Misty Dawn's Blog

The end is here for my online class

2008-05-02T17:11:00.000-05:00

I have got to say I loved it, the format was great. I was still able to learn a lot from my insightful classmates through the forum. That is one important thing for me when I am taking a class subject like literature, one of my weakest abilities is to analyze fiction. Reading the thoughts of my classmates did stretch my thoughts about what I was reading.

I also got to read some really good fiction, not something I usually get to do as a early childhood student, we usually read research based texts. I did find enjoyment in the fiction. My eyesight is somewhat poor and I was unable to read the fiction books online but I did order the books from paperbackswap.com which made it easy for me to read. The poetry was easy for me, as far as seeing, because they were typically short.

My group project was really cool! It took me a while to decide on whom to do my Victorian Poetry page on. I decided on Ann Taylor, a poet of nursery rhymes from the era. I chose her because I was able to bridge the somewhat foreign class of literature to my early childhood background. I found some great links too, one to an entire book of her works.

I got to read the book Great Expectations! I loved the book. I am so thankful that I had two great books to read. It was so excited to read fiction at all, it was really great. I loved the book great expectations because the truth in the book is still the truth today. Money does not equal happiness; one must have good human companionship to truly be happy.

The poetry in the class was sometimes good and sometimes very odd and/or confusing. Some great poetry that was easy for me to relate to was part of our regular discussions however some of the poems were difficult for me. Part of this is because I am not someone who analyzes poetry often at all. I love poetry, but I do not always stop to analyze what it is really saying to me. I found that it was easier for me to break it down into sections and work within the meaning of that particular stanza or other divide, then consider how what that section relates to the rest of the stanza’s as a whole. I do not know if that is really the correct way to do it, if there is desired way, but I did find it manageable and it helped me organize my thoughts about it.

I would recommend an online class to anyone interested in taking one. I would love to teach one, it was fun, and I learned in what I believe was a meaningful way. I think as I worked through the assignments I was working on I got better over time, well I hope I did anyway!

Best of luck to all my classmates in the future!

The End Is Near! (update on me)

2008-05-02T15:49:00.001-05:00

I can’t believe we are facing the end of the semester already. I was so excited to get a chance to take an online class. I took the class because 1. I was in desperate need of more hours because of a University error. And 2. I have one masters class left and I was considering maybe doing some adjuncting or teaching an online class through maybe a junior or community college, but I had never taken an online class. I took a look at the class and wanted to make sure I took something that was not my strong suit, I wanted to find out what it might be like for a young college student with limited college experience might feel in one of these classes. I must say I chose a good one, I think it was a smooth class.

I did have an accident in mid April that was disastrous for me as far as life in general. School became difficult so did the fact I was feeding my children more take out food than we have had in a year, so unhealthy, my house and clothing is totally out of control. The main reason my partial cast that goes from toe to knee and the crutches. I hate them! I hate them! I hate them! My right shoulder got so sore I could hardly function at all. Going to my non online classes were difficult too. I purchased a special pass that would allow me to temporary park on campus and then filed paperwork with transpiration so I could park in teacher parking while on crutches and in my partial cast Even with the close parking my arms ached more than my leg! Not to mention I have had absolutely no help at all. I cannot believe that people thought that the kids and I would not need any help at all. I really had my feelings hurt about it I have always been everyone’s helper. I carried folded up paper and a pen in my back pocket for class it was pitiful. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. I was also sad because one day it poured down rain and not one person with an umbrella helped me to my car I was so soaked and in pain it took me about 15 minutes before I could even start off for home. Now my partial cast is over I need no more crutches but my right shoulder has not gotten over the use of them, most days I cannot lift my elbow above my shoulder at all.

I got behind in all of my classes with the whole fiasco. I have almost completely caught up now. Both of my regular classes are caught up so is my Literature online class, now I have one class to catch up in and I am going to ask for an I for a week as I get the class caught up. If I am told no, then I will be really sad.

