Blog Post 1

About Me

My name is Gabby Williams. I was born in Biloxi, MS on April 7, 1992. I am only child and was raised by my parents. I've lived in Biloxi my entire life and recently moved to Mobile, AL to peruse my degree in English Education. I graduated in 2010 from d'Iberville High School and started my freshman year in the fall at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. I cheered there for the two years and graduated in May of 2012. Summer of 2012 I decided to move to Mobile to cheer and start my degree in English Education. I don't have a job because my time is consumed between school, cheering, and trying to maintain a social life. As my first year at South Alabama I've grown to love the city, my new friends and teammates, and the school its self. 

I want to enter the field of education because I want to help educate the children of our future and know that I've done my part in helping our world today. My passions are my family, friends, and boyfriend. Cheering is a passion for me on the good days. I love to cheer and support my school and teammates but at times it gets a little rough and tough. I love living on the water at home in Biloxi so in my free time being in the sun is my calling. I used to run track in high school so I've never lost my passion for running. 

Future Classroom 

When in my future classroom I plan on being a unique and fun teacher. I want my students to come to class always prepared and eager to learn. When I teach my high school English students, I not only want to help them with their grammar skills but also help them to open up and enjoy writing. I feel that every student is entitled to his own self-expression when it comes to writing and English, and he should feel comfortable enough to express their diversity. As teachers I feel that part of our job is to help students become confident enough with their writing and also with revising others writing. Teachers should focus more on correcting not criticizing and that’s what I plan to do.

I like to think that I am going to be a pretty easy going teacher. My main teaching philosophy is I want students to feel comfortable enough in my classroom to be able to write freely and creatively about any topic, whether assigned or student chosen. I want my main focus to be on self-expression, creativity and feeling comfortable with revision. I believe in peer review but not every student will care enough about someone else’s paper to analyze it correctly and provide acceptable feedback. To me, peer review is old and boring but group review can be an easy and productive way for students to grade each other’s work.

My students will be high school juniors and seniors so we will be working with literature and writing mostly. I want my students to learn the proper way of writing and revising their work and others as well. I want my students to be able to write honestly and without fear of a bad grade based on creativity. My students will learn the proper ways of writing through hands on activities and assignments rather than me lecturing to them daily.

The tools that my students will employ as a part of their learning process is being able to be hands on with writing and grammar. I want to use fun activities and games to show students that writing can be fun and isn't boring or as tough as they believe. I want to test my students through our activities and document their learning process so I can show them how far they have come from their old styles of writing. 

I want my classroom to be an open and welcoming environment. I don't want to be the teacher in school that all the students are afraid of. My classroom will be set up in a fun and exciting atmosphere. I don't want my classroom to feel like a typical white, brick wall, classroom. I want to have my classroom bright and vibrant so the students can feel free to be their selves and open up with their writing and grammar. 

Dr. Pausch

When watching Dr. Pausch's video on time management I've learned that procrastination is the absolute worst and Americans are the worst about stress and procrastination. I learned that I should focus more on goals, priorities, and planning. I learned that instead of doing the right things that I should focus more on doing things right.

I learned that failing to plan is planning to fail. I took that as if I don't plan my days, weeks, and months then I will fail at whatever I'm trying to succeed at. I learned that organization and planning my schedules and to- do list is crucial in succeeding. Watching the time management video I hope will help me in this class and others as well.