Kliewer- Schooling Children with Down Syndrome (Reflection)

Although this is going up rather late I still feel as though I needed to write something. In this article Kliewer talks about inclusion classrooms. I never really though of the idea of inclusion. Inclusion as Kliewer describes it is the integration of special needs children into a regular classroom setting. As I read the article I was brought back to my elementary school years. My fifth grade classroom was an inclusion classroom. We had two teachers; one for the regular kids and the other for the students with special needs. The classroom ran rather smoothly.  We got to understand why the kids were the way they were. We got to interact with them and really get to know them. Unfortunately when we got to middle school and high school that slowly deteriorated. In high school we had separate classrooms on everyone’s learning ability. I've seen it first hand. Inclusion classes work. Those children participated just like any normal kid would and they probably felt so much better being in an inclusion class.

In the movie we had watched, some of the kids in the movie who were in special education classes were separated not just by a classroom but by a whole building. In my high school it was the same way. We had one hallway that was part special education. Like in the movie no one really went down that way, although it was a fine way to get to the front of the school. It is like we are afraid of the unknown. Since we don't know the person, it scares us. I know I was like that. My best friend has a brother who I used to not really talk to that much when I went over, if I ever did. Once I got to know him though he was so cool and funny and he can do all the same things anyone else can, but he is still placed in a special education classroom.

Of course FNED follows you everywhere you go. I was in Oasis and I was talking to one of the grad students who had grown-up in Finland. She said that she had never heard of separating children like that. In her country all the kids were treated the same in schools even if they had a learning disability. Some parents use this as a crutch and demand that there child be treated differently. I have a mom at church and her daughter has special needs. Her daughter is so much fun to talk to and can do so many things but she always has to remind us that she has a learning disability. Although she wants her daughter integrated in society if she keeps bringing her down she will never be able to reach her full potential.

To bring it back to what the article is about here is a video about a child who has down syndrome but is being successful in an inclusion classroom.

Although this article is late, I do not feel I could have written more truly. Having a chance to reflect on the reading and the movie and on these events I see in my everyday life really helped me to succeed on writing this blog post. Even as I am writing this I see on my Facebook this status:

“Kids with special needs aren't sick or gross or stupid, and their handicap is not contagious. They only want what we all want: to be accepted and loved. Can I make a request: is anyone willing to post this and leave it as their status for at least an hour? It is Special Education Week, and this is in honor of ALL children were born in a unique and loving way.”
This shows that change is upon us and we are doing it one person at a time. I feel that’s what this whole course is about changing the world of education one person at a time.

Shor- Empowering Education (Connection)

This week’s article was on a well known topic in our class: Empowering education. All this semester we have been taught how we deprive kids of that education, but this article tells us the now what of empowering education. As I was reading I made connections to a few authors that we have read and talked about in class.

My first connection was to Finn and Oakes. Right on the first page of the reading I saw the connection brewing. Finn and Oakes talked about tracking. They said how tracking is something that creates a low performing working class standard education. Once you get rid of tracking all together you can lead kids towards an empowering education. Shor talks about how there is more to learning then the “three R’s” of education. He says, “You must arose children’s curiosity and make them think about school.” This is what an empowering education is about. We must use critical thinking to entice our children to want to learn and get the education they deserve. So they both speak about how we can all be successful through an empowering education.

My second connection was to Christensen. As I read through the article I reached a point where media literacy was just screaming out at me. Christensen in her article talks about how the media does not take responsibility on how it perceives people. She also talks about the large effect the media has on people. She talks about the secret education and how we learn these things from the media without any knowledge that it is happening. Shor talks about this journalism class and how the children were asked to ask questions about the media. The question that stuck out the most was, “Why isn’t the media more accountable for its actions.” This relates right back to Christensen and how the media uses the secret education to teach us things we do not need to know. If the media is going to give us this education, then why not give us a knowledgeable empowering education. The media needs to learn that it is the middle man. It controls how we see society.

These connections just confirm how good an empowering education can be. If we give our children the chance to grow and learn without putting a tag on them or without having the media give them hidden messages then we could have a very bright future. Here are someways these people thought up to create a more empowering classroom to keep students more engaged.

In class I would like to discuss how our class really encompasses empowering education.

