My GRE Experience

I just got home from taking the GRE less than an hour ago. Although I am feeling completely overwhelmed by anything that involves thinking, I thought this would be good to do since this is fresh on my mind.

In case you don't know about it,  this is the Graduate Record Exam description from the official site:

Graduate programs and business schools use GRE® scores to evaluate your readiness for graduate-level work. The GRE General Test measures verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills that are not related to any specific field of study.

• Analytical Writing — Measures critical thinking and analytical writing skills, specifically the test taker's ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and effectively
• Verbal Reasoning — Measures reading comprehension skills and verbal and analogical reasoning skills, focusing on the test taker's ability to analyze and evaluate written material
• Quantitative Reasoning — Measures problem-solving ability, focusing on basic concepts of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and data analysis

So yeah, this is what I did today. I applied to Florida State University last week- to the college of Education. FSU Panama City is going to have an Elementary Ed Master's program on Chipola's campus starting June 2011. It fits in perfectly with my working schedule. Anywho, this being my reason behind taking the GRE.

I registered roughly three months ago thinking that I would have plenty of time to study in order to get a really good score. I did not realize when I registered that this was the same week as finals for all of my undergraduate work. Not smart. Needless to say I did less than 5 hours TOTAL study time for the GRE. The program that I applied for requires a score of 800 and I was ecstatic when I saw at the end of the exam that I scored a 920. If I ever want to do doctoral work (which I do) I will, regretfully, have to take it again and score a minimum of 1000.

The testing experience in itself could have gone a lot smoother. I seriously think that I have testing anxiety, I was hardly able to process thoughts over my heartbeat for about the first 30 minutes of the test. Seeing that there are five sections to the exam, I was totally brain fried when I walked out of the building. You know the feeling that you get when you spin around and around and then try to walk? I felt like that walking out of the Prometric building. I immediately called my dad to tell him my score (he is another motivation behind a lot of this) and felt better as soon as I heard his voice. It was really over. I don't have to take it again... for at least another two years.

If you are interested in taking the GRE, be sure to check out your local college or public library for practice books. The main one I used was from Kaplan and I HIGHLY recommend it. It comes with a CD that offers a multitude of practice tests and great stradegies.

That's all for now. I will be spending my Christmas break getting ready for my internship, which starts January 5th. I am SOOOO excited!!!

-Mack

You learn something new everyday...

Fun fact for the day: the ony place EVER where no air is present is in a vacume cleaner.... maybe. 


I had NO IDEA!!! I don't why this surprised me so much. Even in space there is air, is it just composed differently.


In Dr. Cuccio's Teaching Elementary Science class, we did this Science demonstration where Casey was placed inside a heavy duty trash bag. Dr. Cuccio then placed the hose of the vacume cleaner and sucked all of the air out of the bag until it was tightly formed around Casey's body (Picture 1).

Picture 1

I am still not 100% positive on what all this demonstration was exactly showing. I was at a family lunch today and was telling everyone about it. Amanda, my future **whitty and smart** cousin-in-law asked "well, if there is no air in the vacume, whats in it?" and I was stumped. I honestly don't know. Which got me thinking, it is not the vacume in itself that is the object without air- rather the result of the vacume on a certain type of subject matter (body inside of a trash bag). See, the demonstration resulted with us looking at the absence of air around embryo Casey inside the bag (Picture 2). Not the vacume cleaner itself.  Monday I will be asking Dr. Cuccio about this.

Picture 2



If anything this demonstration showed me how much more there is for me to learn. This is such a small concept/ fact -the presence of air everywhere- but there is SOOOO MUCH science behind it. I know I will aquire more knowledge as the years pass, but there better be more awesome demonstrations along the way! This was deff a fun day in class. Dr. Cuccio says that our jobs as *EFFECTIVE* science teachers should not be to simply pass tid bits of knowledge onto our students, but rather to get them curious about things. To get them questioning. That will last.

Well I am definitely curious. Let me know if you have any opinons on this idea, science, demontrations or anything.

