Literature Circles
I was amazed by how much the students really enjoyed reading Cinderella. I asked them when we began if they had read any fairy tales and they all said no. I then named a few and they began saying yes they had heard that one or saw a movie about one of them. As we began implementing the literature circle they were really into the idea of good verses evil and magic. When I began to read the book to them they became mesmerized by the tale of Cinderella. I don't know if it was because I was a different teacher that they do not normally have or if they just loved the book, but either way I had their full attention. As we would stop to review the text and answer question in their reading response journal they were very animated about discussing the story. As we were reading and the students were discussing the text we also discussed the elements of fairy tales as they pertained to the selected text. I believe literature circles are very appropriate for ELL students. They not only have the benefit of peer tutoring, but also of expressing themselves through both written and oral communication. I would certainly use literature circles again, but I would not have my students take a text home and read it before meeting with their group again. I would instead give them time in school to read their text because often they have no English support at home and I would rather be there to help them instead of them getting frustrated. I would have to be really sure they could handle reading the book on their own before I would have them read it at home for an assignment. I would also suggest doing a book walk before they begin to read their chosen books.
Personal Reflection
I have really enjoyed this class. I like classes that give me real life, hands on activities to do that I know I will use again in my classroom. I will say I was reluctant about the action research project. I typically think research is somewhat ivory tower, out of touch, but I was surprised by how valuable action research is. I believe that through the case studies, the action research and the narratives I have valuable tools that will help me solve problems in my classroom and have a far better understanding of what my students need. I only have one class to take this summer before I have my endorsement completed and then only four more for my masters. I am really excited about getting back into the ELL classroom. I have taught two years of ELL, but I did not complete the endorsement before my waiver ran out. I love teaching in general, but my true love is teaching ELL students. I have had teachers ask me before why in the world I would want to teach ELL. I reply, why in the world would I not want to, they are the best students in the school system. I have already passed the Praxis ELL test, so soon I will be able to get back to my ELL students. My advise to anyone wanting to teach ELL is to go and observe and if possible teach a few lessons in an ELL class to make sure you love it. All teachers need to always give 100%, but ELL students sometimes need a little more. If your heart is in it even the worst day teaching is better than the best day at any other job.
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Signed
Sirci Stinson
12-1-10
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Blog #4 Ethnographic Narrative
Overall Impressions of the Observation:
I felt I was able to really center in on one students learning process during this observation. I, like all teachers, have my mind on several things at once most of the day. To just focus on one student for a period of time is very enlightening. I could begin to see this student's learning styles and interactions with learning come out.
What I Leaned as a Result of the Fieldwork:
Through my observation and interview with this student, I gained valuable information about his personal and educational background. I choose this student because he looked very disinterested in the lesson the teacher was teaching when I came into the room. Through observation and an interview I came to see that he is interested in learning and considers himself a good student. He appeared very shy at first, and in fact was very shy at the beginning of the interview, but really came out of his shyness as the class did individual work and several students turned to him for help. He is a leader in the class and really likes to help his classmates. I also observed him transferring between his native language and English with relative ease.
Value of Case Study Research and Analysis in Terms of Classroom Practice:
There is great value in research and analysis during a case study. One value is you can get to know a student on a personal level. Students personal lives have an impact on their school lives. Getting to know a student on a personal level can shed light on their academic achievement. Another value is the ability to understand the students personality better and give them learning opportunities based of their strengths. The student I observed and interviewed would probably be more engaged in a lesson if he knew he would be partly responsible for helping other students learn the material. I would have him be a team manager or recorder in a group project.
Value of Ethnographic Narrative:
As with research and analysis, writing an ethnographic narrative is valuable for the personal and background information it gives a teacher. Knowing and understanding a students personal life is valuable for helping a student reach their full potential. Knowing where a student has come from can help a teacher guide that student to where they want to go. A ethnographic narrative can also shed light on behavior problems as well as academic problems. I was wondering why the student I was interviewing was still a level 1 ELL student after three years in the U.S. I then found out information during the interview about his educational history that gave valuable information as to why he has not progressed faster. I also now know about some of the things he is interested in and could incorporate that into his learning.
