Blog Assignment #1

My Life
Hello my name is Chelsea Hadley. I live across the bay in Loxley and I am twenty one years old. I have two siblings that mean the world to me. I have one sister that is nineteen and her name is Cierra. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee last February to precede her career in modeling. I also have one brother that is eighteen and his name is Chase and he also moved away in August to Virginia, Minnesota where he received a scholarship to play football. We have always been a really close family so with them gone I do not know what to do. I have the most amazing parents anyone could ask for I am who I am today because of them. They have always been there for me and supported me in anything I have wanted to do. I love them so much and could never thank them enough for what they have done for me. I also have a wonderful boyfriend named Camp and we have been dating for three years. I could not ask for a better hardworking, handsome, and supportive boyfriend. I have two dogs named Bella and Cash that I love to spend time with. I also like to swim, tan, shop, and hangout with my friends, boyfriend, and family. I am from Robertsdale, Alabama, where I graduated from high school in 2009. After graduating high school I attended Faulkner State Community College in Fairhope, Alabama. From Faulkner I transferred to South Alabama majoring in Elementary Education. I chose to major in Elementary Education because I love kids. Not only do I love kids but it is also that feeling you get when teaching and you see the children gather all of the information and actually put the information into play. It is a successful and rewarding job and I could see myself doing it for a long time and enjoying every minute of it. I would like to teach kindergarten or first grade but it really does not matter as long as I am teaching children and being the best teacher I can be.
My Classroom
In my Education career I would like to teach kindergarten or First grade and due to me wanting to teach them grades I would want my classroom set up with A,B,C'S, Shapes, colors, and etc. I would want my classroom to be colorful and fun because a positive and colorful classroom would be a more productive place to learn rather than a plain and boring room. I would like to have many books and activities in my room but not too many to distract the kids when I am teaching. I would want a fun, colorful, positive, and organized room so my students feel comfortable, positive, and ready to learn. There are many tools I would like to have to help the learning process but I am going to just name a few. The first one I would like to have is Learning Centers set up in my classroom. Learning Centers are important to me because while a child is in a specific learning center it keeps them focused, exploring, imagining, and learning to play with others. The second tool I would like to engage in my classroom is a seating arrangement. It is important all the kids can see what I am teaching at all times. A seating arrangement also keeps students from leaving another student out or arguing about where they want to sit and who they want to sit by. I also think it would keep the classroom organized and friendly. The last tool I am going to mention is a book area. I would enjoy a book area that I could stock with many varieties of children books. It is extremely important to me that students have a book area that is comfortable and calm so they can read. Furthermore I think it is important that all classrooms have an area to calm down and read because some students might not get that at home.
Time Management
The video by Dr. Pausch was primarily about time management and the value that time has in our life. He was very clear on how Americans do not value time management in the same way that they value money management. If we can learn how to manage our time in the ways that Dr. Pausch described, then we can reduce our stress level and live a better life. What I learned from this video is that it is very important to make a plan but also to be flexible enough to allow the plan to change and evolve. This is especially true in the field of teaching as we make plans for ourselves and our students. The main points that I took away from this video are that if we can learn to set goals on a daily and weekly basis, then we will start to learn how this process will help us reach and go beyond our goals. It's not as important to do everything perfectly, buy it's more important for us to do it from the perspective of doing things with integrity. We need to ask ourselves, "Why am I doing this?" and “What is my goal?" whenever we are setting goals as well and learn to prioritize our plan according to our goals. Also, whenever setting goals we need to understand that when making plans know that plans have a way of changing. I, personally, liked his analogy of, “If we fail to make a plan, we plan to fail" because planning is such an integral part of teaching children and it is something we must do to help our students reach their own goals.