I know the statistics, but I was wondering if someone could tell me where I stand. It should be noted that I want to major in English Lit and Creative Writing.

- I’ve just finished my sophomore year. I got a 29 on the PLAN with perfect scores in reading and english. However, I only got a 181 on the PSAT.
- I’m in gifted english classes and will take AP english lit as a junior.
- I spent this past semester in England taking their junior year courses. This includes english lit.
- I’m involved in extra-curricular activites. This includes quiz bowl, voice lessons, musicals, church activities, community service, and mission trips.
- I’m in the top 10% of my class.
- I recently did very well at a writing competition with some poetry of mine.
- Last summer I had a job as an english/writing tutor.
- I’m always reading.

When I list everything like this, it makes me think I could get in. But my friends are always calling me stupid…
So what do you lot think?

Well first of all, it sounds like you need to get better friends. If it’s something you want they should encourage you.
As far as getting in, you sound like you could have a good shot. You have to remember, though, that you are competing against each year’s applicant pool and it is different from year to year. The best thing for you to do is to apply no matter what. Even if people tell you that you shouldn’t, you have nothing to lose by applying, and everything to gain. Right now, as you start your junior year, just do everything you can to optimize your chances. Stay on top of your classes (but don’t stress out, it’ll just be harder that way!) and study for the SATs as best you can.Then, when it comes time to apply, just apply and leave it to faith, knowing you did everything you can. Best of luck to you!

Like in Hollywood? Ok, look. I am not just a silly little girl with no experience who wants to be an actress. I have been taking acting lessons for almost 3 years now, singing lessons and dancing lessons. So far I have been in 3 (4 after this summer) plays and I really have what it takes. I am a teenager, but I am stressing over college allready. Not to brag, but I am good looking. I really LOVE acitng and I am amazing at it (thanks to my acting coach) :]. I also have the natural energy. Once I get my braces off, I will audition for an agent and hopefully I can get some auditions on my hands. I know it doesn’t happen like 1, 2, 3. It’s a one in a million chance and I want to be one of those ‘ones’. I also like wriitng, and if I DON’T get famous I will either be an ELA creative writing teacher or an acting teacher.
Do I have a good plan here?

sure guhhh.
go for it.
and you have something to fall back on.

Create a curriculum for one day for a group of 4 year olds, include the Florida Standards (don’t write the whole standard). Don’t forget to add the goals and objectives. Discuss how the lesson plan supports children’s development in one of the curriculum areas: physical development, creative arts, communication, or inquiry. Look at the other lesson plans that are posted and see how the planning reflects why you think about other lesson plans. Do remember to stay professional with your discussion of other students work.
I am not studying to be a teacher. It was just a class to take for the extra hours I needed for financial aid.

Wow your on a roll….

I can’t do it for you. Start by looking at the Florida State Standards, pick what you’d like to teach and the related standard. Then proceed with your lesson plan with goals, objectives, etc.

I was in your position just a couple of years ago, you have to do your own work and lesson plans because that is what will best equip you for teaching. If you don’t learn how to do it now how will you succeed as a good teacher in a real classroom?

Good luck

I need to make a lesson plan involving play dough for 3-4 year olds. besides making the play dough and writing their names/initials I need other creative ideas! please help!

Teach,"How to make a cat 101"
Step one: Roll a ball for the head
Step two: make a triangle for the head… etc etc

Or something of the sort!

i have problems with descions and am doing many after school activites. i want to pick a few to continue for as long as possible and get really good at. im 14 and finishing up 8th grade.

i play bass guitar and take lessons, i really like it and would hate to give it up. i think its a cool thing for a girl to do also. but i have small hands.

ive been doing flamenco for the last year, am getting the hang of it, but have a very unorganized teacher. im not sure if its worth the time or effort.
i do all the plays and musicals at my school, for im a very good actress and singer, but idk if thats too time consuming and competitive.

i take random acting classes at a local museum, but again, time-consuming, and stressful to memorize lines.

ive played the flute since 5th grade and take very good lessons. i plan to play for the rest of my life, so i hope to not be forced to drop this.

i am hoping to make a minor career out of modeling, because i was pciked out to meet the VP of chicago elite last sumer, and have grown since then. i however have to be careful to be skinny and tall enough. am i chasing a dream?

i sing for a very unorganized rock band in my neighborhood and its not very time consuming. i dont think its necessary to drop this.
i used to take voice lessons, but idk if thats not worth it. im not an amazing soprano- more like an alto but with a really pretty voice if i practice.

im on the xc tema at school and run a lot. this corresponds with my modeling idea, because it helps me stay inshape. and i lvoe it. im not very fast though.

im dropping basket ball i believe, which ive played since around 3rd grade.

