First Post
My name is Story, and I’m a junior at Florida State University. I’m from Tallahassee, but I
spent my first two years of undergraduate education at Florida International University
in Miami. My major is Editing, Writing, and Media - a long way of saying English - but that’s
subject to change as I find my footing here at FSU. Though I grew up in Tallahassee, I
lived for a year in Brazil as a senior in high school. I stayed with a Brazilian family, ate
Brazilian food, learned Portuguese, and lived as much like a Brazilian teenager as I could.
I was lucky to have the experiences I did there, and I’m so grateful I was given that
opportunity. Since I grew up with internet and a home computer, I’ve been using
technology for most of my educational career - starting with the fat-backed colorful Apple
computers in elementary school and finishing here at FSU with most of my assignments
being submitted online and communicating with my professors through canvas and email.
When I was in Brazil, I still had to finish some credits to graduate from high school on time,
so I took two virtual school classes. They weren’t the greatest, if I’m being honest - I was
bored doing them, and there were a thousand other things I’d rather have been doing
while I was completing them. I ended up cramming them both into about a month at the
end of my exchange, after I’d put them off as long as I could - which probably contributed
to how much I hated it, since I’d procrastinated so much I had a lot more to do each day
than what was recommended. Thankfully I’ve learned my lesson, so when I take an
online class at the university level it won’t be so painful. Despite the fact that one of my
possible post-graduation plans is teaching English as a foreign language abroad, I
haven’t taken any education classes, so I’m excited to learn a little bit more about teaching
as a concept. I consider myself pretty technology fluent, but it’ll be good to formally learn
more and hone the skills I already have. I want to learn how to make tech work for me
efficiently and easily, since it’s already a major part of both my working and personal life.
Even though I’m taking this because it’s a requirement, I’m hoping to gain skills I’ll be able
to use outside of a university setting.
spent my first two years of undergraduate education at Florida International University
in Miami. My major is Editing, Writing, and Media - a long way of saying English - but that’s
subject to change as I find my footing here at FSU. Though I grew up in Tallahassee, I
lived for a year in Brazil as a senior in high school. I stayed with a Brazilian family, ate
Brazilian food, learned Portuguese, and lived as much like a Brazilian teenager as I could.
I was lucky to have the experiences I did there, and I’m so grateful I was given that
opportunity. Since I grew up with internet and a home computer, I’ve been using
technology for most of my educational career - starting with the fat-backed colorful Apple
computers in elementary school and finishing here at FSU with most of my assignments
being submitted online and communicating with my professors through canvas and email.
When I was in Brazil, I still had to finish some credits to graduate from high school on time,
so I took two virtual school classes. They weren’t the greatest, if I’m being honest - I was
bored doing them, and there were a thousand other things I’d rather have been doing
while I was completing them. I ended up cramming them both into about a month at the
end of my exchange, after I’d put them off as long as I could - which probably contributed
to how much I hated it, since I’d procrastinated so much I had a lot more to do each day
than what was recommended. Thankfully I’ve learned my lesson, so when I take an
online class at the university level it won’t be so painful. Despite the fact that one of my
possible post-graduation plans is teaching English as a foreign language abroad, I
haven’t taken any education classes, so I’m excited to learn a little bit more about teaching
as a concept. I consider myself pretty technology fluent, but it’ll be good to formally learn
more and hone the skills I already have. I want to learn how to make tech work for me
efficiently and easily, since it’s already a major part of both my working and personal life.
Even though I’m taking this because it’s a requirement, I’m hoping to gain skills I’ll be able
to use outside of a university setting.
My son is taking virtual school right now and I just found he completed only 6 assignments out of 26. ;-( I know it is not so fun...That's why I am interested in finding a way to motivate and engage students in an online learning. During my research I read some interesting articles about using technologies for a collaborative writing in EFL/ESL classes. It is a type of CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) technology. Let me know if you are interested. :-)
ReplyDeleteBTW, your post looks weird now....Very long horizontally...Hard to read...Please go to 'design' -> select 'customize' and then try to adjust the width of your main body.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing opportunity to have been able to live in Brazil for a year! To be able to be a part of and experience the culture there and even get to learn a new language that is not very common. What do you miss the most about it?
ReplyDeleteAlso, you have a great name! :)
The old Apple computers were great, we used them in elementary school too. I was surprised to hear that online classes are required in Florida for high schools. It's nice that you had practice with time management so it isn't as bad in college :)
ReplyDelete