Teaching Lesson Two

Yay. So yesterday I taught my second lesson at my assigned high school and my supervisor left a pretty good comment sheet for me after she observed my lesson. This makes me feel good, because I was really nervous because I wasn't sure whether I'd improved since last week's first lesson. As it turned out, the first thing I read on her comment sheet that she left for me was that this lesson was much better than my first lesson. What a great way to begin my day off. I felt on top of the world and that I could accomplish anything.

Observation Tomorrow

Tomorrow I am going to teach my Group Think lesson again. :) I am really excited because tomorrow, I get to have my supervisor come and see me teach.

Then I was told in an e-mail that she wanted a hard copy of my lesson plan. Well, I don't have a lesson plan; I've never made a formal lesson plan before nor do I know what one might look like. I went back over some of my on-line school work learning and found out what needs to be written in a lesson plan. So, whether this is right or not, I wrote up a few pages explaining my lesson under the appropriate topic headings. We'll see if it'll pass or not. I kinda doubt it will, just because I'm me, and lately I've been grouchy and things don't go as planned.

But we shall find out tomorrow if my fail attempt at writing a lesson plan to submit to my supervisor will fly or not.

Teaching My First Lesson

Today I got to teach my very first lesson in a public high school. I was so excited, yet worried and went into this expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised because students I taught in all three classes were just great.

My lesson today was over the concept of Group Think. In speech, this is where people in a group go against their better judgment or rationality and conform to a group's decision. In the case of Group Think, usually poor decisions result.

For my lesson, I opened up the lesson with an attention getter. I made print outs and used scissors to make gender cards; one that read "BOY" and the other that read "GIRL". These pieces of paper were taped to the desks at random. Each desk got a gender label. So, when the students came in to sit down, they were faced with an internal choice: to either sit at their usual seat, or move to a different seat with their appropriate gender card.

This is Halloween

Halloween is almost over with, which means my volunteer
work is about at a close.

I have spent the last five Halloween seasons volunteering for local haunted houses. I have spent three of those years with the Tyler Jaycees group and these past two years along side with the Noonday Fire Dept.

I must say that Halloween is not the same unless I can get together a costume, develop a make up theme, and volunteer every weekend in October to scare people.

Where I Am In This Teaching Program...

I am going to have to take some time and think of how to put together a lesson plan. I actually need to put together 5 different lesson plans. For my STEP program, I am required to accumulate 30 observation hours this semester at the local high school and during this time I am required to teach 5 different lessons and be observed for 3 of those lessons.

Is it OK for me to admit that I am a bit nervous and hesitate at the needed formality that my lesson plans must be? I'm glad I am knowledgeable about the speech communication subject, but lesson plans have specifics. Not only that, but I am to use the different teaching models I am studying this semester. Some models are very boring and difficult to apply into a speech subject. But there are also some models that are interesting that I think I would like to use. I should probably go back and read through my notes...

On top of all this, I also have home work and assignments I have to type up and complete by their deadlines. This is all a bit to juggle along with trying to figure out how to make 5 appropriate lessons that will fit into a specific teaching model! I am feeling a bit worried and I think I'm going to feel slightly stuck on a few things...

My Visit to the UT Tyler Career Fair

I attended the career fair today and have a couple of stories I'd like to share with about my visit. As you know I am working on my masters degree in education, am now state certified to teach speech 7-12 grade and I also know some sign language and have taken college courses in the language.

I went today in hopes of being able to meet with Nacadoches isd. Nacadoches isd never showed up. :(

Day 1 Student Teaching Observation

Today I had my first observation session in which I went to my old high school to meet a speech teacher and sit in on two of her classes. I quite enjoyed myself. I arrived about 40 minutes ahead of the class meeting so I could park in visitors, introduce myself at the front office, and find my teacher's class room. I'm glad my teacher was alone in her room because this offered the opportunity for us to get acquainted and talk about her lessons, and her views about teaching speech. I've heard from a few students before that she is really cool, so I had high hopes for my teacher and she didn't disappoint. She & I will get along wonderfully, I think. It helps to have been continuously e-mailing her about my assignment. She's really understanding and is really encouraging of me to do "whatever I want" when I finally decide to try teaching and shake up the class's normal "routine." I think she & I will be able to work very well together, because she says she's ready to pass the torch when I have a lesson ready.