Assist Future Teachers:
The information I gathered on this student will assist future teachers by letting them know about his personality and interest from the beginning. Some teachers would assume he is just very talkative and possibly rude for speaking while doing an assignment. They would understand that he is not rude or disrespectful, but is interested in helping other students with less English abilities than himself. They would also be able to know his family dynamics and educational background from the start. I was also able to share some pertinent information I leaned about this student with his teacher this year that will hopefully help him and his family eliminate some stress they may be under.
I felt I was able to really center in on one students learning process during this observation. I, like all teachers, have my mind on several things at once most of the day. To just focus on one student for a period of time is very enlightening. I could begin to see this student's learning styles and interactions with learning come out.
What I Leaned as a Result of the Fieldwork:
Through my observation and interview with this student, I gained valuable information about his personal and educational background. I choose this student because he looked very disinterested in the lesson the teacher was teaching when I came into the room. Through observation and an interview I came to see that he is interested in learning and considers himself a good student. He appeared very shy at first, and in fact was very shy at the beginning of the interview, but really came out of his shyness as the class did individual work and several students turned to him for help. He is a leader in the class and really likes to help his classmates. I also observed him transferring between his native language and English with relative ease.
Value of Case Study Research and Analysis in Terms of Classroom Practice:
There is great value in research and analysis during a case study. One value is you can get to know a student on a personal level. Students personal lives have an impact on their school lives. Getting to know a student on a personal level can shed light on their academic achievement. Another value is the ability to understand the students personality better and give them learning opportunities based of their strengths. The student I observed and interviewed would probably be more engaged in a lesson if he knew he would be partly responsible for helping other students learn the material. I would have him be a team manager or recorder in a group project.
Value of Ethnographic Narrative:
As with research and analysis, writing an ethnographic narrative is valuable for the personal and background information it gives a teacher. Knowing and understanding a students personal life is valuable for helping a student reach their full potential. Knowing where a student has come from can help a teacher guide that student to where they want to go. A ethnographic narrative can also shed light on behavior problems as well as academic problems. I was wondering why the student I was interviewing was still a level 1 ELL student after three years in the U.S. I then found out information during the interview about his educational history that gave valuable information as to why he has not progressed faster. I also now know about some of the things he is interested in and could incorporate that into his learning.
Assist Future Teachers:
The information I gathered on this student will assist future teachers by letting them know about his personality and interest from the beginning. Some teachers would assume he is just very talkative and possibly rude for speaking while doing an assignment. They would understand that he is not rude or disrespectful, but is interested in helping other students with less English abilities than himself. They would also be able to know his family dynamics and educational background from the start. I was also able to share some pertinent information I leaned about this student with his teacher this year that will hopefully help him and his family eliminate some stress they may be under.
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Sirci Stinson
10-27-10
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Blog # 3 Action Research
Thoughts about action research:
I had never heard of action research before the class I am taking now. The mental picture that pops into my head when research is mentioned is not pretty. I associate research with a long, cumbersome journey into academia that would most benefit those wanting to write and publish a book. I did not associate research as something I could do in my classroom to better my student's experiences and my teaching ability. That was before I learned about action research. I now have a tool that can help me solve problems that I identify with my teaching or in my classroom and therefore maximize my efficiency. One of the great things about action research is it can be as complex or as simple as desired, according to the depth of the problem and the depth of the information the person is looking to attain. Action research can also uncover other questions as research is being done. This can lead to other ways to think about the original problem or shed light on new problems that may need to be addressed.
Ideas from my research:
I have found through my research that student-teacher ratios are important to students as well as teachers. The consensus is that around twenty students is a good student to teacher ratio, but this is not always achievable. Through my research, especially the student interviews I did, I now have better ideas of how to deal with classes that are too big or too small. I now have a sample representation of what students are looking for in a class to enhance their participation. I can adjust my teaching and classroom set up to accommodate their needs when I do not have the ideal classroom ratio. There were also a couple of questions and ideas raised by my research that have given me more to think about. One issue that was raised is the grouping of students in ELL classes. This could have more bearing on their level of success than student to teacher ratio would.
