Blog 8

As soon as my group found out the members that were in the group we began preparing for the final group presentation. I had discovered that the only way that this project was going to go smoothly was for us to all stay in close contact over the few weeks. As we began giving roles to everyone, we all had something different to put forth in the presentation. My job was to find a reasonable price for the voucher that each student who had a GPA of 3.5 or higher would receive for books.

Our group has been very organized throughout all of the planning. We stayed caught up on all the assignments and were able to work very well with each other. As a presenter our overall presentation seems very well thought out and almost perfect, or it seems that way to me. However, if we were to present to an audience before really presenting this, there may be a few things that the audience may think we need to improve on. Our presentation includes fliers to post around campus, notes, and a voucher price.

For the presenters, it is very important to be prepared and know exactly what you are talking about when presenting to the audience. So I believe that we need to be extremely prepared for the presentation and being prepared is our main objective. As a group we have prepared for this presentation, we have prepared for who will speak and how they will deliver our speech. So as long as we stay prepared and know what to say once we start delivering, I believe that we will give a great presentation and hopefully have the audience understand where we came from and why we chose to present this to the university.

Blog 7

I know that everyone knows about the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This catastrophe happened on May 2, 2010. By May 8, there was some slug that worked its way to Dauphin Island, which is just three miles from the Alabama shoreline; it was a huge wake up call for BP and everyone else involved. It seems that this oil spill is bringing companies and people together, and in this world it just doesn’t happen as much as it should. They say that this is/could be the worst Eco disaster that the world has ever seen. The cause of this catastrophe seemed to come from a methane bubble that had escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding very promptly as it blasted through several of the main seals, this is what happened according to the Rig workers that were there. They say that the oil that is pouring into the Gulf in just one day is phenomenal, they say its up to 210,00 gallons a day. BP has been trying to fix this problem with many different solutions but none have stopped the spill. Some solutions have caused the oil to not flow has much but that still isn’t enough to stop it from getting into the Gulf. They have estimated that 3.5 million gallons has been lost since the accident, it could surpass 11 million gallons that was lost at the Exxon Valdez disaster by months end if it isn’t contained soon enough.

Timing- The timing for this is current. This catastrophe happened only months ago. This timing will be memorable for years and years to come. People will still be talking about this horrible accident in up coming years.

Situation/Context- This editorial will be found on websites referring to the oil spill. There are already tons of websites that have information talking about the oil spill so this editorial will only add to these websites.

Audience- I am writing to everyone that is concerned about the oil spill and our Gulf. Some people may not realize how important this is so I am writing to help inform these people. Also most people know how serious this is and I am here just to reassure them and tell them how much oil that we are loosing and going into the Gulf.

Intention- I hope to get people that do not understand how serious this problem is to understand this situation and take it very seriously. Also some people just don’t even care about this catastrophe and I intend to get their attention and hopefully encourage them to want to know more about this subject matter.

Blog 6

Intro:

This document will report on the progression of the group project. The purpose of this work is to address the university on student retention. So far we have come up with some great ideas to get students to come to the University of Southern Mississippi. Our group has meet twice, during these two meetings, we have got to know each other and figure out what days work for each of us to meet on. We have also been brainstorming for even more great ideas for our proposal. However, we have come up with a great idea for recruiting more students. That idea is to give students an incentive to maintain a high GPA and receive a discount on their education. Our group has been getting along very well and has had no complications. My hope is to finish this project in two weeks time.

Facts and Discussion:

Our group is right on schedule if not ahead of the game with our project. We have accomplished a good bit during the two meetings we have had. We have made roles for each of us in the group. My role is to do the research and statics on the proposal. We have discussed to make flyers for students to want to accomplish such a high GPA so they can receive a discount on books. The way that students will receive a voucher is to have a GPA of 3.5 or higher. We also discussed different ways of handling the vouchers for the students. The vouchers will be a total amount of what four books would cost a student per semester. There have been absolutely no problems within our group, and no problems with deciding on which way to go with our proposal. Our group gets along very well with each other. During the progress of our group, we plan on getting most if not all of the questions answered. We also hope to get this proposal going very smoothly and finished within a great amount of time. As our group progresses over time, I foresee no problems within our future.

Conclusions:

So far our group has been working really good together. We have all brainstormed and agree with just about everything that each other talk about. Our group is right on schedule and understanding to all of the assignments. We are taking this assignment very serious and we all hope to accomplish this assignment with flying colors.

Recommendations:

The only recommendation that I could suggest is for our Course Instructor and Discussion Leader to keep doing a great job. If there has been any questions or concerns they have answered them in a minimum amount of time. I can tell that they want us to do a great job on this assignment by the way they help us with ways to improve things. Anytime I send an email out, within a very timely manner they have emailed us back with answers to my questions and I respect that very much and I wish it were that way with all of my instructors. So I recommend that they keep doing a great job.

