I am a Teacher Aide and I work one and a half days a week at an elementary school. I work in an Early Childhood class that is designed to provide the best learning opportunities possible to seven children who are developmenatally and learning delayed. Three of the students have started to integrate into the kindergarten class for an hour a day and today was the first day that I was a part of it. I have come to conclusion that I DO NOT want to be a kindergarten teacher. I never really did-but this experience cemented the fact. There were 27 kids and 4 adults. It was quite chaotic. I do have to give alot of credit to the teacher, she is AMAZING at what she does and can totally handle the chaos. I think I would be able to handle the chaos...it is the idea of the dependence that these kids have on the teacher that would drive me nuts! (OK this comment had better not come back adn bite me in the A#S!). Anyways it is amazing to see the three children who are integrated do so well in the class and the other children to be so accepting and helpful. It was an enlightening experience!

Off the topic but I just have to say...I am looking forward to Gray's Anatomy tomorrow night. I think somehow I am living vicariously through Meredith and her love for McDreamy. Am I pathetic or what? When I think about what the two of them have together, it reminds me of the love/lust that the character's Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz had for each other in Vanilla Sky. It was intense. I loved that movie. One of my favorites. Enough for tonight. I think I beared enough of my soul for one night. Gotta love a blog page that you have to attach your name to.
Jane.

I hope this motivation problem I seem to be having is a temporary thing. School work kinda seems to be taking a bit of a backburner ...or so it seems. Last year it seemed like I always had a project or paper due or test looming and it was alot of work and quite stressful. This year it seems that I am stressing out more over the fact that I am not freaking out over school work and projects. Is there less work or am I oddly enough adapting to the whole university thing? I mean I know there are projects due, tests coming up (although only in 2 classes instead of 5!!!), a power point presentation (that I have no creative ideas for), and a paper (only 1 this whole semester!!!), but it doesn't seem too be bothering me...
OK I have to admit the whole EPSY thing with all the DEMF's is freaking me out-do we really need to know all that information to be an effective teacher? If passing this class is more than just days and days of memorizing terms, someone PLEASE tell me how. Well I guess on that note, I better go finish reading the intriguing ESPY text before class today.
Jane.

Class was good tonight, it was great to see the relevance of spreadsheets for teachers. I love to learn new things that I know I will be able to use when I am a teacher! I have to admit though that I am a little apprehensive about a power point presentation. The whole idea seems to be out of my realm of computer know how. Anyone else feel that way? I suppose it can't be too hard...
Anyways, I just have to say that I am excited for Gray's Anatomy to start again tomorrow night. Am I desperate for entertainment or what?
Jane.

BlogThis!
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Not TOO Bad
Sunday, September 17, 2006

Not TOO Bad
I spent an hour yesterday trying to win a "battle" with OpenOffice.Org.Calc while I was trying to complete Tech Task #3 for my ECMP 355 class. I lost. After a good night's sleep and a pot of coffee, I had regained my confidence and decided to go for another round. Well, here's the thing, I downloaded and printed off an 18 page tutorial to get all the "how-to's" that I thought I would need to win this thing. I was sadly mistaken. After alot of cursing and losing of patience, I finally won. No thanks to my 18 page tutorial (to think I wasted all that ink and paper for nothing!!!). I had to thank my stubbornness and perserverance for getting me through this one. I was so proud of myself for figuring it out on my own!!!Later as I was revelling in my win and reading the Tech Task instructions one more time (to make sure I missed nothing) I came across this:http://education.uregina.ca/technology/ECMP355/Tutorials/TechTask2/ecmp__tech_task_2.htmlIt is an address for a demonstration on how to do Tech Task #3. Let me tell you, I was not impressed that I had wasted over four hours of my precious time for nothing. As I wasted more time "stewing" over my wasted time, I had time to reflect. I came to the realization that because I had learned something on my own, I will probably never forget how to label rows and columns on a spreadsheet and I will also read instructions a little more closesly from now on. Most of all, I realized that the experience was actually NOT TOO BAD. It actually felt pretty good.Now let's hope that I did it right!!!
posted by Jane at 8:44 PM