Suggestions to other teachers:
Through my action research I have realized that students are looking for a relaxed atmosphere with enough students in the classroom with them to make themselves feel less conspicuous. If a teacher has a small class I would suggest some teambuilding activities, because there will need to be a very trusting atmosphere for some students to really open up and participate. A class that is very large, on the other hand, needs to be somewhat broken apart so students can have peer support, but they can also have a sense of small community learning.
I had never heard of action research before the class I am taking now. The mental picture that pops into my head when research is mentioned is not pretty. I associate research with a long, cumbersome journey into academia that would most benefit those wanting to write and publish a book. I did not associate research as something I could do in my classroom to better my student's experiences and my teaching ability. That was before I learned about action research. I now have a tool that can help me solve problems that I identify with my teaching or in my classroom and therefore maximize my efficiency. One of the great things about action research is it can be as complex or as simple as desired, according to the depth of the problem and the depth of the information the person is looking to attain. Action research can also uncover other questions as research is being done. This can lead to other ways to think about the original problem or shed light on new problems that may need to be addressed.
Ideas from my research:
I have found through my research that student-teacher ratios are important to students as well as teachers. The consensus is that around twenty students is a good student to teacher ratio, but this is not always achievable. Through my research, especially the student interviews I did, I now have better ideas of how to deal with classes that are too big or too small. I now have a sample representation of what students are looking for in a class to enhance their participation. I can adjust my teaching and classroom set up to accommodate their needs when I do not have the ideal classroom ratio. There were also a couple of questions and ideas raised by my research that have given me more to think about. One issue that was raised is the grouping of students in ELL classes. This could have more bearing on their level of success than student to teacher ratio would.
Suggestions to other teachers:
Through my action research I have realized that students are looking for a relaxed atmosphere with enough students in the classroom with them to make themselves feel less conspicuous. If a teacher has a small class I would suggest some teambuilding activities, because there will need to be a very trusting atmosphere for some students to really open up and participate. A class that is very large, on the other hand, needs to be somewhat broken apart so students can have peer support, but they can also have a sense of small community learning.
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Sirci Stinson
10-13-10
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Blog #2 Problem Identification and Reflection
Teaching Issues:
I observed an ELL reading class for this assignment. The teacher had a book on the projector from a website called starfall.com. The teacher started out with the title page displayed. One problem I noticed was the large number of students in the classroom. There were thirty-two students in a fairly small classroom. Even though the classroom was small I noticed some of the students in the back straining to see the screen. The teacher would ask questions about the title and illustrations on the title page to build background knowledge and have students make predictions. When the teacher ask a question and students would raise their hands (about four or five students per question), the teacher would then call on a student that did not have their hand raised every time. I wonder if the teacher is doing this for a academic reason or a behavior modification reason? The seating arrangement for this classroom was in groups of four. Most of the students were sitting with their own ethnic groups, although there were a couple of mixed groups. Most of the girls were sitting up front and the boys were sitting in the back. The teacher used repetition many times in the lesson. The main characters were a boy and his father and the teacher repeatedly asked who the characters were and talked about character traits. One problem the teacher had with this class being so large is keeping all the student's attention. Several students were talking, drawing, or passing around paper during the lesson. Several times the students would just call out an answer to a question posed by the teacher, some times the teacher would admonish the students for this and at other times the teacher would not say anything. I think the students are getting a mixed message about what the procedure for answering questions is.
Second Language Acquisition:
I observed a lot of repetition in the lesson, especially with academic vocabulary such as character, setting, conflict and solution. The teacher also explained many of the words in the story or asked the students questions about the words to ensure their understanding of the story. The teacher also asked some students to explain the meaning of some words to other students in their native language. As the students read the story in a whole class read aloud, they were filling out a story web graphic organizer. As they read the story the teacher provided scaffolding to the students by telling them which part of the story web to fill in at certain times in the lesson after they had talked about that particular part of the story, such as character or setting. For example the teacher would tell them to list a certain character then to write an adjective to describe that character. I noticed that the teacher would only give them about a minute to fill in the answer. Is that adequate time to fill in an answer for this level of ELL or would more time been better for processing the material and vocabulary? As stated earlier the story was projected onto a screen by a projector and some of the students had to strain to see it. Perhaps it would have been better and more engaging for all students to give each of them a copy of the story to read along with. They could also have taken it home or used it again in class to re-read, thereby gaining fluency with practice.