Promising Practices :D

On Saturday November 6 2010 I attended my first teaching conference. When I was driving to RIC that morning I was very nervous and excited for what the day had in store for me. I parked and walked inside the Dovovan Dining Center. I needed to check in. I saw that they were grouping by last name, so I went to the “M’s” and stood in front of it. The person at the front of the line was having a bit of trouble checking in, but one of the staff quickly jumped in to help sign the rest of in. After I signed in I looked around to see if anyone was there. I saw all of our FNED class sitting at a couple of tables in the back. We found our seats and were ready for the day to begin. While we were waiting we discussed who was going to what group. It seemed as though no one was in the same workshops. Everyone seemed very excited about their workshops. I unfortunately was not put into my first choice for the workshop, but I didn’t have the energy to go change it. Finally the amazing Dr. Bogad hit the stage with a great introduction at 8:30 in the morning and we were off to our first workshop.

The first workshop I attended was the Visual Literacy workshop with Mary Howkins in Clark Science 106. I thought I was in the wrong place at first because nobody was in the room, but Mary assured me I was in the right place. The room had no heat but in my many layers I was quite warm. The workshop had about 20 people in it. This workshop really focused on what we see in the media and what it means. The main focus of media that she focused on was print ads. First though we compared these two painting to one another.

Virgin Mary     Black Man

We talked about the backgrounds and how they help each person to seem as though they are coming out of the picture and how it helps contracts their skin tones. We mentioned how they are both in the center of the portraits and that stands for power. In relation to power we said how the Virgin Mary is of a high status and that a black man is replicating such a pose shows how power has shifted in the world. Finally we mentioned the man and how he is looking out at us. In the full picture the Virgin Mary is looking down at the host. He is trying to connect with us saying he is not afraid to be who he is.

After this analysis of the paintings we then looked at print ads. We saw in so many print ad things you would never even think of. In children’s magazines the blonde child is always placed in the center of an ad. This is because of the purity of a blonde child and how it represents the average American. We also looked at ethnically diverse print ads. Although most races were represented in the ad, there still had to some hidden message behind it. In all the ads we saw with ethnic diversity the white child was always in the center of the photograph (Like I said before the center of the picture represents power), or they were the only ones looking right at the viewer/ reader. These simple things help us connect with the white child more than the rest of the people in the ad. Here is a sample of what I was saying.

This workshop really related all to Christensen. It was all about the hidden messages in the media and how we may think something is equal when all along it is all a lie. We are teaching these kids through these ads that, yea you can be pretty but if you’re not the white or blonde girl you’re not going to be in the front, you’ll be in the back staring off at who knows what. It also relates to McIntosh in a way; it speaks to the whiteness as an invisible privilege.

After that workshop we headed back to the dining center for the curriculum recourse fair. This I did not use to my full advantage. For someone who wanted to go into Secondary Education with a concentration in English the fair was lacking. It was very much for the elementary school teachers. I did look around to see what they had but no luck. Some of the class and I during that time talked about our experiences in our first workshops. Some people said it exceeded their expectations and some said that the workshop fell short. I could not stop talking about mine and all the hidden messages in things we see every day. During this time I also ate about a trillion of those chewy bars.

Next it was on to the second workshop. After having an amazing workshop I was waiting to have a phenomenal workshop in the afternoon. When I arrived I was greeted by Mary Gormley. I was hoping to work in a group and meet other people but then she started talking about Geography and how it related to diversity. We ended up doing the strangest activities. The first one we all had to leave the room and come back in two groups and look at a bunch of objects. We then had to remember the objects and write them down when everyone was finished. Then we had to draw a map of Rhode Island College. Although I understood the message of that exercise it still dint make that much of an impact. She was just trying to convey that we all think differently and we shouldn’t be penalized for those differences. This sadly did not meet my expectations.

When I returned back to headquarters I really tried to have people explain to me the purpose of my workshop, many could not.  I decided to drop the subject of that workshop. I then went to eat lunch. The lunch was quite tasty for the Dovovan Dining Center at RIC. While we were eating there was a picture on the screen of some small children. It was a small white boy in the middle surrounded by about 10 black children. My friends in FNED thought I was crazy when I told them about it, but right there was proof about what I was saying. The one white child was in the center of the photo which gave him the power and our eyes are immediately drawn to him.

