Dews and Doughnuts

Yesterday in class, Jim listed his top 10 dews and doughnuts of teaching. These are the main ideas that Jim wanted us to take away from Educational Psychology. I really liked the list and will talk about a few of my favorite dews and doughnuts listed. First, I liked this dew "dew remember that money spent on books, travel, and adventure is never money wasted." I think that anything that will broaden your horizons and shape the way you think is a good thing. By reading, traveling, and having adventures you are opening yourself up to something totally new, which will end up giving you experiences to base your thoughts and actions upon. Doing this for students is an incredible gift to give because you are introducing these kids to something that could profoundly impact their lives.

Another dew: "Dew remember that most people don't get to their death bed and regret not having spent more time at the office." This is actually one of my life's mottos. I enjoy being busy and active, but I believe that in today's American culture work is stressed far to much. I think that being an adjunct professor at a community college and then doing some part-time research or conservation work that lets me get outside would be amazing. I'm sure that someday I'll want a full-time teaching spot somewhere or I'll become a naturalist, but when I'm young I want to have plenty of freedom to live. I think teachers need to apply this attidude to their students, also. Kids need more development than mental development, and if we give to much work they will be missing invaluable physical and social development. We not only need to help form strong minds, but happy and healty kids.

And a doughnut: "Doughnut forget that people are as happy as they make their minds up to be." I have found that when I decide to be happy, I am happy. When I am feeling down, it's usually because I have let something affect me to much and I can start feeling better with just a simple change of mindset. Even if a situation doesn't have many (if any) good aspects, a lesson can be learned from it in the end, which always gives me a sense of optomism. I think that we have the ability to teach someone how to change the way they are thinking about something so they can be more positive. Spending a little time in our classes to work on creating optimism will help our students out so much more than just teaching them the material.

iMovie Presentations

Last Monday, we watched iMovie projects that our classmates have been working hard on for weeks. I loved this idea, because, although I couldn't read every book, it let me experience what all the books were about. I learned a good deal about each book by seeing these presentations. In fact, some of the movies made me want to read the book they were about. I thought that every group did a great job.

One thing I enjoyed particularly about the iMovie presentation night was that others got a chance to see the movie I worked on. I do not want to sound conceited, but it was very rewarding when people commented that it was well-made, presented good ideas, and was fun. I think that all people like to have recognition of their work, and I think that including projects and activities in the classroom that give that work the opportunity to be recognized are beneficial. When I am an educator, I will incorporate ways for students to not only get involved with one another and work on projects like this, but to recieve feedback from their fellow students.

Also, for your viewing pleasure, I have put my group's youtube video on my sidebar.