my mom is encouraging me to join the swim team at school like my brother, which also is great excerise. half the practices are in the mroning so its less time consuming.

my dad wants me to play golf and work on getting a scholarship because of it, andi have a very good knack for the game, as a beginner. it, however, is a crazyy time-cnsuming sport and joing the team at school (which id do next spring) would also take some time. i dont know if its worth playing a less-excerciseful sport but i think its cool to know how to do something i can do forever.

i am very interested in journalism, creative writing, and poetry (and song writing). i rock at that stuff and am an excellent public speaker (comes into play in acting also- should i stick with natural talents?)

i love art, and always have been. im really one of the fine arts with my painting and sketching, instrument playing, singing, writing, and acting. but anyways, i have a gift with art but i dont know how to practice and become better fi i choose to. private lessons? owrkshops? i dont know!

but thats way too much stuff! you see? i want to not do a ton of things and be ok at them, i want a few things that ill shine out in. i know im especially good at a few things but i cant narrow things down. pleeeeease help me

Here are my recommendations:

Keep the bass and flute lessons. Keep playing/singing with the band. Try writing an original song for the band to play.

Drop the dance lessons. Instead of the next acting class, pick up an art class at the museum.

Drop basketball. Don’t bother with golf. Keep running (you can do THAT forever, also). You might consider swimming, also.

With time and experience, you’ll find that all these disjointed activities are really connected, and the intersection point is YOU.

OK, I need a little help. At my school, my grade
has a wrting *test* every year. The teachers plan lots of activities for it. Awesome activites. OK, back to the question. One of the activites is
we get to help the lower grades with their writing. We got to choose a friend or two, and a subject. For my subject, I chose creativity. We already got ideas for an AWESOME display.
I have a few activites planned, but I need a lesson. Like HOW to write creativley. Any ideas are appreciated. Design ideas are kool 2. Anything to help us is awesome!

How do you write creatively? People have spent years trying to come up with an answer to this question. One good place to start is with journaling and freewriting. Often, the best writing comes when one is NOT trying to write well. If you free your brain of the pressure of writing neatly, using correct punctuation and spelling, and other constraints, you may find surprising ideas. So..for your lesson. Start with setting a mood. Nice lighting, a neat scent that kids aren’t allergic to. Show an interesting photograph, play some dramatic music, do something else out of the ordinary. Then, talk about freewriting and how it comes right from your brain. A scent may bring up a forgotten memory; a picture may spark a question; music might change a mood. Model this a bit, and then give the kids a short time (3 min) to try it. Share what they’ve come up with. It might not be anything yet…creativity doesn’t always come when you call it. Change the mood–get a new picture, different music, a different scent–and try again for another short time. Share again. Hopefully, the kids will have started thinking of something new and different. This is the start of creativity. Your last step can be making a little journal for them to record their writing ideas.

Identify 3 perspective groups of individuals that can contribute to a class of students. These can be groups identified by culture, learning style, special ability, etc. Be creative. Write a 1000-1250 word paper addressing the following topics:

(1) While not everyone within any group will exhibit the same qualities, what are some common characteristics of the group?

(2) What are some special challenges that an educator may have to overcome to accommodate this group?

(3) What special learning opportunities can be offered by such a group represented in class?

(4) Finally, outline very specifically 2-3 ways an educator can accommodate each difference using either a teaching method, a specific lesson plan, employing particular resources, etc. Again, be creative. Justify your accommodations by referencing your course readings and any other resources you find to support your decisions.

first make a list of all the different types of teachers/learningaides. Then choose three or four to focus on. Next, actually get some hands on experience with the chosen subjects. Speak to a person in each field and get their perspective. During this of feld work, get some research done, go to your college library and find references for each topic. Finally, add your own input to the mix.

Ok this is for teachers
Hello I am a 1st Year teacher, and my subject this year is Creative Writing, and 7th and 8th Grade English 1 & 2… so we recieved our supplies on Friday along with some of our curriculm for the 1st semester as well, I also got my Teacher Editions or answer books as I use to call them and along with that 3 Class Record Books/ or Gradebooks and a Lesson Plan Book that has to be turned in every week..

Well they told us to use one of the Gradebooks as an Attendance Book
and the other 2 for Grading the students and keeping track..

Now i remember the grade book growing up and through the years it changed from A’s and B’s to 24/30 pts and so on .. So how should i grade my students??????

At the top keep the total # of points per assignment, then down the column put the number of points each student earned.

At the end of the quarter. Total up the total points each student earned over the total of possible points, divide and you have an ABC grade.

e.g. 140/161 points = 86.7% or usually a B

That’s how I do it. I also allow for extra credit assignments too.
Good luck. I’ll bet one of your colleagues could help you with the grading scale as they tend to be different from school system to school system.

