All posts by Rebecca Istre

Introduction to the Teaching Profession

Going into this class, I already had an idea on what it would be like. I had a feeling that this class would parallel the class I took in high school. In some aspects I was correct, but others I was not.  The class in itself came easy to me, like I had been doing the material forever, but I had come to realize that this was the moment that begun my shift from teaching in a classroom to teaching in a public setting. I wanted to teach and help children learn the importance of our history, but I did not want to confine myself to a classroom.  With that being said, in the back of my mind this thought lingered. It was not until next semester that I did the switch to have a concentration in public history.

Principles of Macroeconomics

Upon entering this course, I expected it to be similar to the Microeconomics course I had taken a semester prior. As I make it well-known, I am not an economics major or minor. I could honestly not care for any part of the class material, but one thing I can say is that I was surprised in how well I received the information and noticed a shift in my interest in class. Granted, I still and will not expand any further than I had to on the subject involving math, but I can appreciate the topic a lot more than I did my Freshman year of college. With that being said all the course work presented was through quizzes on canvas, therefore I cannot upload my test scores, however I will leave you with a quote from an economist, Thomas Sowell, to leave you with.

“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”

Choral Ensemble- Chamber Singers

In high school, I had to stop taking choir due to not having time for it. When I came to college, I was happy to find out that I could participate in something, I used to love, again. I could tell during my first week that I would enjoy my time in this choir and have a nice break from all the stress of my other courses. As a whole, we got to do many things and perform a lot more than I was anticipating for a choir that got together twice a week, for sixteen weeks. It was a lot more quick paced than I was used to, but in the style that it was taught, we could easily remember our music. If not, we could use our paper copies, which was not something I was used to. For our final, we had to recite our last big performance and discuss the music we studied. Although I do not have room for it next Fall (2019), I would gladly take it again when there was some room in my schedule.

Honors: Human Growth and Development

Studying this course, it was similar to psychology, but it focused more on the development aspect. As an honors course, I expected a lot of work and more responsibility, and I was not disappointed. Over the course of the semester, there were many projects and presentations. The one above focused on individual ideas and how they respond to what we had learned in the class. The course brought to light how much development correlates to becoming future educators and how to respond to it. As an educator, it is important to understand your students and how to address and get through to them. Overall, I did enjoy the course, no matter how much it stressed me out sometimes. They say that this course could change your ideas on being a teacher, and I firmly believe that this was true. However, it made my decision more clear in my future as a teacher.

Introduction to Psychology

From taking psychology in high school, I figured a lot of the information would parallel with each other. Some of the information did, but most of the information was completely new. I spent a lot of time studying for this class due to the abundance of information I had to remember. Before every test, I would study hours on end with my peers to hopefully pass the exam. This course was one of the most difficult courses that I had ever taken. The Professor of this course did his best to keep it interesting and explain it well, but I struggled for some of it to understand what he wanted and what the information was. I think my favorite part of this course was participating in the seniors’ studies for their graduation requirement. If you like psychology, I do recommend the class, just be aware that it will not be an easy A.

Principles of Microeconomics

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When I was signing up for classes, I was not thrilled that this was one I had to take. I chose to be a history teacher to avoid all things math. However, I would have to take it at some point in my college career, so I chose to get it out the way. My Professor that taught it was trained for people like me. She made it easy to walk through the lectures and made everything easily accessible for those who needed extra help or visit the topic again. There were many assignments and homework to do that made the class tedious, but it was all worth it in the end for many opportunities to boost your grade in the class. Although not my favorite topic, it was made somewhat easy to get through and get it done. Lots of effort had to be put into it in order to pass, but if you did the time, you could pass the class.

US History: Colonial Period-1877

When beginning this course, I had a good idea about how it would go. From taking the other section first, I figured it would be the same style, just different information. As I concluded, I was pretty much spot on. However, there was less written assignments and none that I needed to present for class, which was nice. We focused on a semester-long assignment about an article analysis, which was not my favorite thing, but it was not as bad as expected. We were almost coached through the whole thing and had time to discuss the assignment with peers. The assignment above was my final copy, which I scored pretty high on. All in all, if you did your work and study, the class was forgiving. If you did not, it held no mercy.

US History: 1877-Modern Times

When starting college, I was not expecting to be assigned a group project. I assumed it would all be individual work. The experience was something typical. We got together and discussed each person’s role in the project. The meeting went well, but reliability was lacking in a few members of the project. All things considered, we got it done and was graded based on our own work. This project was a good set up for how the class would go, we would collaborate together on somethings, but was graded based on our impact. It was a great way to set up what the college experience was going to be. There will be times where you have to rely on others, but college is what you make it. Only you can progress towards your future.

Sociology in Practice

Before this class, I had never heard of sociology. Once I heard some of the elements of sociology, it made me think of psychology. Already I was interested in understanding why people do what they do. Sociology is so important to understanding individuals and traditions of cultures and society. Over the course of the semester, we were assigned to do these reading journals to answer questions about an academic article revolving around sociology. The first one I analyzed was along with the topic of gender. It opened my eyes to things I had noticed by myself but did not have a word for. It gave me a clearer idea to concepts of society and culture, by explaining why this happens. This is important to understanding people and I fully believe it should be recommended to others to learn about the topic.

Honors: Music Appreciation

When I noticed I was signed up for a music class, I was fairly excited about it. I loved classical music and so I was looking forward to the course. When taking this course, I found that it was my least stressful class. I found that over time, my understanding of classical music deepened and I enjoy the music not just for the sound it makes, but the elements that make up the pieces. Our final assignment for the class was to come up with how classical music coincides with our future careers and likes. Which is why my assignment was on composers who served during War World II. I enjoyed looking up another side of our history. History is much more than words passed down from generation to generation. It influences our everyday beings in more ways than one.