Ethnographic Perspective:
This class was very diverse with several first languages present. From a surface glance there were Karen, Spanish, Nepali, and Arabic speakers. There was a fairly large range of English proficiency in the classroom as well. A teacher should know the range of proficiency or ELL level of the students in the classroom to best meet their needs. Knowing some of the student's background history is also very beneficial in helping the students acquire the skills necessary to succeed in an American school. The teacher would speak to the Arabic speaking students in their native language as the teacher speaks Arabic as a first language. The teacher also had a Nepali students that has a higher level of English proficiency that other students to translate some words into Nepali. This creates a learning bridge between the students native language and English. One problem I noticed is that the Karen (Burmese) and the Spanish speaking students were not told to do this or given any encouragement by the teacher to do this and were therefore somewhat left on their own without the benefit of any translation. There was not a clear picture of any particular culture being integrated into this particular lesson although the story the teacher was using was based on a myth. There would be many opportunities to incorporate other cultures into a unit using myths from other cultures.
I observed an ELL reading class for this assignment. The teacher had a book on the projector from a website called starfall.com. The teacher started out with the title page displayed. One problem I noticed was the large number of students in the classroom. There were thirty-two students in a fairly small classroom. Even though the classroom was small I noticed some of the students in the back straining to see the screen. The teacher would ask questions about the title and illustrations on the title page to build background knowledge and have students make predictions. When the teacher ask a question and students would raise their hands (about four or five students per question), the teacher would then call on a student that did not have their hand raised every time. I wonder if the teacher is doing this for a academic reason or a behavior modification reason? The seating arrangement for this classroom was in groups of four. Most of the students were sitting with their own ethnic groups, although there were a couple of mixed groups. Most of the girls were sitting up front and the boys were sitting in the back. The teacher used repetition many times in the lesson. The main characters were a boy and his father and the teacher repeatedly asked who the characters were and talked about character traits. One problem the teacher had with this class being so large is keeping all the student's attention. Several students were talking, drawing, or passing around paper during the lesson. Several times the students would just call out an answer to a question posed by the teacher, some times the teacher would admonish the students for this and at other times the teacher would not say anything. I think the students are getting a mixed message about what the procedure for answering questions is.
Second Language Acquisition:
I observed a lot of repetition in the lesson, especially with academic vocabulary such as character, setting, conflict and solution. The teacher also explained many of the words in the story or asked the students questions about the words to ensure their understanding of the story. The teacher also asked some students to explain the meaning of some words to other students in their native language. As the students read the story in a whole class read aloud, they were filling out a story web graphic organizer. As they read the story the teacher provided scaffolding to the students by telling them which part of the story web to fill in at certain times in the lesson after they had talked about that particular part of the story, such as character or setting. For example the teacher would tell them to list a certain character then to write an adjective to describe that character. I noticed that the teacher would only give them about a minute to fill in the answer. Is that adequate time to fill in an answer for this level of ELL or would more time been better for processing the material and vocabulary? As stated earlier the story was projected onto a screen by a projector and some of the students had to strain to see it. Perhaps it would have been better and more engaging for all students to give each of them a copy of the story to read along with. They could also have taken it home or used it again in class to re-read, thereby gaining fluency with practice.
Ethnographic Perspective:
This class was very diverse with several first languages present. From a surface glance there were Karen, Spanish, Nepali, and Arabic speakers. There was a fairly large range of English proficiency in the classroom as well. A teacher should know the range of proficiency or ELL level of the students in the classroom to best meet their needs. Knowing some of the student's background history is also very beneficial in helping the students acquire the skills necessary to succeed in an American school. The teacher would speak to the Arabic speaking students in their native language as the teacher speaks Arabic as a first language. The teacher also had a Nepali students that has a higher level of English proficiency that other students to translate some words into Nepali. This creates a learning bridge between the students native language and English. One problem I noticed is that the Karen (Burmese) and the Spanish speaking students were not told to do this or given any encouragement by the teacher to do this and were therefore somewhat left on their own without the benefit of any translation. There was not a clear picture of any particular culture being integrated into this particular lesson although the story the teacher was using was based on a myth. There would be many opportunities to incorporate other cultures into a unit using myths from other cultures.