Good luck.

Okay so my highschool sociology teacher has given us an oppurtunity to write a lesson planned on how to teach Bureaucracies. He thinks the topic is fairly boring and in his past years he hasnt found a sucessful way that students can understand. He said that whoever writes him a good, fun lesson plan will recieve a prize. Im all out of creative, fun ideas and i really want to win. Can you help me? it cant be less than a 50min period or more then 4 days long. Thnkk you so much! *He will purchase stuff if needed for the lesson plan, keep in mine were highschool students.

This seems like a perfect subject to have small groups. Each group would represent different entities, such as a small business, a private bank, a city or state government, a large corporation or a stock market, and a federal government.

Part 1: Each group has to define their own bureaucracy (even small businesses have them, but the owner may be the only "bureaucrat"), either role-playing amongst the members, or just creating an organizational chart and rules (and why certain rules were chosen)

Part 2: Groups discuss amongst each other there organization and rules, and decide if rules for each are appropriate, too much, or too little. Is there oversight? Should there be, and why or why not? Are some of the rules repeated in some or all groups? Should government rules have primacy over private sector rules and contracts? If so, when and why?

Part 3: Groups discuss trust: is the concept of trust treated differently in private practice versus government? If so, why? Are any differences specific to a type of government or economy, or are they universal differences? Do the issues of trust make the bureaucracy more efficient, or less, and why?

Part 4: Groups discuss the notion that bureaucracies are self-perpetuating: is this necessarily true? Or is it a popular myth? Can anyone think of bureaucracies that have expanded and shrunk over time? What makes bureaucracies become complex, and what streamlines them?

A possible variation would be to work only with government entities, but one group would be a democratic government, one a dictatorship, one a theocracy, any others you can think of. Most of the above applies, but additional discussions of how the various forms of bureaucracy are peopled, and how those differences might affect the efficiency and trust aspects.

Another variation would be to assign tiered agencies to each group, such as:
- Department of Defense
– US Navy
— US Marine Corps
—- 1st Fleet Marine Force
—– all the way down to squad, if your class was big enough

For a non military example of the same:
- Department of Interior
– National Park Service
— region
—- specific park or monument

I could see this being taking up to all 4 days if historical research assignments are tacked on to each discussion, or done over 1 to 2 hours with just hypothetical discussions. Or, each class period go through each of the variations for an excellent breadth of subject.

I am 23 and in my first job post grad school. I have a B.S. in Print Journalism and a M.S. in New Media. In 2 years I am going to resign from my job and go back to school to get my credential as an high school English and Journalism teacher. I want to do somethign where I feel like I’m making a difference and doing something with a purpose that is helping and impacting someone’s life. I love to help people and teach people new things and make stuff come alive to someone. I love to read and write and plan things. With teaching I can be creative and integrate Internet into lesson plans about literature and to teach about journalism and new media. The journalism business is not doing that for me and job security is very uncertain in this industry. With all that said, I am going to do a credential program at a local university where I will get endorsed in English. Starting next year I will be taking all the pre-reqs needed to do this program in 2 years. Do I need to get a Masters in Education, since I already have a Masters. I was told that I didn’t really need to because all that matters is that I have an advanced degree and that will add more money to my teaching salary. But, I wanted to hear what other people think on should I get another Masters.

If higher pay is something you are looking for, here’s some advice that might help you. In the state I live and work in, the only difference in pay between a bachelors and a masters is typically $500.00 to $3000.00 per year. This is not a very good payoff for all that you have paid for a masters (and may potentially pay in the future should you go for another one). This is for just plain jane teaching jobs. However, there are some positions in the teaching area that require or prefer masters degrees – school counselors, diagnosticians, curriculum coordinators, administrators. But this doesn’t necessarily sound like what you are looking for. So as for obtaining another masters, it all depends on whether or not you want to obtain another degree. Obtaining teacher certification can be done without getting another degree. You can do this by going through alternative certification. These are programs designed for people who have degrees that are not in teaching but want to become teachers. They help you prepare for certification classes and provide you with the "meat" of teaching degree programs by having you observe in schools and teaching you how to be a teacher. The one I went through lasted about a year and a half, but I was employed by a school for a year of this.

Should you choose to go for another masters, you need to make sure the degree program offers you what is called "initial certification." Many but not all masters in education programs do. This will make sure you are qualified to teach. Believe it or not, having an education degree is not automatic qualification – you have to be certified.

One other suggestion, have you thought about teaching at the college level? Even junior college level? To be qualified, you have to have 18 graduate hours in the field you want to teach in. Just another option to think about!

Feel free to email me if you have more specific questions.