Finally it was time for the speaker Mr. Dennis Shirley.  I was quite excited to hear him talk because I know when Dr. Bogad talks in class I really enjoy hearing her talk about diversity. Well this man bored me to tears. I couldn’t hear a thing he was saying and I blocked him out about 15 minutes into his ramblings. At times he did make some good points. I like that he did mention about two things we should take away from his presentation. He said that we need to know our vision and we need a supportive network without these things, mindful teaching cannot exist.

Overall I really enjoyed the convention. It really open my eyes even more about diversity and what we can do to make our community, our schools, our classrooms one day a better place for all. After I left the conference I looked in the folder and saw we were given a magazine. I flipped though it and it was a very interesting magazine. It had stories in it like we have in class and just lots of ways to make schools more diversified. If we just keep an open mind then the world can be whatever we want it to be.

Finn and Oaks- “Keeping Track” (Argument)

This week I explored articles about tracking. Tracking is a term that relates to keeping children of the same learning level in the same classes. Oaks states that some people think this helps target individual needs so that children can learn more. In the article a main argument is pointed out.  Oaks argue that children should not be tracked because it actually puts them at a disadvantage.

So what if some kids feel disadvantaged a few people would say but Oaks begs to differ. She first starts off by talking about the consequences of tracking. She say that with tracking that only those on the higher end of it are getting the education that everyone deserves. The children in the honors classes are able to move faster and cover more material, but the kids in the lower learning classes she says are not able to cover the amount of subjects at such a rapid pace. It’s just like she said the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The ones who have been exposed to this higher intense learning are getting the great education, and those who do not have the same benefits are lacking. As Oaks said, this tracking can also affect average learners. Average kids are given average teachers and minimum workload. It just points out why tracking works for the top students. Here is an Oaks video that shows more about the gap between the students.

Now what many would feel, how does one fix such a problem? Oaks has a some ideas that could be possible solutions. She says that children should be graded on how much they progress throughout the learning process. There needs to be communication and feedback. The students need to know that they can talk to the teacher and that the teacher cares.

Overall Oaks says that tracking is an unsuccessful tool for education. We need to teach teachers how to teach to all levels of students. My question for this week is how did we get into this system of tracking?

Gender and Education (Hyperlink)

When I was looking online for links about gender and education I found a lot of different viewpoints. I saw that people were split on which gender was getting "screwed" by the educational system. People had very strong opinions and facts to back up their views on gender.

Male Inequality  Male Inequality 2

This link shows how males are at a disadvantage when they are in college. In the video this is said to happen because of the low grade point averages males get along with bad test scores on standardized tests. According to a quote by A.Mulrine she states that 70% of the D and F that teachers give to students are to the male sex. She also says that 2/3 of them are labeled with learning disabilities and 80% of drop outs are male. This is something that needs to be focused on. If these numbers are this drastic then something must be going wrong.

Female Inequality 

This link shows how female students are at a disadvantage in the college classroom as well. The video is a clip of a larger video that speak to the problem that women have with keeping up in the classroom. It is from the perspective of women themselves and how they feel they are being treated in the classroom. In the few seconds of the clip they show a few women explaining situations that bug them. One woman talks about how when she tries to speak up and prove a point in a class she is bitchy but a man is just thought to be proving a point.

Fixing the Problem

This link shows the difference between boys and girls. Since this is such a growing problem people are trying to think of solutions to help solve the problem. One thing people have thought about is same sex classrooms. They think having all boys and all girls to be in one classroom would be the best idea. In the video they say this would help the teachers to help students more and to really focus on what each gender needs.

In class I would like to discuss the successfulness of same sex classrooms. Are they really working?

Wise- Between Barack and a Hard Place

This week with watching the interview about Wise’s book “Between Barack and a Hard Place,” I was enlightened on Wise’s view of racism in our society. He argues that racism has not changed over the years and we keep repeating this vicious cycle that we somehow need to escape.  He talks about Obama getting elected. We all thought now that we have a black president things were going to change. Like we talked about in the last article; change doesn’t happen overnight. Wise talks about racism 1.0 and that is the blatant racism that anyone can point out. Then there is something Wise is calling racism 2.0. This is a bit harder to see. It the kind of racism that makes us feel comfortable. It is as Wise says “carving out suggestions,” of the people of black or brown color that we feel comfortable with. In this case he is talking about Obama. He talks about something we mentioned in class; Wise talks about breaking the glass. We need to break out of this cycle and look at Obama getting elected as steps forward in the right direction.

