My Visual

My background is Orange with swirls. This is not put there by random. Everything on this blog has been put there for a reason. These swirls represent my long path to progressing as a writer. The swirls branch off and split at points. I like to view these splits as the way my path will change once I change my ways of writing. At the moment I am only a freshman and I have a long journey ahead of me. My path will not stay the same throughout this journey but it is still the path I create.

The Outcomes For Education 260-03

This assignment is to take a paper from a class, other than English 150-02, and apply it to the outcomes of that course. For this assignment I will be using my education autobiography paper from my Education 260-03 class, taught by Dr.Aerni at Longwood University. The outcomes for this course are listed below. In this blog I will be using the third outcome or in this case course objective and apply it to my educational autobiography. In this autobiography we were to describe our educational experiences in school, our community, as well as our job experiences and show how these experiences influenced us into becoming teachers or the kind of educators we aspire to be. This assignment fits well with the course objective of recognizing the various factors that are involved in choosing teaching as a career, career preparation, professional development, employment opportunities, and the public image of teachers.

IV. Course Objectives:

KnowledgeUpon successful completion of this course, the student will:
1. Recognize the components of an effective lesson plan. (V1,TC1,TC2,TC3,TC 6,TC7)2. Identify the requirements for completing the Longwood University teacher education program and obtaining licensure. (TC7)3. Recognize the various factors that are involved in choosing teaching as a career, career preparation, professional development, employment opportunities, and the public image of teachers. (V1,TC7)
4. Analyze the role of education in contemporary society, historical antecedents of American education, and the philosophical underpinnings of American education.
5. Consider the present role of schools in a pluralistic society. (V1,TC4,TC7,TC9)
6. Investigate the legal and financial issues that affect teachers, students and schools.(V1,TC7)
7. Develop and write a personal philosophy of education that is grounded in an appreciation of the teaching profession and the multiple contexts that surround it. This introductory course experience is designed for all students with majors that lead to teacher certification.(V1,TC7)

Below you will find my educational autobiography; here you will see how I explained my experiences in the classroom and in my softball career and how these experiences influenced me to become the teacher I want to be. I state in my paper how one math teacher had failed me. This teacher showed me that there is a large difference from teaching to educating. Stated in the course objective we must recognize the various factors involved with the public images of teachers. From this experience with my math teacher I learned that the opportunities you provided for your students is a big part in how the community will see you as a teacher.

Jacqueline Blair

EDUC 260

SEC. 03

September 12^th 2010

Educational Autobiography

            In my high school career I was the diligent, respectful student. I did not talk much to my class mates. I paid attention to ever word the teacher spoke. I would find the work to be extremely easy and found myself completing it in a matter of minutes. It was not until my senior year that these aspects I held changed dramatically.

            In my senior year of high school I was enrolled in Algebra 2/ trig. My teacher on the very first day after class pulled me aside and informed me that do to my previous math courses she thought it would be best that I enter a slower math. I had been taking the intermediate math courses and had done extremely well. My previous math teacher said that it would be better for me to challenge myself in a higher math.  My Algebra 2/ trig teacher explained that her opinion was the class would go too quickly for me and I would not be able to keep up with the fast pace. This teacher did not know me at all. She assumed to quickly and missed out on a great student. I proceeded to a different teacher, same course. At the end of the year I had received an A as my final grade. I learned from her mistakes, and will never put a student down just because of their previous experience. I will take my time learning how each of my students operate and adjust to their way of thinking. It will be my job to teach the students, not have the students “keep up with my lessons.”

            This experience showed me that there was more to high school than my formal education. I became more involved with the student body. I participated in the athletic, social and academic events. At that moment I was learning how to be a friend a person of respect and a person of my community. Even though my perspectives changed my principals did not. I was still a hard worker, responsible and dedicated student.

As a hard worker, I put all my dedication in to every duty that I commit to, whether I am on the field playing softball or in the class room completing an assignment. There are numerous things I have learned from playing softball. Team work, commitment and respect for others are just a few to name. The most important lesson I have learned from this sport is never giving up. I tried out for the middle school softball team all three years I attend. Not once did I make the team. This did not stop me from excelling at something I am passionate about. I found recreational and travel organizations to be a part of, to learn from and to build off of. I worked at the game as much as I could every day. I went to the batting cages, I attended every practice even while I was feeling under the weather I pushed through and taught myself to keep going.  My freshman year in high school I decided to go for the gold and try out for the varsity softball team. I pushed myself through try outs finding their exercises difficult but capable. When the list came out I had found myself seeing my hard work pay off in the end while seeing my name at the top.

