Welcome to U.S. History!

This week started as my last journey through the world of college. As it stands right now, I only am in need of taking four classes before my student teaching and eventual graduation.

During most of these class sessions, our teachers are constantly encouraging us to think about how we would act and react to situations within the classroom.

Among these hypothetical questions and situations is, "What will the first day of school be like for you?"

Hopefully, for me, I will be teaching United States History or American Government. Also, I had thought about possibly playing a video or a power point as an introduction to the course.

However, I think I might play this latest selection from JibJab.com political humor section. Maybe it will, as my professors say, "Catch the students attention and stimulate their creative thinking."

The Last Day of Education Class

My classes for this semester are now complete and my summer vacation has just begun. I am very happy to see this semester end because it seems as it has been much more stressful than others in the past.

Right now, I only have three more classes that I have to take before I start my student teaching. I am looking forward to it because I will be paired up with a well-respected teacher in a subject area and grade level that I very much enjoy.

My last education class of the year was definitely a site to see as our teacher went around the room asking each of us whether we preferred to teach in high school or middle school after studying both throughout the year. Almost everyone in the room other than me wanted to teach in high school.

The most popular answer I heard was because the content in high school was more in depth than it was in middle school.

Another interesting comment that I heard was that they did not go to college for four years to talk about the basic principles of their subject.

A recurring comment that I have heard throughout the year has been, "Kids in middle school have raging hormones and too many emotions for me to teach them."

Lastly, others were upset with their student teaching placements because it was not at the level that they wanted to teach.

I don't know why these comments bothered me but they did. One of the reasons might be because I enjoy teaching middle school. Also it really does not matter to me what level I teach at as long as I get to coach and be involved with the school and community.

Then their was the "raging hormones" issue that always gets brought up. My understanding was that all people have a wide range of emotions that are uncontrollable. We have seen plenty of this from anyone who has competed on American Idol and Deal or No Deal.

I guess the real thing that I was feeling as I left that class was that we are teachers; nothing more, nothing less. Our job is not to impress our students with the wide range of knowledge we gained in college or to load them down with mindless content drivel.

I see our job as a position that should inspire them to seek out that knowledge for themselves and achieve their potential. I think that some of us take our content way too seriously and forget that we are really there for the students.

My feeling is that if a person's sole purpose for entering education is the content then I think that it should be time to find a new career. As we all know, education and teaching is so much more than just scientific theory, equations, and diagramming sentences.

Protest comes to IUK

As many of my Indiana University Kokomo readers may have heard, a protest will being coming to our campus this Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. in the Quad.

What will this protest be about you may ask? Well, I am glad that you asked because the protest will not be about the Iraq War. The protest will not be about the genocide in Darfur. No, it will not even be about the treatment of all of our veterans.

The protest taking place will be over mandatory classroom attendance and a professor's right to implement it into the college classroom at my university.

For me, it is an unfortunate event simply because there are so many other things that are more important than having the right to skip class without be penalized for it.

Right now, we have young men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan who need people making their voices heard about how they get the shaft in benefits when they come home.

Right now, we have not had any major Education reform since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 which has never been fully funded.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, these issues will not be discussed when protest comes to IUK on Tuesday.

Regret: My Greatest Fear

Anymore I feel as if I am talking to a brick wall.

I explain things to this wall and talk to it but for some reason it doesn't seem to respond or give me any kind of advice other than the typical, "Well, what are ya gonna do."

Even though it is a very popular phrase to use in conversation, I absolutely hate it. Basically, to me, it is saying, "Well, you have hit rock bottom. Tough luck. There is nothing that you can do to change it."

Maybe I feel this way because I am not listening as well as I used to, or maybe, just maybe, I have forgotten how to listen completely.

But, I have been listening my entire life. I get tired of always being the one to listen and then having to do the responsible thing. I am sick and tired of it.

In a previous post, I talked about choosing to do the responsible thing over the right thing. Instead of going to an important basketball game, I did the responsible thing of going to class where I could have lost a letter grade for my absence.

Once again, I am being forced to chose a class over a coaching position that I would enjoy and pays very well. Once again, choosing responsibility over right.

Back when I wrote the first "responsible decision post," I stated that my main fear was regretting my "responsible" decision. As I sit back in thought on both of these decisions, my greatest fear has indeed come true.