With the website of Brown vs. Board of education it talks about the history. It mentions moments in history that were honored for their drive forward for racial equality. He also talks about with comparison to the B VS. B link that a white person back then would have stated that a white child had the same education opportunities as a black child which the link and ourselves from history know are not true. White classrooms and black classrooms were run and set up very differently. We need to acknowledge that racism is around us and it hasn’t just gone away. We need to break the glass and make racial equality a reality.  This shows we still have some work to do, because there are annoying, stupid, close minded people like this fighting the system and going against equality.

In class I would like to talk more about the reasons for Obama becoming President and how many more acts will it take to wipe out racism once and for all. Also why people need to be racist in the first place.

A Video That Encompasses FNED

Kahne and Westheimer- In the Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning (Hyperlink)

Service Learning

This week I read about service learning and found that there are a lot of ways to help in a community. I thought that the fact of service learning was helping schools and children in need, but it is about much more than that. It encompasses all that is community service. I found a link that I thought would bring light to how teachers and students think about service learning. The video is a discussion between a teacher, a student, and a host on what service learning is and why it is good in the classroom. In the reading it discussed two different types of teachers who used service learning in their classrooms. The first teacher was described as someone who “stressed charity” said Kahne and Westheimer, and the second teacher was said to focus more on “critical analysis.” What this video shows is that this specific teacher and the teachers at Rhode Island College focus on both of those categories equally. We do it to learn about the field we want to go into and to help those in need. We also focus and discuss in class the things with education and go out and experience it just like these kids in this psychology do as well.

When Kahne and Westheimer start talking about the moral aspect behind service learning we cannot help but agree. We feel good when we help other people. One of the students from the class talks about how good he felt by feeding Thanksgiving dinner to a homeless shelter. The student in the video felt good about helping the children with disabilities ride horses. I feel good every time I leave my service learning project knowing I have done good. A quote from one of my favorite musicals is “When you help others you can’t help helping yourself,” and they’re right, you get such an amazing feeling from helping others.  (Yes the song is funny but it makes a point)

Like Kahne and Westheimer said there is an intellectual gain we get from a service learning project. We are learning outside the classroom and really developing skills that cannot be expanded upon in a classroom. The student in the video discussed how she learned so much about psychology from her service learning project. I myself have learned a lot about diversity and the culture of power from working outside the classroom and in a real school.

I feel from reading this article that all classes should have a service learning component. It helps prepare people for life in the real world, it gives people more knowledge about a topic, and it just feels good to help.  

A question I have for class is how can we have service learning in more classrooms?

Christensen- Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us (Quotes)

           “Many students do not want to believe they have been manipulated by children’s media or advertising. No one wants to admit that they have been “handled” by the media. They assure me that they make their own choices and the media has no power over them --- as they sit with Fuba, Nike, Timberlines, or whatever the latest fashion rage might be.”

This quote really shows how people are manipulated by the dominant culture without even knowing. When you are a child you want to fit in. If follow what you see. If we see people on television who are cool because of their clothing we dress like them. I know myself I would not go around in a pair of parachute pants and a leather studded vest because those are not the times. We follow what we see on the television. We are a visually learning society and our media shows that.

”But, like the original tale, Cindy Elle’s main goal in life is not working to end the plight of the homeless or teaching kids to read. Her goal, like Cinderella’s is to get the man. Both young woman are transformed and made beautiful through news clothes, new jewels, new hairstyles.

This quote talks about how Christensen reads this book to her class and they discuss how much better it is because the lead character is black; it also helps support the Ra Ra Diversity team. Unfortunately the teacher then points out to the class she does everything Cinderella does to get what she wants; she changes her appearance. We need to stop looking at the outer figures of these people and look at the underlying meanings of these fairytales. Cinderella tells us you need to change yourself for a person to notice who you really are. That is not teaching our children to be themselves and that they have something called inner beauty. Here is a link that shows fairy tales are not all they are all cracked up to be.

“They were fueled by the opportunity to convince some parents of the long lasting effects cartoons impose on their children, or to enlighten their peers about the roots of some of their insecurities. Instead of leaving students full of bile, standing around with their hands on their hips, shaking their heads about how bad the world is, I provide them the opportunity to make a difference.”

