Blog Post 1

Upon entering EDM310, I was (and still kind of am) nervous. I have been told by numerous people that this will be the most challenging education course I have to take. These same sources say that the material is not hard to understand, it just takes a lot of time to learn and do it. These claims made me quite apprehensive about entering this class. I have never been in a class where most of my learning will be done through self-teaching. I purposefully took this class by itself in the summer so I would have no other classes to distract me from the work load this class requires.

EDM310, as I stated earlier, is much different from all other classes I have had before. Many teachers teach materials that are just memorized, spit out on tests, and then forgotten once the test is over. This class is quite the opposite. Dr. Strange considers himself more of a coach because he doesn't feel like the title of "teacher" truly describes his methods of teaching. I fully appreciate this because I have found that I relate better to "teachers" who encourage me to find out how to do things on my own and who guide me in the right direction without fully telling me the answer. This class is also different from other classes I have taken because of it's project/group based learning. We learn all we need to know for each unit by doing different projects and activities that help us learn what we will be needing to post in our blog for that unit. I find this "hands on" learning a lot easier because I can actually see myself doing what it is I need to know how to do.

I believe the most difficult thing for me in EDM310 will be the strict time management this class requires. I always start the semester off strong as far as time management goes, but as the semester goes on I begin to slack and do assignments last minute. I am aware that that type of behavior is not an option in this class if I am to pass this class with the grade I want (an A). I have already began addressing this difficult aspect by printing off the Checklist that has all of our assignments and their due dates. Each time I complete something, I put a check mark by it so I know which ones I still need to complete when it comes close to their due dates. As this class progresses, I'm sure I will establish more ways to manage my time and workload for this class.

With this being just the first week of class, I have yet to come up with any questions that I feel need to be answered. I'm positive that will change as the semester goes on, though.