Blog 5

http://www.schoolspring.com/find/teaching_jobs.cfm

https://jobs.hrd.state.ma.us/recruit/public/3111/job/job_search_results.do?agency=doe

http://www.michigan.gov/careers/0,1607,7-170-46398-64662--,00.html

http://www.nycareerzone.org/cz/profile.jsp?onetsoc=25-2021.00

These are the four websites I found that were looking for elementary education teachers. All of these websites had requirements, skills, knowledge, education, and the job description. Some of the descriptions were to teach pupils in public or private schools at elementary level basic academic, social, and other formative skills. Another job description was to teach pupils a wide range of academic, social, emotional, and motor skills. They plan and present programs of instruction using methods and materials designed to meet the needs of students. Some duties that the teachers must fulfill are that they must establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures to maintain order in the classroom, attend staff meetings, serve on committees, attend workshops, supervise outdoor or indoor play activities, keep records, correct tests and papers, counsel students, and supervise field trips. Most of the job openings had the same duties as the ones I listed above. The skills needed for these jobs are to be able to teach others how to do something, talking to others to convey information effectively, being able to manage time wisely, being able to give full attention to what other people are saying and taking time to understand the points being made, and being able to monitor performance of myself and other individuals. Most of these jobs require a four-year bachelor’s degree, however some do not. The employees in these occupations usually need several hours of work-related experience and on-the-job training. Elementary School Teachers usually work 5 days a week for approximately 9 ½ months each year. They average 181 days of classroom teaching each year and are required to attend up to 4 other days of in-service or workshop training. Although few elementary teachers continue to teach during the summer months, most take additional courses, spend time with families, travel, or work at other jobs.

The paragraph above is the major requirements for any teaching job. I feel that I definitely posses everything I have listed above. I am very good with children and I am able to teach students lots of things that they do not know. I will be able to attend meetings regularly, give and correct tests, supervise activities of any kind, and supervise field trips. I have had the opportunity to teach little girls how to cheer, so I am pretty sure that if I can do that I can teach them just about anything.

The school spring website is really great to me because it shows me job openings in different states and the job title they are looking for. As I was looking for actual job openings close by, I could not find any good websites that could help. So this website just gives me numerous amounts of jobs. The jobs listed on this website all seem to be jobs that seem suitable for me.

Blog 4

Step 1:

Website: Best Websites for Elementary Teachers

www.wmtps.org/techini/bestsite/bestsite.html

Step 2:

This website is intended for elementary school teachers. It offers numerous amounts of information for teachers. It gives out different websites for elementary teachers to look at and use for their classroom. The website gives different teachers names and where they teach and the grade they teach. These teachers explored the web and found numerous amounts of information that would be very useful for teachers that teach in the elementary school level. This really helps out other teachers from having to look all over the web trying to find things that would be useful in the classroom, they only have to go to this one website and it has everything they could possibly think of. This website is very easy to navigate because it tell you exactly what the different websites are about, so all you have to do is scroll down and search for whatever you may think could be useful for your classroom. It also uses different colors of font so you can tell the difference between things. The only thing about this website that I would change would be that its way too long. Some of the websites they use are similar to other websites, so they could have chosen the best website between the two and used that one for their website. Other than that, the website is very useful and helpful for elementary school teachers that teach any grade level.

Step 3:

To: Webmaster

From: Adrianne Ashley

Subject: Website Improvements

Hello Webmaster,

I am a recent elementary education major and I was exploring the web trying to find things for me to teach my students when I begin student teaching. I found your website very useful and helpful for me. I examined your website very thoroughly and found something that may help you improve your website. However, my usefulness may not be what you are looking for to improve your website.

The website is very well organized and very easy to navigate. However, the website could use some more pictures and a better background other than just a white background. Using bright and colorful colors on your website will make people that are searching the web, want to really look at your page and enjoy looking at it. The way you have the website laid out is very useful, just adding some more color and animations will draw the readers attention to more of your website.

Another useful tip I can offer you is to narrow the websites down just a bit. Some of the websites are similar to other ones. I would suggest that you look at both websites that seem similar and choose the one that seems to have the most information on what your trying to show to the teachers and delete the other website. Also, the websites that you decide that aren’t that useful, you could make a list of them at the bottom of your website saying “More useful websites if needed.” This way it will make your website not as long as it is now.

Your website is very well laid out for me to find exactly what I am looking for. I think that other readers will find it very useful as well because, it has titles telling you what each website you are providing is about. This website has a great amount of information and very useful websites that you are providing to all the teachers. I hope that you will consider using my helpful tips for your website. These tips I believe will bring more readers to your website and they will enjoy looking at it as well.

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy reading my tips.

Thank you,

Adrianne Ashley

BLOG 3

https://search.collegedegrees.com/forms/university-of-phoenix/publisher/collegecrunch The University of Phoenix was a little difficult to be able to look at the education department. The main reason is because you have to answer so many questions before you can even look at the education department. Which in my opinion is a waste of time if you are only trying to look and see if you are interested in that department of that college. http://www.coe.uga.edu/ The University of Georgia was a great website to visit for an education major. It was easy to find where you wanted to go and had plenty of information. The information that they provided was very clear and easy to understand. It also had different sections of education that you may want to go to and look at if that is the department you are majoring in. Also, it told you everything, such as classes, that you needed for that major before you could actually start the block.