This quote I find to be helpful and non helpful in two different ways. One I think that it is great that students are taking action and telling parents about this. I think that people should know these things. My problem is we are not going to stop having children watch cartoons. It is part of t our culture to let children watch these silly cartoons. Let them dream big and make mistakes, that is what being a kid is all about. I do agree with her letting them go out and try to change things. Her class reminds me of our class. We sit in class and discuss things about education and how we can change it. We say this is not right and luckily we get to go out and help make a difference. We use what we learn in class to educate children and we do not sit their shaking our heads saying how can we fix the this, WE DO IT.

Carlson- Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community (Reflection)

This week we read an article that was about a different subject matter then what we have talked about in the past, but it still had that connection to the who le idea of the culture of power. Carlson talked about how gayness in our society and how it is not the dominant mindset of the culture of power. He also says how there are ways that the dominant culture keeps gayness “in its place.” Carlson says that the people do this by “the erasure of gayness in the curriculum, by “closeting and “witch hunting” of gay teachers, and by verbal and physical intimidation of gay students and teachers.”

In curriculums he says that people try not to bring up the topic of homosexuality in the classroom. I say why not bring up an issue such as that. If we as students can talk about racism, a thing that clearly existed and still does, then why must homosexuality be pushed under the rug? If anything talking about diversity in people gives use a more open mind when going out into the world. If it can further the knowledge of a child and help with the lesson then just teach it.

The whole idea about finding gay teachers and exposing them as a sort of “witch hunt” is a crazy idea. If accusing people of witch craft back then was wrong what makes it better today. Carlson states about how they would do this to expose improper role models. Personally I fell these people are the best role models. They stand up for what they believe in. They do their job without letting the culture of power get in their way. There is also a quote that Carlson uses that states homosexuality as being contagious. That is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. Students will follow their own sexual preference and not be persuaded by a teacher. It is also not the teachers place to get involved. Although this video may be humorous at times it gets across the point that homosexuality is not a choice.

Of course people will find a way most of the time to poke fun at another person. So this comes to no surprise that people make fun of homosexuals. The thing that shocks me the most in Carlson’s article is that the student is making fun of an adult teacher. There are lines in schools that should not be crossed and making fun of a teacher is one of them. Carlson does not mention about what happened to that child after the incident but I think in not telling it hints to the culture of power, and how she being a heterosexual had the power.

People need to realize sexual discrimination is just as bad as racial or gender discrimination.  My question this week is why is it that racial and gender discrimination get more light shed on the issue than that of sexual discrimination?

Extrinsic Motivation

Since our talk in class about extrinsic motivation I have really paid attention to how extrinsic motivation is used in our society in everyday life. Here is one of my encounters with extrinsic motivation.

I work at my church in the nursery with 1 to 2 year old. When the children get dropped off in the morning before the service they have a bit of trouble when their parents need to leave. Now granted I only watch them for about an hour if that. Since it is a new environment I can understand children having this problem. Well this little boy about 2 came in with his mother, and he did not want her to leave. He started crying and crying and  he would not stop. We tried to get him to play with blocks or a puzzle he would not do anything. Finally his mother pulled out a candy. She said to him that he needed to be a good boy and he would receive the treat. In a matter of seconds the little boy stopped crying, and started interacting with the other children. She gave me the candy and said I could give it to him when the time was right. I put the candy in my pocket.

Unfortunately the extrinsic motivation does not stop there. As the little boy was playing he tripped over a chair and started to cry again. I told him everything was alright but he kept crying. I remembered that I had the candy in my pocket so I pulled it out and told him that he needed to be a good boy like mommy said and he could get the candy. He stopped crying and went about playing again. When his mother came to pick him up I gave him the candy and he was happy to finally have it.

With all of our talking in class I felt bad really promoting the extrinsic motivation. I felt like if we had tried hard enough we could have gotten the little boy to stop crying. Now he will learn that when he cries he can just get more candy, and that is not a positive way to learn. How at 2 years old though do you get a child to agree with what you want when they will not listen? I wish I had dealt with the problem better. Extrinsic motivation although effective is damaging to a child's way of learning. We should encourage more intrinsic motivation and help a child help themselves instead of always taking the easy way out. If we try this we can make the world a more intrinsic motivated place.