Tomorrow, I will go and spend the entire day with her and sit in on all of her classes. I am looking forward to this and I hope I can get more inspiration to possibly try my hand at a lesson by next week. That would be so wonderful! Right now I am all kinds of excited. I'm already thinking about what to wear, how to do my make-up, and what lunch to make myself for tomorrow. Maybe I am just overly excited and tomorrow will bring me down to earth, but for now, I am already wishing for next week to get here so I can spend more time in the class room. Or better yet, I am already wishing for next semester's full-time student teaching. But we shall see how tomorrow goes.

Observation This Week

Tuesday starts my first day of my observation hours in the classroom. I get the opportunity to return to my high school to observe, but this time as an educator training. Tuesday I will go and observe a speech class for about 3 hours. I passed my state speech 7-12 certification test by 3 points a few weeks ago, which is important, because that's out of the way & I can now say that I am "certified by the state."
Wednesday I will go and observe at my high school all day. I hope to be able to take some awesome notes and really REALLY learn something useful that will apply to my on-line course studies. :)

H.W. Surprise.

Returning from lunch today after church, I sat down to my computer. I made sure to arrive home early in the afternoon so I could make time to finish up a homework assignment. When I opened up the Blackboard and read through the assignment for my class I was greeted with a wonderful surprise. It appears that I do not have any additional assignments; I had already completed my home work for the weekend.
I tell you it's great to have nice surprises like this. This is about the second time that I've sat down to do some school work and realized I'd already finished it and am actually slightly ahead of the game. This is a very good feeling to have on my part. I hope the remainder of my course work goes along this very path.
So, during my new found free time, I painted my nails and did nothing. I've had a wonderful, terrific day. :)

Student Teaching

I am getting ready for my student teaching observation hours to begin soon. I am very excited because I get to be in the classroom as an observer at first and then hopefully work up my confidence to teach a few lessons within a few days. For the Step program I am required to teach 5 lessons, 3 of those will be observed by my supervisor. I hope I can get started quickly, because I want to get into the school and dress professionally and pretend that I'm the teacher aid! ^_^
Today I met with the supervisor and turned in some paper work. & I was given this blue UT lanyard to wear while I'm on the high school campus. The supervisor suggested I place both my UT I.D. and drivers license in the lanyard's card holder.

Have you heard about the story for a service dog for Autism?

           April is the month for acknowleding Autism as well as Occupational Therapy and because both are related to each other I decided to do a blog that covers both topics. I am very passionate about occupational therapy becasue it is the career that I have chosen for the future. I am also doing an internship at Trinity Mother Francis Hospital (Occupational Therapy Outpatient Clinic). However, most importantly I love working with children and this is why I wanted to share this story with you.
           The first video you may have seen is from the story of the young girl from East Texas. People responded to pleas on Facebook about a family in need of a service dog for their daughter. I remember seeing this on Facebook and I responded promptly after seeing the post, but I wanted to show a follow-up video about this story. So check it out!

Feels like resigning from a job.

Today I have experienced very mixed feelings about leaving one group for another. I volunteer with one group and have become so frustrated by the lack of communication that has been going on in the group. I hold a slight leadership role in this group and I am over the other volunteers, or "people" and they are looking to me for information and direction. It has become difficult trying to get information from the people above me and work with them so communication flows from the top and on down to the "people" who have many questions.

A new group has reached out to us and I have been able to communicate very effectively so far with this new group They seem like a beneficial group because they are not last minute people, they are active and easy to get a hold of and communicate with.

I have experienced job-like feelings in this situation. I have decided to resign from the host group and to join in on this second group. I wrote up a letter of resignation and will deliver it tonight. Then I will tell the "people" of my decision. I think this will cause a serious divide among the people. Some have already expressed an interest in joining this second group, while some others are opposed to joining a new group. & no, we can't really be in both, since they meet at the same time.

level 3

Level 3 is looking to be pretty busy this year. Oh yeah so busy. Well I don't have much else to say so... bye bye

fall classes have begun

Well fall classes have started and it looks like it will be a busy semester. It seems like the University is pretty full since parking is awful, even the streets are full. Hopefully people will stop attending classes so much and the parking lots will open up a bit. Oh well time to get back to the daily grind.

Fall Emergency Loans

As I'm sure you all know tuition is due by Friday, August 19. If you are still waiting on your financial aid to be processed I would suggest enrolling in an emergency loan. Here is some information on what it will cover and how to enroll in one:

Fall and Spring Semester Installment Plans

Students may enroll in one of the three installment plans: 5 installments payment plan, 4 installments payment plan or 3 installments payment plan.  Installment plans cover the expenses for tuition and fees as well as housing and meal plans paid to UT Tyler.  Tests, books, supplies, insurance or other expenses are not covered by payment plans. 

Students may sign up in the myUTTyler Student Center choosing ‘Finances’ and ‘Enroll in a Payment Plan.’

