Mr. Patty's Blog
My Deep Map Legend
I decided to use a guitar as the centerpiece of my deep map.
I chose a guitar because it says a lot about who I am as a person. I love
playing guitar as well as several other instruments and music is one of my
biggest passions in life. I think that playing music and more specifically,
performing relates to teaching in a lot of ways. Teaching is a lot like
performing, but if you’re just standing in front of people and making a bunch of
meaningless noise, you’ll never connect with your audience. The best kind of
performances are ones that cause the audience be invested in the performance. A
song that is performed needs to be relatable to the lives of the audience and
the best kind of performers know that when you get the audience involved in the
song through clapping, singing ext., those are the best kinds of performances
and the most meaningful. I believe that teaching is the same way, you have to
make the material relevant to the students’ lives and you have to get the
students involved in the lesson.
Inside the center of the guitar, you'll see a larger person standing in
front of smaller people. The larger person represents me as a teacher and the
smaller people represent my students. My students are all different colors to
represent the diversity that I expect to see in my classroom. I’m a different
color from my students to signify that I’m not going to be the same as my
students. However, they are all drawn in the same way as stick people to show
that they are all people, no matter how different they may seem and each student
shares basic needs that all people have including the need for attention,
compassion, and understanding.
The three stick figures drawn on the pick-guard of the guitar represent
colleagues, administrators, and my students’ guardians. They’re drawn on the
pick-guard because the job of a pick-guard is to protect and look out for the
well-being of the guitar and it is their job to look out for the well-being of
the students. They’re also drawn in different colors and located in a different
area because I understand that their opinions will be different from mine and
they will try to help the students in different ways from me, but it’s the duty
of all of us to work together to provide the very best for the students.
I wrote the letters “MSU” next to the tuning pegs of the guitar because I
think that it represents where I currently am as a teacher. I’m at Missouri
State University and just as the tuning pegs are adjusting the guitar and
helping it get ready to perform, my professors and colleagues are tuning me up
and preparing me to go out and teach.
Surrounding the guitar is a river and a forest. This represents where I see
myself going as a teacher. The forest doesn’t necessarily represent a
wilderness, but rather a small town or rural area. I was born and raised in a
small town and I really enjoy the familiarity that comes with living in a small
town. I’ve also recognized that there is a strong need for great education in
rural areas and I hope to be a teacher that can give hope to students who may
not be expected to strongly pursue educational goals.
Overall, my deep map displays some of the greatest passions in my life. The
map shows where I believe I currently am as a teacher, where I see myself going,
how I view the people around me, and how I want myself to be.
I chose a guitar because it says a lot about who I am as a person. I love
playing guitar as well as several other instruments and music is one of my
biggest passions in life. I think that playing music and more specifically,
performing relates to teaching in a lot of ways. Teaching is a lot like
performing, but if you’re just standing in front of people and making a bunch of
meaningless noise, you’ll never connect with your audience. The best kind of
performances are ones that cause the audience be invested in the performance. A
song that is performed needs to be relatable to the lives of the audience and
the best kind of performers know that when you get the audience involved in the
song through clapping, singing ext., those are the best kinds of performances
and the most meaningful. I believe that teaching is the same way, you have to
make the material relevant to the students’ lives and you have to get the
students involved in the lesson.
Inside the center of the guitar, you'll see a larger person standing in
front of smaller people. The larger person represents me as a teacher and the
smaller people represent my students. My students are all different colors to
represent the diversity that I expect to see in my classroom. I’m a different
color from my students to signify that I’m not going to be the same as my
students. However, they are all drawn in the same way as stick people to show
that they are all people, no matter how different they may seem and each student
shares basic needs that all people have including the need for attention,
compassion, and understanding.
The three stick figures drawn on the pick-guard of the guitar represent
colleagues, administrators, and my students’ guardians. They’re drawn on the
pick-guard because the job of a pick-guard is to protect and look out for the
well-being of the guitar and it is their job to look out for the well-being of
the students. They’re also drawn in different colors and located in a different
area because I understand that their opinions will be different from mine and
they will try to help the students in different ways from me, but it’s the duty
of all of us to work together to provide the very best for the students.