Rodriguez- Aria (Extented Comment)

Richard Rodrigues

Aria

               When I was reading this article this week I was really hoping to see what some people wrote about it. I decided I would do an extended comment on it and really analyze and see it from another person’s point of view. I decided to do it on Raquel’s blog. Her blog really spoke to me and I knew I could kind of expand on what she had written. I like how she connected it to herself and her speaking Portuguese growing up. It seemed as though her and Rodrigues went through the same thing. She goes on to explain how she did. I really like the how she said it was hard to learn a language that you haven’t been speaking your whole life. This can be connected to kids having to learn a foreign language in high school. I know it was so difficult for me to learn Spanish in high school. It was a hard thing to grasp a whole different kind of culture, so I can only imagine the struggle adults must go though from other countries, when English is everywhere in America. Luckily I only had to speak Spanish in class these people have to deal with English everyday and not really understanding it. It is like Raquel’s mother. At 16 it is very hard to pick up a new language. So for the parents in “Aria” you can see why the dad just kind of stopped talking in public or around his English fluent children.

                I am not sure I am so cool on children having English be a child’s first language. It is easier for a child to pick up a “public language,” as Rodrigues calls it than that of the home language. They need that connection with their parents as a small child and if they are speaking English then that communication is taken away. Children need that tie to their family roots. It is also said that children who are bilingual that helps boost brain power. This shows that children who learn English and their native language are more likely to succeed.

                I like what this article discusses. I also like the connection Raquel made to it in her own life. My friend speaks Russian and she told me that when she came over here from America she did not talk in school for almost two months. How was she supposed to learn English though if her parents had no idea how to speak it? She could not lose that tie with her family and just start learning English right off the bat. 

My question for class is should parents then learn a language before moving to a country to better educate their child?

McIntosh- Knapsack (Argument)

Peggy McIntosh

White Privilege- Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

(Argument)

First off I would like to state how much I enjoyed reading this article. It was an easy article to understand, for the most part and I feel she was very relatable with what she was saying. In this article Peggy McIntosh is arguing in the beginning that white males have all the power in the world, and then goes on to state how white people in general have the power when it comes to anything. She then list what it is like to be a white person, and how we can go about our daily lives not being judged on our color, but anyone who is not white will be questioned and harassed for anything they do just because of the color of their skin. She then goes on to state how we take these things for granted because it is part of the way our society was made. She also looks at the fact that whiteness is not the only thing that sets people apart. There are the other advantages that give people an advantage. Some of these include: Age, ethnic, physical ability, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation. In her own words I feel her argument is best stated in this quotation, “As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage”. This quote sums up her whole article. It I feel also puts a positive spin on the article which may have been why I was so pleased with this article. It says how no one is really in a disadvantage, but we are all equal, it is those, a.k.a the white people, who are at an advantage because they know the rules of society. It does not help as well that the rules of society of those of the white people world. When Peggy McIntosh is stating the way in which person of non white color could be affected in our society, here is a link to how a person who is white but homosexual can get the same kind of treatment

http://www.bibble.org/gay/stories/phobia/lesbian_cantbe_college_pres.html . This link just further supports McIntosh in saying that if one is not at an advantage in society then they will be mistreated. It is like she said about the knapsack; “White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.” This knapsack can apply to anything where someone has an advantage over someone else because of an unchangeable thing. This is what I hope to bring up in the class discussion. That is that I agree with McIntosh when she talks about the knapsack, but this knapsack is only worn by the members of S.C.W.A.A.M.P. They have the advantage over everyone. I feel it is a good point to address.

About Me

Hi, I'm Christopher and I am a sophomore at Rhode Island College. I am hoping to become an English teacher at the high school or middle school level. I enjoy singing and doing theatre. I am in Godspell right now with the East Bay Players. I have been in about 20 shows, and hope to continue theatre and share it with my students in the classroom someday. I have always wanted to be a teacher since I can rememeber. It seems like such a great career path, and I want to give back for all the help and things teachers have done for me in the past. I love meeting new people, and making friends. I worked for orientation this summer and I also work in the Oasis office Monday-Thursday. I enjoy watching T.V. when I have the time. I like multiple reality television shows, but my favorite show of all time has to be Glee. I hope this will be a great semester in FNED and I hope to learn a lot.

-Christopher Margadonna