Happiness♥

I never thought I was loved so much. At times I feel alone but I've always had someone hold my hand through everything. It's weird that my life has never really been bad to the point where it ruins my life. There are moments when I wish I could just disappear, but now I see I was exaggerating because everything I've gone through was never really horrible. My life is good and I should not whine at all. My mom loves me and so do many other people. Love is something I know I will always and forever have no matter what. I love everyone and everything in my life. I'm grateful for this marvelous life. Something I should do is keep my cool and keep going. No whining or crying over stupid nonsense that can be fixed. As long as I'm loved and supported I feel as though I have nothing to worry about.

Friday, Mr. Maggi showed us a video on YouTube that really opened my eyes to my research paper. The video I think was called "A Vision of K-12 Students Today" which was trying to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways to help students develop higher level thinking skills. I thought it was awesome. Mr. Maggi was also talking about how in the old days to look for a book people had to pull out a catalogue that was about 5 feet long. I never really noticed the changes or how much learning had actually changed until I started researching and wondering about it. Today I read an article on how students at a young age are not told about intelligence and the meaning of it. They just learn and feel as though their pace and amount of knowledge is through age and can not develop or grow. Therefore, they do not improve in grades because they are convinced that they can not get smarter or develop new skills. My psychology class has definitely helped me better understand the mind since right now were learning about intelligence. I mostly like this class because I can relate it to my life and other things that I want to know more about.

Today was a busy day and it stayed that way until the end of the day. I arrived late to my sponsor's but I had already advised her that I would be late today. Like usual Ms. Carney had her students working and today they were working on computers. I asked Ms. Carney if she lets the students use computers often and she replied that she tries to as much as she can. She had asked me if it was easier reading from a website on a computer or reading from a book. I replied that I liked reading from a website but the sides always have something to distract you. I had also mentioned to her that I was doing my research paper on technology with education. She had mentioned that she only had a little bit of training with the technology they presented to her in the classroom. I was glad that she knew that technology is very important to incorporate in her teaching. In my mind when I walked in the class I felt like my research paper was just as I was describing and picturing when I was writing it. I had proven my research paper to myself through Ms. Carney's answers to my questions and just the mere sight of all the students typing, browsing, searching, and clicking. They were reading articles off of websites and making power points. It was quite odd that Ms. Carney saw the importance of technology when not all teachers could see the great and wonderful use of technology. Ms. Carney asked the whole class if it's harder to work on computers and programs rather than worksheets and books. Only 4 raised their hands out of 16 kids that it was harder to use computers. I was impressed by how many students thought computers were better and easier to understand. It sucked that I had to leave early because of softball practice but I really liked today, because I felt what I was trying to prove was right in front of my face.

On Monday I started softball and I had no idea what I was doing or any of the positions of softball. I've seen people play the sport but I never really understood it. It was pretty hard knowing where to go or what to say, but not impossible. I was pretty proud of myself that I went through the whole practice without stopping or thinking about quitting. I realized today at practice that I needed to pay more attention and see if I was doing the right thing. Therefore, I asked Ms. Jones to tell me when I'm doing something incorrect because if she does not tell me I will never better myself. Just like checking your grades. You need to know what type of grade you have in each class to know where to improve. Being unaware of yourself in any type of thing like sports, school, or even your job is very bad. If no one tells you your doing something incorrect then how will you ever improve? Moreover, students although they're doing the homework or taking the test, you have no idea if it's an A or an F. Just like softball you might be doing all the stretches, and warm ups but you have no idea if you suck at this sport and need improvement.

In my psychology class today we were discussing ways of disciplining. A topic we ran through was punishment and discipline. Punishment sometimes does not work as much as discipline, some might say because punishment makes the child angry or makes them do it again. Most often their are no good results out of punishment. Discipline is more involved with leaning and teaching them something in a correct way.

Mr. Maggi had explained to us that there are different forms of disciplining a student. One example he shared was how Mr. M always talks to the student when they have been acting out in class. Mr. M is the type of person who wants to know the student's side of the story when they have been written up by a teacher and figuring out what it is that is making them act the way they are. Then he gave us another example, Coach Cellars, who would deal with a student with no communication at all and avoidance. There is a big difference between the type of people Mr. M and coach Cellars are. They both seem to deal with things differently.

