Quizzes

'Oooowwwwwwwwwww"

Professor McNair- Reflection 22

I have had the pleasure to take a second class with Professor McNair. The first time I took his class I was taking Introduction to Education in the fall semester of 2009. When I first told my sister that I was taking the course she asked with what professor. So I told her I was taking it with McNair and she said that she had taken the class but didn’t take any more classes with him because it was way too much work for her to do. I knew that I would love it after the first couple of classes so I stuck around. The fact is, I love a challenge. Honestly, this had been the first time in a very long time that I had felt like I was being challenged in the classroom. The first time in a while that I knew that I had to stay on top of my work because the professor was no walk in the park. By all means I mean no disrespect about that statement. My favorite teachers were always the ones who would assign work that had meaning. Not to assign work for the sake of assigning work. I had two teachers like this previously. One was Kathleen Serio who I had as an English teacher for grades six through eight because I was in the gifted program. She allowed me to discover my love for English. Not to mention that she had also taught two of my older brothers. We were reading books that were not meant for our grade and she coached us to our understanding of the material learned. Kind of like what Prof. McNair does in the classroom discussions. The second teacher that I had that made a great impression in the book of my life was Dr. Nerry Louis. She was my twelfth grade honors English teacher. The class revolved around literature and was interesting at all times to say the very least. Nerry had a reputation amongst the students to be the hardest English teach at my high school. If you earned a C in Ms. Louis’ class, you know that you would have warned an A in any other teacher’s class. She was that tough but I enjoyed it. She was a no nonsense type of teacher who still allowed room for her students to get comfortable. Now I have Prof. McNair to add to my list of favorite teachers. Favorite educators. They are a part of the reason I actually decided to become an English teacher. I want to be able to impact the lives of my students the same way that Prof McNair, Dr. Louis, and Ms. Serio had done in mine. I would also implement some of their teaching strategies that I’ve learned while being their student.
'Oooowwwwwwwwwww"

Reflection 1: New Inventions Impacting the Brain

The material that was required to read for this reflection gives insight to how the human brain developed and broadened with knowledge. With the discovery of fire the prehistoric humans were able to do many things like cook food, scare off wild animals and ultimately became the hunter instead of the hunted. With this change in the food chain, the humans were able to change their diet and add cooked meat to their diet. This change also affected their brains. The result was a growth in the physical part of the brain as well as cognitively. The meat in their diet caused this change. Being a pre-teaching intern, we are asked to read this kind of material because it helps us to more or less understand how the brain works. With the new information learned, the brain grew in size because it changed the way things had to be learned. Having gained this knowledge on the brain, it helps educators learn what they too will be affecting. Educators will also change the way a person’s brain is by teaching that person.. With the new information, the person will therefore go forward with a new insight on things as well as a brain that grew a little more because of the knowledge. Thus after the prehistoric human managed the use of fire, this lead to other changes including the invention of other things such as writing and the wheel. With the both the invention of the wheel and the invention of writing, the mind grew more and more. With this growth, humans were able to think more and also develop better communication skills. At every part in history where a drastic change affected humans, they gained more knowledge and through natural selection the unnecessary bygones were weeded out and then passed on to the future generation or modern humans are the by-products of a lot of growing of the brain and changes in the everyday life of people. As it is to this day, a child growing in modern times has the know how of any average adult on the latest technology because they are born in the technological era it isn’t hard for them to catch on to the new things that are made. This isn’t the same for the older adult who was used to having minimal uses for technology. I’m almost sure that the expansion of our brains will continue to increase because we are inventing new things each day to assist with our everyday lives. Meaning that in the next hundred years or so, humans may undergo another change in life that will expand the capacity of the brain and allow for an even easier and more comfortable way of living that won’t be strange to anyone.



'Oooowwwwwwwwwww"