The Outcomes

In every college course the students are presented with a syllabus that should state the outcomes of the course at hand. The outcomes are what you should take from the class or in other words what you learn. My English 150 course at Longwood University taught by Dr. Lettner-Rust has five outcomes listed on the syllabus. These outcomes are the skills that are taught to us, the students, to improve our writing. The outcomes are listed below.

Course Outcomes

·         Understand and adapt to rhetorical and contextual differences in tasks involving reading, writing, speaking, and listening

·         Engage in academic inquiry using and evaluating a variety of sources, incorporating and documenting source material appropriately, and avoiding plagiarism

·         Develop flexible processes for engaging in academic inquiry

·         Develop knowledge of conventions for different kinds of texts and demonstrate substantial control of the conventions of edited American English

·         Reflect on and make judgments about their own texts and writing processes

The assignment for today is to apply these outcomes to the papers we have written in the English 150 course.

Understand and adapt to rhetorical and contextual differences in tasks involving reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The outcome presented is applied to our most recent paper, our Literary Analysis. This assignment contained two poems that was read and analysed as a class discussion, by the students. "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth and "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane are two very similar yet very different poems. During the class discussion each student had their chance to analyse the poems in their opinion as well as listening to the different interpretations other students expressed. We compared and contrasted the meanings of the two poems in our paper. You will find in the paper below of how the presented outcome helped me in writing this paper.

Jacqueline Blair

Lettner-Rust/ English 150

10/18/10

Lit Analysis Essay

                  At times when peace was desired, two poems occur that expressed an escape from the

violence. "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth was written during the

French Revolution. William Wordsworth used stanzas of rhyme to relate his way of coping with

the revolution. "Beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze" is

Wordsworth's personification of how nature brought him peace, which is continued in line 18(5,

6). "What wealth the show to me had brought" shows William's joy that is received from nature.

             "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane was written during the Vietnam War in the sixties.

Unlike William Wordsworth, "White Rabbit" shows escape by drugs instead of nature as stated

"one pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small"(1,2). In lines 13 and 14 the statement

"when men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go" refers to the government telling

citizens what they should do. This statement was placed in this poem to show the reasoning of

why Jefferson Airplane needed an escape from the realities of the world at that time. As well as

lines 13 and 14, lines 7 and 8 express the opinion of Jefferson Airplane on the governments

reasoning on entering the Vietnam War when stating "and if you go chasing rabbits and you

know you're going to fall"(7, 8). "When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead and the

white knight is talking backwards and the red queen's "off with her head" remember what the

dormouse said; "keep your head" (19-24). This statement is the ending to the "White Rabbit"

poem; the meaning behind it is even when the government has lost all logic reasoning everyone

needs a way of staying sane, which is their excuse for taking drugs.

            No matter the circumstance, whether it be war or revolution, those subjected to the

situation will try and find a way to deal with it. Some coping methods might be more risky than

others but there will always be some way to cope.

Who I Am and What Will Become of ME

Who am I? Now that I have turned 18, that question is presented to me more often than I would like. At the moment I know the facts about my self but I don't know who I am as a person. There is a stereotype of me floating around my circle of friends. A "tom boy", "one of the guys", someone who puts others before herself at the same time keeping the respect of her peers.This is how my friends would describe me. I might be lost as to knowing who I am but at the same time I know who I want to become.

My goal is to become a teacher. Not just a teacher, but one that has the philosophy of "no matter big or small, fat or skinny, rude or polite, black, orange, purple, white, yellow, red there will always be an opportunity for my students to learn even when the thought of all hope is lost crosses any one's mind."

This blog is for my English 150 class at Longwood University taught by Dr. Lettner-Rust. My blogs will be documentation of my progress as a freshman in college. This document will let me look back as a senior to see how I have grown as a writer, student and scholar. The assignment is to show my technological skills, as well as my writing pieces for my freshman year.