  We walked together incomplete silence to the education floor of the classroom building and sat downat our seats to join the rest of our classmates in last minutes glancing atnotes and prayers to St. Anthony that we would find the right answers.  The exam went by without flaw, and I actuallythink I did very well!  By 2:30 (a full35 minutes before the allotted time was up) Lori and I were back in the foodcourt, joined by two other friends, to look over our notes for our Math exam at5:30.  We studied, gossiped, talked abouthow ready to be done we all were, ate dinner and then went to the math floor ofthe science building to take our tests.

The math test was very simple and I was the first of ourstudy group to finish.  We had all agreedto wait until we were all finished and then go out to UDF to get ice cream…. SoI waited.  When everyone was done wepicked Chris up and headed out.  We weregoing to celebrate the sweet taste of FREEDOM with the sweet taste of icecream!  We all had a great time, everyonebut Chris was done with exams, and everyone but me was done with final projects(I just have a few loose ends to tie up) but we were ALL basically DONE andproud of it too!!

I drove home feeling great, dropped my stuff at my bedroomdoor and took a hot shower to wash the dirt, grime and slime of finals, exams,and cram sessions off of me and now here I sit…

I just took you through seventeen hours in 600 words… andthat’s how my day went by too, it went by fast and man am I thankful that itdid!  I hope everyone has a great summer…good luck to EVERYONE on any exams you may have left and I’ll see you aroundsometime!!

Adios, S209!

Last night was one of those nights... you know, the ones where nothing ever goes right and you flip out and say, hmmm I dunno, you completely tear apart your room, rearrange it, drop a futon on your toe, get mad and go to bed.  Well notice there was NO hmework anywhere in that sentence, none at all.  Know what that means?  That means that it had to be done this morning.

I was up at 4:00 this morning, I wrote a two page response on instructional and institutional responsibilities to students with exceptionalities, I completed twelve math problems that were review for my math test tonight, I read the 10 page selection that we have a quiz on for Dr. Green's class today, I got dressd, ate breakfast and packed a lunch.  I joined the throngs of other morning commuters fighting for spots on the high way and pulled into the parking lot here at the Mount at promptly 7:45 (somehow, exactly when I planned on being here).  I will be here until 8:30 tonight which makes for a VERY long day, but you know what??  I'm happy...

It's light outside, the sky looks slightly like cotton candy, warmer weather is on its way and the birds are singing their good morning songa again.  I have an incredibly busy day today but I'm not dreading it because Tuesdays and Thursdays are the days that I learn the most from my classes here at MSJ.  Tues/Thurs are full days, but they are satisfying and beneficial... they do their job by giving me the fundations on which t build a successful career as an educator in the real world. 

Mr. Santoro's class is about to start, so I'll have to post my art project later today.

Until next time...

Hey guys!

Student Teaching is almost here! As some of you may know, I am an Education major. As part of your education here at the Mount as an Education student, you need to complete 12-15 weeks of student teaching, usually to be completed the last semester of your undergraduate career. To prepare you for this, you spend 100+ hours in a Practicum.  The Practicum places you in a classroom like one you will be teaching (mine is a high school history class at Elder High School) and allows you to get comfortable in the setting through observations and a handful of lessons that you teach.

But student teaching is something that is pretty intimidating.  For the 12-15 weeks, I will need to be in the classroom every day and teach at least one class a day. Now I’ve only taught three official high school classes and the thought of teaching everyday for 12 weeks is NUTS! Ha. But it will be okay because you clear your schedule completely, so normally you don’t take any other classes with the student teaching. Or at least that’s the way it’s typically done. Of course that’s not the way I’m doing it though. I have a class I still need to get caught up on, but it’s only one class and it shouldn’t be too bad. The one thing that does worry me is the fact that I’m going to be wrestling at the same time as the student teaching.  That is going to be a little difficult to handle. If anyone is reading this that has dealt with student teaching and sports at the same time, please drop me a comment and offer any advice to ease my mind a little!

See ya!

>Eric M.

Hey guys!

How’s life for you all? Hope its goin well, cuz its all you have! I had a really cool experience last week and I feel that I’d be doing you all a disservice by not sharing it. So guess what? I’ma tell you.

Let me start with a little background knowledge.  My Tuesday night class, Methods of Teaching Social Studies, meets once a week and is taught by the wonderful Dr. Kim Shibinski. The class explores all the vital skills an educator needs to successfully teach their pupils. We study Bloom’s Taxonomy (the levels of intellectual behavior), different techniques that will keep the attention of students, and the details needed to create an effective lesson. These are just a few of the topics we cover, but you get the picture.