Ta-Ta for now!

-Mack

Meet my Education Sista of the week: Jessica Griffin Hodge

So I am going to start featuring a Education Sista of the week. They are all girls from my college elementary education program. Each of them have a special place in my heart- I will ALWAYS remember them. We are really spread out over the countys in the surrounding area, so after we graduate I won't be seeing them much and I thought this would be a neat way to go back and reminiss. I am a cheese-ball, I know- but "I 'yam what I 'yam"-Popeye

Disclaimer: this is totally at random (they know that)... I love each sista the same


Alrighty.... so the first Education Sista of the week goes tooooo............. JESSICA GRIFFIN HODGE!

Team work :D

I love me some Jess. She recently married a young lad who is a awesome youth pastor. She seriously knows what it's like to have a busy schedule! When she is not at school going to class, she is working in the admissions building. She also works at the local Pigley Wigley AND helps her hubby run the youth program at her church. As if being an education student isn't enough with all the tasks and projects due, there have been multiple times where she has come to me and asked my opinon about a subject that she was preparing to speak on that night. Needless to say, this girl is da bomb!!

Questions for Jess:

1. Your favorite part about Chipola's program:
-I like that many of the teachers are so helpful and offer many resources for us that can be used in our classroom.

2. What grade you are wanting to teach?
-I'm not for sure but during observations I have really enjoyed 2nd grade
3. A fun or serious random fact about yourself
-I love taking pictures, I get embarrassed easily, and to be the most organized person in the world, i'm the most disorganized.
4. A one word answer to this question: pen or pencil
PEN!!!
5. Favorite subject
Spelling :)
6. Favorite quote
"Live well, laugh often, love much"
7. If you are going to have a class theme, name, mascott or pet and what it is.....
I definitely want to have a class theme just not sure what yet and if I ever have a class pet it will probably be a fish.

Also, I am so thankful for all the girls that have been in the program with me and know that without all their support and encouragement, I really could not have made it:)

Jess and Ryan on their wedding day <3

Ta-ta for now!

-Mack

First blog ever... here we go!

Howdy there!
Thanks so much for stopping by... chances are you are a good friend of mine coming to support me or you randomly stumbled upon my blog- either way thank-you very much for sharing this momentous occation with me: my very first blog!  :P  I have been wanting to start a blog for some time now, as it is somewhat becomming quite popular amoug friends and family members, so I am pretty excited about this. I am kind of also going to use this as a journal for myself to see how far I will (hopefully) come within these next few months with my outlooks on education and life.

Right now I am in my 2nd to last semester of college as an Elementary Education student. I LOVE SCHOOL!!!! Seriously. This is a new sensation for me, as I always seemed to struggle throughout my K-12 years... (4th grade F in spelling on my report card will always haunt me)... but the ladies that I am proud to call my "education sistas" are fanomal and the teachers are great. I truly believe God had His hand on my life when he lead me into the education field. It was a spur of the moment decision after finding out classes at Santa Fe College were not offered for my nursing major, but I couldn't be any happier.

My plans as of now is to dominate (ohhhh yeah!!!) my internship which starts in the Spring... to try to be the best that I can be and try my hardest. I am scheduled to take the GRE on December 17th... super nervous about it. If all goes well with that, then I want to pursue a Masters in Elementary Ed on Chipola's campus and one day maybe a doctorate.

I am estatic about eduaction in general. I enjoy talking about, even though my "file folder" is pretty slim. If you are a teacher of any sort, a just a wise person with great insight... please feel free anytime to give suggestions and opinons! Really, pleeeease. As Harry Wong says, "Good teachers beg, borrow and steal!"

Well, I am off for now. This was really fun and kind of relaxing! Tomorrow I am giving two assessments at Grand Ridge, one with a 1st grader (an IRI) and one with a 6th grader (San Diego Quick Reading Assessment) so I should get some shut eye! Last night was a sleepless night staying up late to work on lesson plans.

Ta-ta for now!
-Mack