Chapter 4 had little interesting facts I had not known. For example, I learned that the #0 means off, and #1 means on in the binary system. I'd known that the binary system used sequences of 1s and 0s, but wasn't aware that on and off were the electronic translations of each. Besides interesting information relating to PC cards, flash drives, FireWire ports, etc., the rest of the information included in the chapter seemed irrelevant to the career as an educator. Unless one is hoping to teach technology courses, the information described is probably not useful, not to mention unnecessary, as I have discovered is the theme for a majority of the text. For instance, in figure 4-56 (p. 241) "Some guidelines for the proper care of CDs and DVDs" explains that CDs and DVDs will be damaged if one touches the 'underside of the disk', or 'exposes the disc to excessive heat or sunlight'. Common sense, people. I mean, really, was it worth that tree?
I learned some new things about microsoft word I didn't know before in the practice test on SAM. For instance, I didn't know how the mailing program functioned, and now I can print out envelopes with addresses on them. If I were to have a chance to talk to the creators of the SAM software, however, I would suggest shorter practices. The 120 question practice took me just shy of two hours to complete. Also, I would have finished sooner if some of the questions worked properly. Either the problem would freeze and I'd have to skip it or I would do exactly as it asked and the program would still not consider that I had completed it properly. Even when I was taking my test, it did not count one of my questions right because SAM had taken too long to load and I clicked on the screen a few times. By the time the test popped up it had counted those clicks as 3 wrong chances and I got the problem wrong. In short, this program is frustrating and some bugs need to be worked out before they try and sell a program to us for $55.
Aside from complaining and my bad mood, which I attribute to the dreary rainy day and my wet pant legs, I would like to end this note with a positive outlook. Give me a moment, I'll try. I learned through my literature courses that in order to get your students interested, you have to pick an interesting book to begin with. A few of my professors have a problem doing so, and these are books of their choice, not required reading for the course. Being an english education major, I will most likely teach high school, and choosing interesting books for kids who most likely aren't interested in reading in the first place will be a challenge. Beowulf will not be included in my reading list if I have a choice.
Cuidate,
Kate
6 comments:
I agree that it is really important to pick interesting books for your class. I hated most of the books we had to read in hgih school, and Beowolf was definitly at the bottom of my list as well. I would never want someone to suffer through that book like I did!
You are sooo right about keeping the interest with kids. It's hard with any kid, but I think especially in high school. It's like no one is interested in reading anymore.
I also agree it is important to pick important books for students, because if not, they're not going to read them just go to cliffnotes.com for the information for the test!
Reading a book that isn't exciting or interesting is so tough. For the most part, students want to learn so choosing a book that is easy for them to get into would definitely make the assignment more doable.
I just wanted to say thanks for the get well wish. Still have a bit of cough hanin around. Hope your feeling better too. Have a great rest of the week!!:)
You're an English ed major? That's super duper. I was once...but then found history a bit more intriguing. Hope you have a super break!
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