Blog Post #1

About Me 

My name is Rachel Lee McGuff. I am 20 years old. I have lived in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, my whole life and I love it. It’s a small fishing community in south Mobile. I graduated from Bryant High School in 2010.  I have a big family. I am the 7^th of 8 children, and I have the best parents. I love my big family! I wouldn’t have it any other way. My boyfriend’s name is Cory. We have been together for over 3 years now. We have been through so much with each other and I look forward to our future together. I’m an Auburn football fan. War Eagle! I attend a small church in our town and am a Christian. I believe in Jesus wholeheartedly and thank God every day for all of my blessings.  I only really have one talent and that is archery. I started shooting my freshman year of high school and, in my junior year, won the top female shooter in the whole state of Alabama! My other hobbies don’t consist of much. I like to read and write, and hang out with my friends and family.

A bigger part of who I am right now involves my sister, Sarah. She attended the University of South Alabama, also majoring in education. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, and was the absolute sweetest and caring person I have ever known. In my senior year of high school my whole world changed. She was involved in an awful car wreck that claimed her life. Since then, I have grown and matured, and learned to be the person she would want me to be. I do my best to love life and to never take it for granted. I work hard at my job and at school, and to do the best I can. I believe she would be proud of me.

This is my 2^nd semester at the University of South Alabama. I completed my first 2 years of school at Faulkner State Community College.  I am majoring in Secondary Education: Social Science. I guess you could say teaching runs in my family. This year is my mother’s 25^th year in the Mobile County Public School System. She taught English for 20 years, and has spent the last 5 as a media specialist. My brother is a history teacher, my sister-in-law is an English teacher, and my cousin is an elementary school teacher. It’s something I’m very passionate about. I want to touch lives and be the kind of teacher kids can really learn from and connect with. I want to be the teacher that students look forward to seeing every day.  

Me in the Classroom  

 I plan on using many methods in my teaching, and that way it’s always something different. I remember being in high school and watching power point presentation after power point presentation and wondering if there were people who actually died of boredom. I plan on mixing it up a bit. I plan on using many different resources and tools. My goal is to teach 8^th grade history. I think 8^th grade would just be the best : not too young, but not too old either. They are in their “in-betweens”. I think it’s important for them to not have to just go in another boring class where they stare at the wall for an hour. I want them to learn. I want to see interest and amazement. I want to be the one to prepare them for high school.
 

 I want to make my classroom lively. I want posters to cover the walls and I want to fill it with the students work. To make it something that, not just I, but they can be proud of as well. Projects are important to me! They were the basis of my learning in middle school. It taught me to remember the people of the past and what they did and accomplished. It taught me about myself, and how perseverance and determination can pay off. I want to give weekly small projects on the area of interest, and let the students find out how much they can do with their brains.

 I would give a different student each week an assignment to become a historical figure and introduce themselves to the class. I want to have movie days. Once a month watch a history movie in the area of study and give popcorn and drinks to the students, granted I had their participation and good behavior. School should be a fun, learning environment for students and teachers. There are so many different things and activities that are available I see no reason for a child to have, as Dr. Strange says, “a burpback education”. 

Randy Pausch on Time Management  

It’s amazing what you can learn in a short 4 minutes. Robert Pausch said some very enlightening things about time management. My favorite quote and the one that will probably help me the most is, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” It makes complete sense, and is something I take to heart. Another thing I liked that he said is, "Do the ugliest thing first." If you did the worst thing on your list first, seems to me you would be more likely to get the most stuff done and have a better time doing it. After I watched his video on time management, I "googled" him and found out that he was an astounding professor at the University of Virginia, and he was involved with many different projects involving Adobe and Walt Disney engineering. He was also known to be a very loving husband and father. He sadly lost his fight with pancreatic cancer in July of 2008.