After all this time, I greatly regret my first responsible decision. I am sure that this second "responsible decision" will be no different.

Walls and Expectations

For the first time in a few weeks, my father and I took in a movie with some friends this afternoon. He has not been feeling well these past two weeks so it was very encouraging to see him up on his feet.

I think that has been the main cause of my frustration these past few weeks. Simply because there was really nothing that I could do to help him get better. Plus, a Friday just did not seem like a Friday without us going to a late night show at the movie theatre.

I'm glad that he is feeling at least somewhat better. However, next week will most definitely be a major test for him as school starts up again. Well, if he can put up with me for almost 23 years then I am pretty sure that he will be able to survive going back to school.

Speaking of school, my classes are turning out to be better than I thought. The truth is that I am actually learning a great deal in all of them. The exact opposite of my expectations at the start of this semester.

I do not know why I automatically put up walls with some of these classes like I did this semester. Maybe it's because I am just ready to get out. At least that's what I originally thought.

At the start of this semester, I thought that I had learned everything that I ever needed to learn. I felt as if I was ready to move on. Ready to finally leave college.

But, I soon found at that that was not the case and that I still had a great deal to learn. Unfortunately, instead of embracing this new knowledge, I tried to fight it by not "taking care of business" so to speak and slacking off.

The good thing now is that I have stopped fighting it. Also, I have stopped being so lazy about that kind of stuff which I truly believe was my main problem. Imagine that?!

Now, if I could only stop being that lazy about doing my laundry and keeping my room clean. The good lord can cause great things to happen but that indeed would be a miracle. Wouldn't it?

Responsibile Decisions and Basketball

In life, we don't always get to do everything that we want to do. Tonight was especially difficult for me as I missed seeing my basketball team win their sixteenth game of the year to complete an undefeated season.

Instead, I chose to go to my Indiana History class this evening. Not only would I have missed the first days information, as it is an accelerated course, but my absence would have caused me to lose 7% of my final grade because of the class attendance policy.

I really did not think that it would bother me as much as it did but that all changed when I was asked to put away my laptop.

As many professors are starting to do these days, my professor did not allow me to use my laptop to take notes. While I was unplugging my power cord and putting my laptop back in my bag, my mood began to change as I have always felt more confident in my typing abilities than my writing abilities.

I then began searching my bag for something to write on for I had no paper and did not expect to write my notes. The only kind of papers I could find was the packet that I should have been using this evening. The packet of papers that I had found was my basketball plays.

It was the first set of plays I had drawn up for my "B" team at the start of the season. In the margins were dozens of notes that I had scribbled down throughout the year in hopes of improving my players and myself as a coach. Notes that would soon be replaced with new notes about the state of Indiana.

So as I proceeded to fill my paper with notes on the Forts, Fur Traders, and the French, I received a text from dad confirming that the perfect season did in fact occur and it filled my stomach with a sick feeling.

I greatly fear that I will come to regret this decision even though many will say that it was the responsible decision. But, even though it may have been the responsible decision, I am still lost in thought on whether or not it was the right decision.

I am sure it was but at this juncture I still feel as if I missed out on something great because of my "responsible" decision.

No Energy to Change the Channel

I always hate the evening before a morning class. It seems as if the minutes and seconds go by quicker every time. I really doubt I would feel this way if it was a different subject.

I feel very much like the junior high kid who dreads going to school because he hates his math class. That pretty much sums up my attitude about my psychology classes. I am grateful, however, that I will not have to write a report in those classes.

Writing a report in a class that I do not like is like asking Robin Williams not to be funny. It just is not possible.

I am just glad that the basketball season has been so enjoyable. It has truly been an escape from the reality of being in college. But when your team is undefeated with a 10-0 record, I guess it is supposed to feel that way.

Right now, I feel as if I have my bags packed and my plane ticket ready but the plane has been delayed for a couple hours. I know what I want to do but for some reason Father Time is not cooperating with me.

I don't want to wish my life away but is there some way where I could possibly speed up the next few years without anyone getting older or anything changing? If you know of anything or anyone that could help, please let me know.

Well, I have finally gotten the energy to change the channel on the television. No channel changer here. Either I like living in the 1950's without the clicker or I am very irresponsible with my channel changers. I'll take the former for now.