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Sirci Stinson
9-22-10
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Blog #1 Classroom Observation
I observed an ELL sheltered Social Studies class on Monday September 13, 2010. This class was taught by my mentor teacher, a gifted ELL teacher. The students in this class are classified as ELL level 3 or 4, my the MNPS classification system. This system is based on the student's ELDA score or language testing at the ELL offices.
Teaching:
The purpose of this lesson was to review vocabulary words that pertained to the unit on Prehistoric Times the students had been studying the past week. The students had a sheet of paper in front of them with three columns across. The first column had the words, the second column had a brief definition, and the last column was blank. The teacher told the students that as they went over the words they were to draw a picture that would represent what that word means. While the teacher went over the words, she also drew pictures on the board. In this way the students were making their own picture dictionary of vocabulary words. The teacher would first write a word on the board, then she would ask the students to say the word with her. She would repeat the word word several times with them. She would then ask them what the word means. Several times the students would not answer without prompting. Several times I observed her saying to students "What is this work in Nepali" or Spanish depending on which student she was taking to. She would then explain the words meaning to them in greater detail after one or more students gave a brief answer for "what is this" or "what does this mean". For example, the teacher had written archaeologist on the board. After the students said this word twice the teacher read the definition on their papers as they read along. Then she said "What do they find?" What do they look for?" "Do they look for Dinosaur bones?" Students say yes. They she said "What do bones become sometimes?" A student said "fossils" . The teacher then talked about fossils, another of their vocabulary words. Then she said "Who finds fossils?". The students then answered "archaeologists". The students were very excited when they got the answer right. They were also very excited to say the words in their language. I wondered if this made them more interested in the lesson, it seemed that this was the case.
Community:
The evidence of community was not at first evident as I observed. I began to see the communities however when the teacher began asking the student how to say words in their languages. I observed small learning communities within the classroom. Whenever the Nepali language was brought up the answers came from the front right of the room. The Spanish language came from the middle, the Burmese from the back right, and the Arabic language from the left of the room. It seemed the small learning communities has congealed around language. I would like to ask if the students have assigned seats, if so did the teacher seat them according to language on purpose, or did the students themselves segregate themselves into these groups? The desk were arranged in pairs and I noticed that boys and girls did not sit together in the pairs. Even thought there is some separation in the classroom based on language and gender the students all worked together to help one another answer questions and critique each others drawings. The members of this classroom like to talk and often shout out answers and questions without any prompting. The fact that this is a sheltered ELL social studies class without any native English speakers in it gives the students a sense of security to speak freely, accents and all without being conscience of speaking the word "wrong". In other words I do not feel that they are concerned with their accents like they would be in an inclusion classroom. There was one student that was trying to get attention by "cutting up" in class, saying inappropriate things and playing around. The other students as well as the teacher as a cohesive group simply ignored this student and continued with their lesson. At one point the teacher told this student to stop talking out loud and the lesson progressed. The students had either already come to a spoken or unspoken agreement about how to handle this particular student.
Ethnographic Perspective:
To an outside observer, especially one that has never been in an ELL classroom this class would look like chaos. The students are answering questions with raising their hands, several are calling out answers at once, and some are taking to each other. Yet, this chaos is actually an active leaning environment for these students. They were all, except one, very engaged in the lesson and very intent on speaking the words correctly. This class is very diverse, but the students enjoyed hearing how the vocabulary words were said in other languages. There was not any competition visible in the classroom, only students working together towards a common goal of learning the vocabulary words in English. From what I observed, if a newcomer came into this classroom community they would be incorporated into the group with support from the other students. The new student may think they are being overwhelmed with all the talking for a while, but I would think after the initial shock they would begin to feel at home in a short amount of time. Even though this group of students are diverse, there is a feeling of a classroom community, security, and purpose that overcomes all the prejudices and shyness that often comes when diverse groups are together.