What Would You Do?
Thursday, September 14, 2006

What Would You Do?
If a convicted pedophile moved into a residence within a block of your neighborhood, what would you do? Unfortunately for myself and my family, for the past two days, rumors of such a thing are taking place. Numerous posters with a photograph have been circulated and the man has been seen in the neighborhood. I live close to a daycare center, elementary school and busy strip mall, with a pedophile possibly living very close by, our day to day lives have be altered. My children who are six and eight years old are no longer allowed to play outside, walk home from the school bus alone or fall asleep at night without asking tons of questions about the man they have seen in posters around the neighborhood. "What does he do to kids", they ask. How do you answer that question? Aside from ensuring that they know to stay away from him if they see him, and making sure that they are in our sight 24/7, what else can we do? Calls have been made to the Police who at this time cannot confirm the man's identity, but at the same time will not deny the allegations. We were told to circulate all the posters we could...just don't get caught. I think that BEFORE a convicted pedophile moves into a neighborhood, it should become public knowledge. We were told that within a certain amount of time the public would be made aware. Does anyone know if this is true? In the meantime...what would you do?
posted by Jane at 8:56 PM

0 Comments:

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Computers=Frustration
I need to vent...I am trying to set up a Bloglines account. Well, setting up an account was easy, it is figuring everything else out that is causing stress. I can't remember what I just learnt (saw) from my online class. I can't even figure out what my blog address on Blogger.com is. I am not sure if the address changes with each blog? I think this would much easier if I was learning in a face to face class. Online is great until you need help. Perhaps I will have to visit the professor for some help. I suppose if I "fiddled" around long enough I could figure it out. The problem is I don't have alot of extra time. I am thinking that one needs to spend quite a bit of time on the computer to do well in this class. We are supposed to bookmark websites that we like. I think that this is a great idea. Especially as Alec said when you could be networking with others to compile materials and resources. The problem is I don't spend enough time searching the web to add any sites that may be worth while to others. Oh well, enough whinning for now. Until next time. Jane.
posted by Jane at 8:31 PM

1 Comments:
ECMP 355--Kristina D said...
Hey Jane,This is Kristina, Thanks for the comment. I am kind of a computer geek and I am in the online class, So if you need any help I can help you out. My email is kdimini@gmail.com feel free to email me.Kristina

I am a mature student (for the record, I really hate the term "mature student". I have looked at those words in my posting for over 3 weeks and have come to this conclusion. Is it because I am 32 years old that I am mature? Can a student who is 19 years old not be mature to? I am never going to use this term again...must be sufffering from a "man I am getting old moment"...but really, who cares?, right?), wife and Mother of two children aged six and eight. After deciding that managing a retail clothing store for 13 years was not my "calling", I decided to embark on a new adventure. For the most part I decided to become a Teacher Aide because I wanted a job that was conducive to family life. After taking part in a Guided Reading program for young children at the school I worked at, I new that I had received my "true calling". So here I am now starting my second year of Education.
Computer "techie" I am not. When I was in retail, the minute I encountered computer trouble, I passed the job of calling the help desk to someone else. At home, my husband who is about as able as I with computers also receives the job of dealing with computer complications. The frustration level I can reach when I am trying to figure out something on the computer (like how to load my MP3 player), can literally raise my blood pressure. NO PATIENCE I guess.
For the most part, I feel that technology in the classroom puts students at an advantage. With the increasingly progressive direction that society seems to be heading with technology, those that find themselves in the "dark" when is comes to technology, will fall behind. When I worked in a grade three class, the limitations I found the students had, was an insufficient amount of computers available in the classroom and the not so great program that the computers ran on. Often the programs, depending on how many people in the school were logged on, ran very slow. The teacher that the students had was quite knowledgeable in the overall functioning of computers so they were able to learn a lot. Technology should be used in the classroom as often as (and as able as) the teacher can fit it in to their lesson plans. The more hands on practice that students can have, the better.
The teacher that I worked with for my EPS 100 placement had a blog page for her classroom. It was excellent. Often she would post student’s work, let parent’s know what was going on for the week and provide educational websites for her students to try. When I am a teacher, I will definitely have a blog page. I think that it will make my job easier.
One aspect of technology for learning that as a future teacher makes me think twice is online learning in the high schools and universities. If the trend is moving towards online learning and it proves to be effective, I tend to wonder if it could have a negative impact on the number of teachers needed. I do not see it becoming a problem in the near future, but I definitely think that it is worth a thought.
I hope that this class will provide me with the tools I will need to teach my class a thing or two on the computer effectively. I also want to carry on to ECMP 455 next semester if this class goes well.