There is a per semester enrollment fee for enrolling in any of the three installment plans.  Dropping classes does not cancel the obligation to repay an installment plan.  The fees are listed below next to each installment plan.

Once you have signed up for an installment plan, proceed to make the payments that are due.  Please make sure to pay only the installments that are currently due and not installment balances due in the future. 

Fall 2011 3 Payment Installment Due Dates (installment fee $25):
August 19, 2011; 5:00 p.m.
September 19, 2011; 5:00 p.m.
October 19, 2011; 5:00 p.m.

Fall 2011 4 Payment Installment Due Dates (installment fee $35):
August 19, 2011; 5:00 p.m.
September 19, 2011; 5:00 p.m.
October 19, 2011; 5:00 p.m.
November 19, 2011; 5:00 p.m.

Fall 2011 5 Payment Installment Due Dates (installment fee $45):August 19, 2011; 5:00 p.m.
September 19, 2011; 5:00 p.m.
October 20, 2011; 5:00p.m.
November 19, 2011; 5:00 p.m.
December 20, 2011; 5:00 p.m. 

Emergency Loans

Emergency loans are available to any student.  Emergency loans cover the expenses for tuition and fees as well as Orne;as Hall housing, Patriot Village Apartments housing, and meal plans paid to UT Tyler.  Tests, books, supplies, insurance or other expenses are not covered by the emergency loan.

Students may sign up in the myUTTyler Student Center by choosing ‘Finances’ and ‘Enroll in a Payment Plan.’

An origination fee of 1.25% is charged on all emergency loans and the loan must be repaid in full by October 31, 2011.  Dropping classes does not cancel the obligation to repay an emergency loan. 

Financial Aid Disbursement Information

Disbursements of financial aid funds for enrolled students will begin on Monday, August 15^th.  These funds will be applied to any current semester charges. Loan refunds begin on Tuesday, August 16^th. Grant and scholarship refunds begin on September 22^nd.

IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER:

1)      1. Original awards were based on anticipated full-time enrollment. If you are now less than full-time, your cost of attendance (COA) will be adjusted, thus reducing your eligibility.

2)      2. September 14^th is Financial Aid Census date. After this date, enrollment will be confirmed and COA will again be adjusted, if necessary. This may cause you to now have a balance due.

3)      3. If you drop below half-time prior to census (September 14), all financial aid that requires at least half-time enrollment will be cancelled. If you have already received a refund of your student loan, you must return those funds immediately. 

4)      4. Spring COA is also based on anticipated full-time enrollment. When the assessment of Spring enrollment occurs— if you are not full-time—your Spring COA will adjust. This may result in a reduction of your Spring awards and possibly your Fall.

5)      5. If you were awarded for both Fall and Spring, but are either not enrolled Fall or are less than half-time, ALL of your awards will be cancelled for BOTH Fall and Spring. If you plan to be enrolled at least half-time in the Spring semester, please complete the Reinstatement Request form and submit it to Enrollment Services Center (enroll@uttyler.edu or fax to 903-566-7183)

6)      6. Completely withdrawing from all classes will require you to repay some of your awards. Please read the information on our website regarding the Return of Title IV funds.

Visit our website for the most current information on program requirements.

Back To School Assistance

Where to ask a question
If you have any financial aid, registrar, or admissions questions the best place to ask them is online. These offices have answered over 4,000 phone calls last week alone. There are several students who have questions and they are being answered in the order they are received. The best way to ask these questions is by going to the UT Tyler web site and filling out a form. The form is located toward the bottom right of the UT Tyler main page. There should be a picture that says "Have a Question?" if you click on that picture it will take you directly to a form that you can fill out with any UT Tyler questions. If your questions involve your personal information then all communications will be done through your Patriot E-mail account. You can also get to that page by clicking on the picture included in this blog.

Fall Chipotle

So... fall is about to start. Yay? I'm glad summer is pretty much over. I have one more test to take tonight and then I'll have some time off for summer. I fear looking up my book costs for the fall, they are always so high. There's a new eatery in Tyler, seems like Tyler finally got a Chipotle. It's not open yet, they are still doing some burrito education. Chipotle is generally pretty good I used to eat it in Houston quite a bit. Their guacamole is actually real so it's better than that green wet soup goo they call guacamole at Salsarita's.

Summer is almost over!

Well next week is finals for my summer classes so I'm pretty excited. I won't have much of a break before school starts back for the fall, but I'll take what I can get.

Registration

If you haven't registered for classes yet, you might want to. You can do it through myuttyler.