Blog Assignment #1

A bit about me:

Hi fellow EDM310 students! My name is Bonnie Gaudet. I was born in Mobile, Alabama but spent the first 11 years of my life living on a State Park in Gautier, Mississippi. My mom was the Park Manager at Shepard State Park before I was born, and she held that title until my grandmother became ill and we moved back to Mobile in 1998.

With my husband, Easter 2011

I have been married for a little over a year and a half to my wonderful hubby, Chris. We were married on December 12, 2009 here in Mobile. We have no actual children as of yet, but we have two dogs that we adore and treat like humans. We also have two precious nieces (Felicity and EveMarie), who we love to spoil.

As far as interests go, I love spending time with Chris and our two dogs, as well as friends and family. I enjoy cooking (though I have learned that baking is NOT my forte!) and I'm always looking for some new recipe to try. I have an unhealthy obsession with the Zillow app on my iPhone. I don't understand it, but I love looking at pictures of houses and seeing the different architectural aspects of them and how they are decorated. I joke that when I retire from teaching I will go back and get my real estate license just to see all these different houses!

Our dogs, Sadie and Scooter

I have ended up at USA because I wanted to be near my family while getting my education. I have several friends (including my sister-in-law) who have gone through the College of Education. I have chosen to major in Elementary Education because I love to learn, and I want to instill that passion in children. I have had three teachers in particular who have greatly influenced my decision to become a teacher and I want to have that sort of impact on someone else.

I get on a soap box about people who decide to major in Education because "they heard it was the EASY major" and haven't been able to excel in anything else. Grammar and spelling mistakes are also a HUGE pet peeve of mine. SO many people in this area have a tendency to "was" when they should use "were" and "seen" where "saw" should be. It makes me cringe! I am determined to work on fixing this problem early!

As far as this class goes, I am very excited about it. I have a bit of blogging experience from the past and I think that will work to my advantage in this class. I think this class is going to be challenging, but I'm always up for a good challenge. I don't feel like it's going to be as scary as it seems. It's just going to take getting used to being the one who has to take the initiative and run with it, as compared to being force fed facts and information. I can't wait to see everyone's projects.

What I learned from Dr. Pausch:

I enjoyed Dr. Pausch's video tremendously! He said several things that really hit home with me. I like to pretend that I don't have a problem with time management, but I know that I waste a lot of time doing unnecessary things.

I tend to get intimidated when I make to-do lists and overthink how long it will take me to get something accomplished. Then, I get worked up about more complex tasks and put them off until the last minute. Dr. Pausch suggests to "do the ugliest thing first." In particular, I think I could benefit from taking this advice.

I also tend to be a perfectionist, and want to get everything just right before moving on to another task. For this, Dr. Pausch talks about doing things RIGHT vs. doing the right THING. He says, "Doing the right things adequately is much more important than doing the wrong things beautifully." This will also be helpful!

I think that the most important thing I got from Dr. Pausch's lecture is to keep in mind that, "If things aren't going well, it probably means you are learning a lot and it will go better later." This is VERY important for me to remember, because I tend to get discouraged and develop a mental block against getting anything accomplished if everything is not going just like I think it should.

Penn State's Pages:

The links from Penn State also gave very good tips on alloting time appropriately. I found the tool that calculated how many extra hours you had after you completed required activities helpful.