Blog Assignment 1

A Little About Me
My name is Kate Fail and I am 23 years old. I was born and raised here in Mobile. I enjoy the simple things in life like spending time with family and friends. Although I occasionally enjoy going out and having a good time, I am just as content to stay home, cook, and watch a movie. I love to read and also enjoy cooking. I love random road trips and can't wait until the day that my trips are to places outside of the United States. There are so many places I want to see and I fully intend to do so. I work at U.M.S Wright Preparatory school at their after-school daycare program. I work with K-4 through Fifth grade and love every minute of it (well almost every minute!).

I am blessed with an amazing family. My father is a Methodist minister and the hardest worker I know. His compassion for people and his passion for helping others is an inspiration to me. My mother is also an amazing person. She is definitely my role model for the type of mother and wife I wish to be one day. I also have an older sister. Her career is in social work and she also shares my family's passion for helping others.

Kids are my passion and the driving force behind my decision to become a teacher. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in First grade. I want to be a teacher that my students remember in a positive way. I want to make an impact in their lives and I want them to enjoy learning and to crave new knowledge. I love the huge part technology is starting to play in the schools and am very interested to learn new techniques and ideas that I will carry into my future teaching career. I came across this quote the other day and it says a lot about my teaching philosophy I touched on above.

"Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it." -- William Haley

I love learning and want my students to see the importance of learning new things. I don't want school to be a burden on them but rather a joy.


Randy Pausch

I learned a lot from Randy Pausch’s video on time management. I have always struggled with being a procrastinator. Randy Pausch mentions that we rarely ask the question of why we are doing something. Normally I just do something because I know I have to but I almost never take the time to figure out why I need to do something. Of course I know I complete an assignment so that I gain the points and don’t fail the class but I need to consider the bigger aspect of why I am given certain assignments to complete. I also learned from the video that I can’t change my ways instantly. I have to work at it and with time I will be able to put my procrastinating ways behind me. I just think it’s smart to realize and consider that you can’t change overnight and that it takes work and practice. I also like that he mentions that it’s okay to fail sometimes and that with each mess up comes a learning experience as well. I think as future teachers we also need to remember that our students are human and will mess up sometimes but that we are there to get them back on track. Randy Pausch is even more of an inspiration to me after learning that he suffered from pancreatic cancer but even after being told he would only live for another three to six months; he remained upbeat, positive, and continued to teach. His passion for life was remarkable. I had never heard of Randy Pausch before but I enjoyed his video and plan to watch some more of his talks.