So last week, the class (all 12 of us) was invited to attend a presentation at Princeton High School.  We all rescheduled our class to meet on Friday at Princeton instead of Tuesday at the Mount. But that’s about as much as we all knew. Upon arrival at Princeton, a teacher by the name of Mrs. Adams enthusiastically greeted us. She informed us that her students were very excited to present their work to us. I was thinking….Ummm, Okay. What’s being presented again?

Mrs. Adams took us into a presentation room and started explaining that she was an English teacher in charge of one of the oral presentation classes. Her class consisted of about 30 students and the goal of the class was to create poems of any kind and successfully deliver them from memory in front of an audience. The course was to create effective public speakers and to encourage creative writing/speech. But that isn’t what is so awesome about this class.

Mrs. Adams creates a very comfortable, secure, and encouraging setting in her classroom. Each student needs to produce a poem every week.  She gives her students a poem structure to follow each week, but other than that, they can write about whatever they want. This little presentation was to show us the best work of the students. There were so many different styles of poems, from free verse, to double voice, to picture prompts, where-I-come-from’s, and the list went on and on.

I was amazed at the skill those Princeton students demonstrated! They all, and I mean ALL, did an amazing job. You could tell some were nervous about us being there and weren’t necessarily comfortable with public speaking, but their work they produced was outstanding! They covered all kinds of topics, such as death, breakups, broken homes, cheating, love, despair, suicide, teenage pregnancy, happiness, responsibility, homosexuality, and anything else you could think of that triggers any emotion.  Some poems were funny, some sad, some made you angry, some made you wanna jump up and give the presenter a big hug. But every one was original and very powerful.

I just want to give Mrs. Adams and her English class over at Princeton High the props they deserve! I am so happy I was able to experience those presentations and much of what I heard that day will stay with me for a long, long time. We need more teachers like Mrs. Adams, ones that create a productive, safe, and inspirational educational atmosphere to give students a chance to shine and get their voice heard. I can only hope to have half the impact on my students that Mrs. Adams has.

Have a great week!

>Eric M.

So the advising season starts tomorrow, Monday, for next semester, S2.10 (abbreviation code: S- semester; 2- second semester; 10- year 2010= 2nd Semester of 2010... That's how everything is abbreviated at the Mount for the semesters. So we're in S1.10 right now.), which means lots of stress over classes, we get to deal with the wonderful Student Registration (yes, I'm being sarcastic), and we get to meet with our advisors.

Currently, the Education Department is in the middle of an overhaul (great show by the way). Dr. Obach, our previous head of the department for the past 3 years, has stepped down since his contract has ended and that left a hole where the head should be. So. So, they bumped up Mr. Sallada (usually in charge of student teaching and practicum placements, and still is right now) and Dr. Sparks (an advisor and phonics guru) to the heads of the Graduate section of the department and also made Dr. Miller head of the Undergraduate section (she was just an advisor and I now have her for two classes this semester). This is just from my understanding so don't quote me on it.

But because of this overhaul, I have lost Dr. Sparks as my advisor (he kept his seniors so as to finish out their careers at the Mount) and I now have Dr. Obach. It'll be interesting to see how his style differs from Dr. Sparks'. But basically what I have done for the last four semesters when it comes to classes is just following the advising sheet the department hands you on your first meeting with your advisor. (http://inside.msj.edu/departments/academic/education/students/advising/ this is the link for the advising sheets in the education department) So I have an advising sheet that is two and half years old but another part of the overhaul was to create a new advising sheet. So therein lies my first stressful problem. The department changes the advising sheets because the state of Ohio says that there are new standards for the colleges to meet for their undergraduates and graduates. Therefore, the department can decide whether or not their current program meets those standards or not and then change them as needed. So the program has changed. Now, I have to compare my advising sheet from then to the one of now. So I'm not sure which classes I really have to take and which ones I don't. I won't know until I meet with Dr. Obach.

And that's one thing I've always been good at- figuring out my schedule. I usually come into my advising meeting with a list of classes that I think I should take and they are all fitted into a schedule that works based on times and days. I also have a list of back up classes, some that can take the place of another class on my original list that I don't have to take or one that I can't take, and then of course when I get onto registration a particular class may be full so then I sign up for another class to keep my schedule full. It all works for me in the end and then when registration is over, a huge load is lifted from my shoulders.