I am looking forward to the end of the semester. I have so little as far as college to look forward to as I only have one master’s class left to get hooded, I still don’t know exactly what that means, sounds kinda dark and creepy but it is the tradition anyway. What am I going to do you ask? Well I hope to get a teaching job, I will be certified K-12 plus be capable of teaching child development classes at a Junior college. ANY of these If I get an I in the one class I will need to complete my projects there, then I need to write an essay for my portfolio, get a few signatures and enroll in student teaching.

I did take two OSAT test, one for Early childhood and one for mid history. If I pass mid history, and I mean if it was hard, I will get to skip student teaching. If I do not pass mid history I likely passed the early childhood one, knock on wood, and I can student teach this fall. Keep me in your prayers, getting out of student teaching would be good for me and my children financially.

well I have been rambling enough!

Misty

This week in my web class

2008-04-07T10:13:00.000-05:00

I read and discussed on a forum Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It was an interesting book. I had never read it before. Did you know an 18 year old wrote it? The book was so different than what I thought it would be. The monster so much just wanted to belong. I thought a lot about the school experiences the author might have had during her teen years, was this a way for her to address her own teenager issues? Maybe she did not even go to school as a teen, I don’t know but I thought it was an interesting thought. It was a shorter book than what I expected too.
So far taking an online class is somewhat difficult as to what I need to do for assignments. It is so different not sitting in front of a professor and getting direct instructions on what to complete the assignments they assign. However, with gas prices do so on the rise it’s great not have to drive some extra time to Edmond!
I look forward to my next book to read. I usually do not have time to read fiction books because my nose is usually stuck in a textbook. I am enjoying being assigned the more enjoyable fiction stories.

this week in my very first web class......

2008-03-28T23:54:00.004-05:00

We read many poems for the first two weeks of class. I like poetry, but I like the kind that speaks to me. I did find one poem that did. It was an unexpected poem for the most part, I did not think I would come across one that would bring up such an emotional response from me. The poem is Lord Byron's "When We Two Parted." A poem about the death of one’s love.

After reading this poem and readiing the responses left by my classmates and returning to read my own response I felt like I resoponed to the question based on my own emotional connection to the poem I would have much rather been more anylitical. Each peron in the class had something different and insightful about the poem and what it had meant to them when they wrote it.

I guess what I need to say is as I go to bed a lone tonight in the bed once owned not by me but by my own lost love I will take Lord Byron’s words with me and know I am not truly the only person on earth that has experinced such pain, and I guess I will not be the last. These are the matters of life for all the ages! I will never understand why morning is such culturally unacceptable, if someone has left you they give you days maybe weeks and expect you to get back to normal and be your old self but the truth is that it never happens. Just like in the poem Long, long shall I mourn thee, RVC.

Introductions

2008-03-24T01:11:00.000-05:00

Hi, I started this blog as a class assignment for a college course I am taking. I thought I would give you some brief tidbits about me as s student, a professional, and my private life.

I am currently a graduate student just a few classes away from graduating with my masters in early childhood. I have previously graduated from the same university with a Bachelor’s in 2005. When my degree plan is compete I will have about 250 credit hours. I am taking the class because it looked like fun, I am thinking getting another degree and would like to see what on line classes were like. This is not my first blog. I have a blog on My space where I share pictures with friends and family members.

I breed dogs for a living. My dogs are Lhasa Apso’s. Their named after Greek gods and goddesses. Zeus, Hera, Eris, and Poseidon. My children love Greek mythology they have named our cat Andromeda as well. I also teach a summer math camp for children grade 4/8 where we cover higher level mathematical concepts such as 3-d tessellations and hyper-cubes.

Most of my private time is spent being Mommy to two wonderful and bright children. My children are competitive baseball and softball players and it is entirely possible for me to attend 10 games in a weekend for a total of 14 a week. So, as you can imagine with practice thrown in here and there mostly I am a ball mom. I do find some time to enjoy other things. I am the president of a social sorority chapter of Beta sigma Phi, my chapter is Alpha Delta. If the kids and I have a weekend off the kids and I will visit ghost towns here in Oklahoma. There are many ghost towns around even in our county. The kids and I will visit and take pictures of old buildings, cemeteries, and other interesting things we might find along the way. We enjoy learning about the places we see.