I wrote the letters “MSU” next to the tuning pegs of the guitar because I
think that it represents where I currently am as a teacher. I’m at Missouri
State University and just as the tuning pegs are adjusting the guitar and
helping it get ready to perform, my professors and colleagues are tuning me up
and preparing me to go out and teach.
Surrounding the guitar is a river and a forest. This represents where I see
myself going as a teacher. The forest doesn’t necessarily represent a
wilderness, but rather a small town or rural area. I was born and raised in a
small town and I really enjoy the familiarity that comes with living in a small
town. I’ve also recognized that there is a strong need for great education in
rural areas and I hope to be a teacher that can give hope to students who may
not be expected to strongly pursue educational goals.
Overall, my deep map displays some of the greatest passions in my life. The
map shows where I believe I currently am as a teacher, where I see myself going,
how I view the people around me, and how I want myself to be.
Practicum Midpoint Update
I started this previous week at just few hours ahead of the midway point for
my ENG 405 practicum and even though it’s a little bit late, I’d like to share
with you a summary of my practicum experience so far. At this point, I can’t
really think of many ways for my experience to be any better. To start off, my
cooperating teacher is absolutely amazing. She extremely kind, intelligent, and
understanding and she’s always happy to answer any questions or concerns I may
have. One of the things I’m really trying to do in my practicums is to pick at
the brains of my cooperating teachers as much as I can without bothering them.
Sports analyzers are always talking about how great it is for rookies to be on
teams with experienced veterans who are willing to share their wisdom with the
younger players. Being a practicum student at Carver Middle School, I feel like
I’m a young rookie who just got drafted and I get to attend Spring Training with
a group of Hall of Fame veterans.
Then there are the students. This semester I’m working with sixth graders and
it’s been a blast. Luckily for me, I’ve been placed at Carver Middle School for
both my ENG 405 practicum and my HST 418 practicum and not only that, both of my
cooperating teachers are in the same team. This has been wonderful for me
because I get to be around the same group of students for two different
practicums and I get to know all of the students a little better.
The first week or so at my practicum, I wasn’t doing much besides observing
and helping struggling students get caught up on work. I was only getting to
work with a few students and most of the other students just saw me as some guy
who sits in on the class. As the weeks have gone by, my cooperating teacher has
gotten me more and more involved with leading the class as a whole. Now I will
lead spelling tests, read passages from The River by Gary Paulsen on a
daily basis, and help explain concepts and give examples to the students on
different topics.
For example, earlier this week, the students were learning about parodies
in class. Their assignment was to write their own parody based on a popular
song or story. I was given the opportunity to share a parody that I had written
at church camp a couple of years ago with the students. The song I wrote was a
parody of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” entitled, “Bacon”. I sang the song to the
class in my best Justin Bieber voice and they all loved it. When I arrived at
the school this morning, my cooperating teacher in HST 418 told me, “The kids
were telling me you wrote a pretty good song about bacon. You outta sing it my
class sometime.” At this point in my practicum, when I walk down the halls and
into the classrooms, I hear “Hey, Mr. Patty!”, “What’s up, Mr. Patty”, and I get
several high-fives and fist-bumps. This is absolutely awesome. Getting to see
that I’m able to connect with the students and to make school an enjoyable
experience for them has been one of the coolest experiences so far.
Last week, I taught a lesson over two fables. I lead a popcorn reading of
the fables, the students worked in groups to answer critical thinking questions
about the lesson, we had a discussion over the essential questions, and the
students wrote letters from the point of view of a character in the lesson. I
thought the lesson went fairly well and the students were able to put a lot of
great information into the lesson. However, by the end of the lesson, it was
hard to keep their attention and it was somewhat difficult to draw responses out
of them. I was told by my cooperating teacher and my supervisor that there’s
not much you can do in that situation because the classes are 90 minutes long
and they’re going to be really tired by the end of the lesson. That’s something
that I’m going to continue to work on because I feel like it’s important for the
them to grasp the whole concept of the lesson because some of the most critical
information was discussed at the end.