And registration, that part of this process, can be stressful too. On the day of registration for your grade (Junior for me this year), you are given a registration time- either 6 or 6:30 AM. That means you cannot log on to Student Registration until that time to register for your classes. If you have 6 AM, you have 30 minutes- until 6:30 AM (obviously)- to sign up for your classes before the 6:30 group is allowed on. Then everyone is allowed to continue with registration at 7 AM. So if you have 6 AM, you can get back on at 7 AM to continue signing up if you didn't finish in the first 30 minutes. And then you can continue to get on until registration closes (which, as far as I know, doesn't happen really ever...). My experience with registration is that I get up about 10 minutes before my time, get on exactly at my time, spend five minutes plugging my classes in (you write in the code- SED, EDU, COM, etc.; then the number- 100, 101, 202, etc.; and the section- 01, 02, 06, etc.), and then you find out if the class has been added, you're on the waiting list, or it is closed and therefore you're not allowed in at all. That can really throw you off...

So with all of this, it can really boggle your mind. The best thing you can do for advising and registration, is just to breathe, look at your advising sheet, find the classes you need to take, find the days and times, and create a schedule. Then find a list of back up classes that you can take- ones that either replace ones you can't get into or other reasons and also classes that fit in elsewhere into your schedule that don't conflict with the already required days and times. It'll all work out in the end. But have fun with it too. It's something you get used to but I try to pick at least one class that I know I'll fun in so that I can keep my semester interesting, at least in part that is. :) Good luck with your registration if you get to try it this semester and if you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to leave a comment and I'll get back to you! :)

Last week I made a visit to the education department to see my advisor about dropping a class, little did I know I was going to be getting an inside glimpse at a whole other world here on campus. 

My advisor is Carla Good (wonderful woman, FYI) and she wasn't in her office when I stopped by.  No big deal, I sat down in a chair outside her door to wait for her.  Now, guys, I'm a people person.  That's probably one of the biggest reasons I want to go into education.  You have to be able to work with people from ALL walks of life; you have to know how to handle anyone and everyone from 6-year-old Timmy in your classroom all the way up to Mr. Big-Shot president of the county board of education.  That's a large spectrum don't you think!?  Anyway, back on track, me being the people person I am, I watched the happenings of the office and the interactions of the staff and faculty in the Education offices. 

I just entered into the education department this semester so I don't know many of them by name, but I DEFINITELY like what I've seen so far.  The general atmosphere of the entire wing of suites was just light and happy.  There were people chatting as they passed one another in the hallway, everyone who saw me said hello and asked me if there was any way they could help me, and when I said I was looking for Carla more than one of them offered to try to find her themselves.  I just liked the feel of the entire place.  One lady, whom I now know to be Dr. Shibinski, said she would track Carla down for me and rather than just going to find Carla, letting her know I was waiting for her, and then going about her business as usual again, she came back to where I was sitting and said that Carla would be right with me and was there anything else she could help me with.  I was just overall impressed by the education department and I am even more excited about my major now!

I'm sure you will be hearing much more from me on the topic of education in the weeks to come.  I just started EDU 190 with Dr. Shibinski on Tuesday, this morning I met Dr. Sallada, and I'm really digging my feet into the soil (so-to-speak) here at the Mount under the umbrella of education... I'm even leaning towards going through with my graduate degree here after my undergrad!

Hey guys!

So this past week was EXTREMELY busy. Something noteworthy and worth talking about was the newly founded Mount Education Association (MEA).  The MEA is a club for students within the Education Department and is set up to improve the communication between the students and faculty within the Ed. Department.  This club used to be a thriving association within the Mount St. Joseph community, but somewhere along the line something happened that led to the discontinuation of the club.  So the club ended and nobody has heard anything about it for about five years now.  That’s the background story. To catch you up, I got an email from one of my professors last Tuesday explaining how she was put in charge of reinstating the MEA and she was asking if I’d be interested in becoming one of the students involved with heading the club. I accepted this invitation because I would like to be more involved with the Education Department. With graduation at the end of the year, anything to help me succeed is a welcomed idea.  So I became the Secretary of the MEA and sat in on the first few meetings of this club to establish the constitution and our main priorities.  It was a very cool experience.  And I’ve been able to benefit from it immensely.  There are so many requirements and deadlines to meet within the Education Department and to have a connection with the faculty and heads of the department gives me an advantage to get all these things done on time.  Just another thing to keep me in check and to ensure a smooth journey to the stage on graduation day.  I would like to encourage any Mount Education students to get involved with MEA. We meet on the first Thursday of every month and we really have a wealth of knowledge to keep students on track to graduate on time and set up a successful career as a future educator.   Let me know if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them!

See ya!

>Eric M.