Something else we had discussed was that it's much more better that teachers teach differently with variety and show a type of relationship with their own students. OHHH and something he had also added was that teachers need to realize that your relationship with students depend on you. I do not remember the name of the other teacher but this teacher Mr. Maggi had brought up had a problem with a certain student but it was totally his problem. This teacher had make fun of a student and so the student made fun of him as well. Therefore, making fun of each other had gotten serious and so this teacher would write him up everyday. Mr. Maggi had told this teacher that of course students who are being made fun of by a teacher would say something back. This teacher was provoking this student to act a certain way. I believe that each teacher has to set boundaries and certain standards that they want followed by being upfront when the teacher first starts their classes or else the students will walk all over you.

Monday was a great day. Everything was as planned and today although I did not do much in Ms. Carney's class I was able to observed the students. Today the class was going over a test they had taken on Friday. Ms. Carney like usual showed much enthusiasm and understanding towards them. She explained the questions that most of the students had scored wrong. One question that most of the pupils had wrong was figuring out what the topic of an article is. Ms. Carney broke down to them that identifying the topic of an article was by looking at the title and whatever picture accompanied the passage. She also added that reading the passage was not even necessary. Most of the kids were like OHHHHHHH I KNEW THAT!! I found it very funny and amusing how children can be.

After that she had given a paper to the students called the "Anticipation Guide" where it contained statements stating whether if an article needed the things mentioned in each statement. On one side of the paper it said BEFORE and under it asked if the statement stated was true or false. The other side was the AFTER where it also asked if the statement was true or false. This paper was formed like this because first she wanted to see what the students thought about these statements before even teaching them about what articles consists of. Since she knew most of the children were shy to say their answers she made them close their eyes and raise their hands when she asked if one of the statements were true or false. Therefore, she noted down how many were true and how many were false.

I thought it was a great idea so that when she does the after part of the " Anticipation Guide" she will be able to know if there is a difference in what they have learned and if she has to change something about her way of teaching so that they can better understand. I will not be able to see what her results will be tomorrow but I will ask her on my next field trip. I really hope that all of the students will improve.

A way that I relieve stress is by putting Beethoven or Mozart on, lay on my bed, let my imagination take me, and open my window for some fresh air. Turning off the lights also helps me relax. Another way that I relieve my stress is by decorating pictures. I have no idea why I feel calm when I'm decorating something. I believe maybe it's because I let go of everything and let my ideas flow everywhere. Stress is something I always seem to have and even just imagining myself on my bed and listening to Mozart tend to make me feel better, it's surely difficult to concentrate but I get there some how. When I hug someone or someone hugs me I tend to feel at ease and loosen up. Including getting compliments on something that I did , that definitely makes me relax.

On Friday I left at 5pm to go to Pennsylvania at a retreat. When I arrived I went directly to sleep since it had taken about 4 hours to get there. As we arrived closer to our destination I had noticed that the retreat was in the middle of no where. Technology was not allowed and God was suppose to be the one and only thing to be talked about and kept in mind. The next day I woke up my group had to go to the chapel to hear Andy preach about God. After he was done talking about the lesson he had came up to my group and stayed after to talk to us and as he was discussing his work ethics he mentioned that coming up with lessons that relate to the teenagers who come to the retreat is difficult and especially to get them interested in it. The next day he did another lesson and he started the same way. I noticed he taught with enthusiasm and then at the end of his lecture he was serious and went straight to the point of his lecture. Andy also mentioned that speaking to a large group is complicated because the main purpose is for everyone to understand. I truly did learn a lot about how preaching is so much similar to teaching. In preaching you have to come up with a lesson to explain to your students and so do teachers. They both need to come up with ways to speak to their audience in a way that gets your point across about what your teaching. One lesson I really did like was one where he told a story from the bible where a king had made a new god and wanted everyone to praise the idol. The king invited everyone to come and bow down to the idol. Three teenagers refused to bow down and stood when everyone had bowed down. The king was furious and wanted them to be killed. Therefore, they were thrown in a furnace but did not die. They walked in the fire and another person was seen with them walking in the fire. The king wondered why they did not die in the fire and so called them out. The three teenagers told the king they did not die because they believed and would only praise their one and only god which was God. The king saw that maybe this god was truly a God. Therefore, he announced that everyone has to believe and praise God or else you will be punished. The point Andy wanted to get to us was that we have to stand up for what we believe and to stand out even if it's difficult. Andy also said that denying God or not standing up for him when someone is cursing him is not a Christan at all. If you truly do believe you will take part in his work. For example, getting others to believe in God, stand up for others, and treat others with love and forgiveness. Being a christian is more than just believing it's living in a Godly way.