Overall, I’m just really thankful for how my practicum experience has gone
so far. Everyday, I leave the classroom feeling excited and confident that I
made the right choice for my career. Seeing students learning and participating
in learning activities is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever witnessed
in my life and I can not wait to have a classroom of my own.
my ENG 405 practicum and even though it’s a little bit late, I’d like to share
with you a summary of my practicum experience so far. At this point, I can’t
really think of many ways for my experience to be any better. To start off, my
cooperating teacher is absolutely amazing. She extremely kind, intelligent, and
understanding and she’s always happy to answer any questions or concerns I may
have. One of the things I’m really trying to do in my practicums is to pick at
the brains of my cooperating teachers as much as I can without bothering them.
Sports analyzers are always talking about how great it is for rookies to be on
teams with experienced veterans who are willing to share their wisdom with the
younger players. Being a practicum student at Carver Middle School, I feel like
I’m a young rookie who just got drafted and I get to attend Spring Training with
a group of Hall of Fame veterans.
Then there are the students. This semester I’m working with sixth graders and
it’s been a blast. Luckily for me, I’ve been placed at Carver Middle School for
both my ENG 405 practicum and my HST 418 practicum and not only that, both of my
cooperating teachers are in the same team. This has been wonderful for me
because I get to be around the same group of students for two different
practicums and I get to know all of the students a little better.
The first week or so at my practicum, I wasn’t doing much besides observing
and helping struggling students get caught up on work. I was only getting to
work with a few students and most of the other students just saw me as some guy
who sits in on the class. As the weeks have gone by, my cooperating teacher has
gotten me more and more involved with leading the class as a whole. Now I will
lead spelling tests, read passages from The River by Gary Paulsen on a
daily basis, and help explain concepts and give examples to the students on
different topics.
For example, earlier this week, the students were learning about parodies
in class. Their assignment was to write their own parody based on a popular
song or story. I was given the opportunity to share a parody that I had written
at church camp a couple of years ago with the students. The song I wrote was a
parody of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” entitled, “Bacon”. I sang the song to the
class in my best Justin Bieber voice and they all loved it. When I arrived at
the school this morning, my cooperating teacher in HST 418 told me, “The kids
were telling me you wrote a pretty good song about bacon. You outta sing it my
class sometime.” At this point in my practicum, when I walk down the halls and
into the classrooms, I hear “Hey, Mr. Patty!”, “What’s up, Mr. Patty”, and I get
several high-fives and fist-bumps. This is absolutely awesome. Getting to see
that I’m able to connect with the students and to make school an enjoyable
experience for them has been one of the coolest experiences so far.
Last week, I taught a lesson over two fables. I lead a popcorn reading of
the fables, the students worked in groups to answer critical thinking questions
about the lesson, we had a discussion over the essential questions, and the
students wrote letters from the point of view of a character in the lesson. I
thought the lesson went fairly well and the students were able to put a lot of
great information into the lesson. However, by the end of the lesson, it was
hard to keep their attention and it was somewhat difficult to draw responses out
of them. I was told by my cooperating teacher and my supervisor that there’s
not much you can do in that situation because the classes are 90 minutes long
and they’re going to be really tired by the end of the lesson. That’s something
that I’m going to continue to work on because I feel like it’s important for the
them to grasp the whole concept of the lesson because some of the most critical
information was discussed at the end.
Overall, I’m just really thankful for how my practicum experience has gone
so far. Everyday, I leave the classroom feeling excited and confident that I
made the right choice for my career. Seeing students learning and participating
in learning activities is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever witnessed
in my life and I can not wait to have a classroom of my own.
Life Soundtrack
Our latest assignment in ENG 405 is our Life Soundtrack. For this assignment, students choose 10 songs that they feel best describe their lives. When these 10 songs are chosen, the students share their songs with classmates and write a reflection on one song that they believe is most important to them or best represents their life. As Dr. English said, when students don't know what to write about, this is a great way for them to find a topic that interests them and that they feel some kind of connection to. The hardest part of this assignment for me is choosing only one song to write about. Personally, I could write an entire book about each song on my list and why each song is important to me. So for my latest blog entry, I'll be telling you about the other songs I've chosen for my life soundtrack that I didn't have the opportunity to write about.