OVERALL PURPOSE

The purpose of writing this assignment is to make a website that numerous people that are interested in the Elementary Education field, will be interested in looking at this website. My outcome that I desire is that I will lead more students to want to enroll in the Elementary Education department at the school of their choice. I would hope that the reader of this outcome would desire to make the decision of becoming an Elementary Education major.

READER PROFILE

My primary reader is for high school graduates looking for a great major to start working toward, and it could also be for people of any age just looking for another major. My relationship with the readers is that they are trusting me to lead them into the right major for them and they assume that I know about my major since I am trying to lead them into the same field as I am involved in. My reader’s job title would be a full time student or part time student with a possibility of different responsibilities. There could be a variety of people that may read my communication. The reader doesn’t have to be very familiar with the subject just as long as they know some of what they want to possibly major in. I should make sure that the website is very informational and helpful for my readers in case they may not be familiar with this major at all. I should be able to understand that my readers will have different ideas and opinions toward my major and I should be open to what they try to say. I should make sure that my website is available to anyone looking for a major in the education department.

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

With me being an education major I should know how to write in numerous ways since I will be trying to teach kids one day how to write also. I also should know my major up and down so that when any one asks me questions I should always have a response for them.

USABILITY OBJECTIVES (READER’S TASKS)

Some questions that the reader will ask will probably be: Why did you choose this major? Is this major for anybody? Do you have to like children to be a teacher? What qualifications do you have to have? Is this major really for me?

All of these questions should hopefully be answered throughout my website and if they are not then the reader will be able to email me anytime to ask me any questions they wish.

PERSUASIVE OBJECTIVES (READER’S ATTITUDES)

Hopefully my readers attitude will be a positive one because they are learning more and more about being an education major and I hope they have an open mind about my major and will have a very positive attitude about this field. I also hope that the reader’s attitude toward me is a positive one as well because I hope they can understand my reasoning for choosing this major and can trust my knowledge toward this major so they can become a wonderful teacher one day.

STAKEHOLDERS

The stakeholders in my communication would be any faculty that I may include in my website and any instructors that I may have had in the past that helped me throughout my major. They will all be affected in a positive way because everything that I may state about them will only be great things and they will get the credit for everything they have done.

CONSTRAINTS

One thing that can limit the way I write is that I am not an actual teacher yet so there may be a few things that I have not experienced yet that they may have questions about. So as of now I don’t have the creditability as a teacher and wont have that until I graduate with my degree so I only know things out of a student’s point of view.

Rhetorical Analysis--Assignment 2

In a recent education class I was required to read an article called “Love and Math”. In this article, researchers tested the mathematical knowledge of first and third grade teachers and then examined the impact of that knowledge on gains in mathematics over the course of a year. The researchers also found that two kinds of mathematical knowledge were important for teachers to possess in order to increase student learning. There were many consequences resulting from the mathematical foundation. The writer was a national board certified teacher with a master’s degree in education. The article was published in a very known mathematics journal. I feel that the writer was trying to tell the readers that teachers own knowledge of math has a substantial impact on a student’s learning ability. The researchers discovered two kinds of teacher mathematical knowledge that are critical to a student’s learning. The first being common math knowledge which is just simple basic math concepts. The second mathematical knowledge is called specialized. This type of knowledge goes way beyond the common math skills. This includes teachers who are especially gifted at figuring out where a student messed up in multiplying or dividing several digit numbers. I believe that it needs to be beneficial to a student when a teacher is able to evaluate and examine the problems rather than just having the simple basic math skills. Also, according to the researchers in this study, effective mathematics teaching requires a solid comprehension of the subject. Some other crucial requirements are a teacher’s fluency and accuracy in the use of math terms and symbolic notations. In addition to all of this research, many teachers are benefiting form well-designed textbooks, software and updated instructional materials to effectively provide important mathematical support. It is my belief, that it would be easier to accomplish the required mathematical skills for teaching while in college. For instance, college students are eager and excited about learning and experimenting with different concepts to math. However, I do believe that a teacher’s math knowledge can be increases through a specialized professional development course that focuses on communication and mathematical analysis. This article tells me that his writing was intended for teachers and parents of the students. The writer assumes that the audience is some sort of well educated and understands the concepts that occur in the classrooms. Craig D. Jerald wrote this article in March 2006. Craig’s article seemed pretty good to me. This article would be perfect for upcoming teachers because it explains that we need well-educated teacher’s to be teaching our children. I was very privileged to have a well-educated teacher to teach me this course and I plan to have many better-educated teachers in the near future. I also hope that once I graduate I will be classified as a well-educated teacher and can teach my students the best and the best way to understand what I am teaching. I also hope to be an inspiring math teacher with a caring and nurturing attitude that helps students achieve, believe and succeed throughout their life.