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Signed
Sirci Stinson
9-15-10
Teaching:
The purpose of this lesson was to review vocabulary words that pertained to the unit on Prehistoric Times the students had been studying the past week. The students had a sheet of paper in front of them with three columns across. The first column had the words, the second column had a brief definition, and the last column was blank. The teacher told the students that as they went over the words they were to draw a picture that would represent what that word means. While the teacher went over the words, she also drew pictures on the board. In this way the students were making their own picture dictionary of vocabulary words. The teacher would first write a word on the board, then she would ask the students to say the word with her. She would repeat the word word several times with them. She would then ask them what the word means. Several times the students would not answer without prompting. Several times I observed her saying to students "What is this work in Nepali" or Spanish depending on which student she was taking to. She would then explain the words meaning to them in greater detail after one or more students gave a brief answer for "what is this" or "what does this mean". For example, the teacher had written archaeologist on the board. After the students said this word twice the teacher read the definition on their papers as they read along. Then she said "What do they find?" What do they look for?" "Do they look for Dinosaur bones?" Students say yes. They she said "What do bones become sometimes?" A student said "fossils" . The teacher then talked about fossils, another of their vocabulary words. Then she said "Who finds fossils?". The students then answered "archaeologists". The students were very excited when they got the answer right. They were also very excited to say the words in their language. I wondered if this made them more interested in the lesson, it seemed that this was the case.
Community:
The evidence of community was not at first evident as I observed. I began to see the communities however when the teacher began asking the student how to say words in their languages. I observed small learning communities within the classroom. Whenever the Nepali language was brought up the answers came from the front right of the room. The Spanish language came from the middle, the Burmese from the back right, and the Arabic language from the left of the room. It seemed the small learning communities has congealed around language. I would like to ask if the students have assigned seats, if so did the teacher seat them according to language on purpose, or did the students themselves segregate themselves into these groups? The desk were arranged in pairs and I noticed that boys and girls did not sit together in the pairs. Even thought there is some separation in the classroom based on language and gender the students all worked together to help one another answer questions and critique each others drawings. The members of this classroom like to talk and often shout out answers and questions without any prompting. The fact that this is a sheltered ELL social studies class without any native English speakers in it gives the students a sense of security to speak freely, accents and all without being conscience of speaking the word "wrong". In other words I do not feel that they are concerned with their accents like they would be in an inclusion classroom. There was one student that was trying to get attention by "cutting up" in class, saying inappropriate things and playing around. The other students as well as the teacher as a cohesive group simply ignored this student and continued with their lesson. At one point the teacher told this student to stop talking out loud and the lesson progressed. The students had either already come to a spoken or unspoken agreement about how to handle this particular student.
Ethnographic Perspective:
To an outside observer, especially one that has never been in an ELL classroom this class would look like chaos. The students are answering questions with raising their hands, several are calling out answers at once, and some are taking to each other. Yet, this chaos is actually an active leaning environment for these students. They were all, except one, very engaged in the lesson and very intent on speaking the words correctly. This class is very diverse, but the students enjoyed hearing how the vocabulary words were said in other languages. There was not any competition visible in the classroom, only students working together towards a common goal of learning the vocabulary words in English. From what I observed, if a newcomer came into this classroom community they would be incorporated into the group with support from the other students. The new student may think they are being overwhelmed with all the talking for a while, but I would think after the initial shock they would begin to feel at home in a short amount of time. Even though this group of students are diverse, there is a feeling of a classroom community, security, and purpose that overcomes all the prejudices and shyness that often comes when diverse groups are together.
MTSU Honor Statement:
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Signed
Sirci Stinson
9-15-10
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
It's me Sirci and I am setting up my first ever blog. Here is a little information about me. I teach 6th grade reading/language arts at McMurray Middle School in Antioch, TN. I love teaching. In previous lives (a few years ago) I was in advertising and owned a car lot. I finally decided, after another one of those I kinda wish I would wreak my car so I don't have to go to work mornings, to follow my heart and not my head about my career choice. I went back to MTSU to complete my degree and here I am four years into my teaching career working on my masters. My motto is stolen from the "life is good" company. Love what you do and do what you love. This is how I feel about teaching. I am also lucky enough to be married to a great guy and I have three wonderful kids. The two boys are 21 and 15, and my little girl is 12 ( not so little anymore). We live in a log cabin in Nolensville with three horses, a cat, a dog, a rabbit, a fish, and several species of wildlife. Well, I am off to learn more about this blogging stuff. Here's to a happy life, Sirci.
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