The song I chose to write about for the actual assignment is "Ain't it Enough" by Old Crow Medicine Show. While this song is extremely important to me, I feel that I still need to tell everyone about a few of the other songs on the list. The following are the 10 songs I've chosen as my life soundtrack:
1. "Ain't It Enough"- Old Crow Medicine Show
2. "I Got A Name"- Jim Croce
3. "Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full Of Promise"- The Avett Brothers
4. "Float"- Flogging Molly
5. "Heart Of Gold"- Neil Young
6. "I Hear Them All"- Old Crow Medicine Show
7. "The Once And Future Carpenter"- The Avett Brothers
8. "Blackbird"- The Beatles
9. "Best Of You"- Foo Fighters
10. "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"- Bob Dylan
It's also worth mentioning that several other songs just missed the cut such as "Baba O'Reilly" by The Who, "Old Man" by Neil Young, and "Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall" by Coldplay.
As I mentioned earlier I could write an entire book over each of the songs on this list. While I strongly recommend the following songs for any music listener, for the sake of everyone's time, I'm only going to write about "I Got A Name", "Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full Of Promise", and "Best Of You". These are songs that I all feel that I have a strong connection to and that I feel really some up the way I view the events in my life and the world around me.
"I Got A Name" by Jim Croce is a song that I first heard in Quentin Tarantino's film, Django Unchained. I thought the song sounded amazing the first time I heard it and after the movie, I immediately bought the song on ITunes. The song seems like a very good representation of where I'm at in my life right now. The verses in the song include the recurring lines, "I got a name", "I got a song", and "I got a dream". At this point in my life, I've got an idea of who I am as a person, I have a message I want to deliver to the world, and I have a dream that I'm chasing. My favorite line in the song is "If it gets me nowhere, I'll go there proud." This song is also special to me because shortly after I started listening to it, I found out that it's also one of my dad's favorite songs. When I hear this song, I think about my future and the goal that I'm working for in my life and I also think about my dad and how much we have in common even though it might not always seem like it.
"Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" by The Avett Brothers is a song that I heard for the first time just last year. As I'm about to begin my student teaching next fall, I feel that this song is particularly special to me because it really sums up my feelings about my time in college. The chorus in particular states, "There was a dream and one day I could see it. Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it." I've had a dream throughout my time in college and now I feel like I'm getting closer and closer every day to seeing it and I'm doing what I can to demand that "somebody free it". The chorus continues, "And there was a kid with a head full of doubt so I'll scream 'til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out." I don't think there's a much better description that I could give of myself during my first year and a half of college then "a kid with a head full of doubt". I had so many doubts about myself in college. I doubted what I wanted to with my life, where I wanted to be, and if I was even good enough. I'm not literally going to "scream 'til I die" but I will keep working towards becoming the best teacher I can be and I will keep following my dream until "the last of those bad thought are finally out".
"Best Of You" by Foo Fighters is a song that I've loved ever since the 8th Grade. Of all of the songs I have on the list, it's the song that I've known the longest and I guess you could say, has been with me longer than any of the other songs. When I hear this song, I think of people, events, and times in my life that have come and gone and the emotions and passions I felt during those times. This song has been able to describe the way I've felt about friends that have come and gone and family members who have passed away as well as different events and times in my life such as graduations and weddings. I feel like these people and these times have all gotten the best of me in some way. My favorite line in the song is the bridge which states, "Has someone taken your faith? It's real. The pain you feel. The life, the love, you've got to heal. The hope that starts, the broken hearts. Your trust, you must confess.....is someone getting the best of you?". I think this part really describes all of the feelings and all of the attitudes you can have towards a person or a time in your life.
Another thing that makes "Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" and "Best Of You" significant is that I've heard their respective artists play each song live. I think there's definitely something special about seeing an artist perform a song live because you can have a first hand view of how the song seems to affect the artist personally. It's hard to explain, but having written the song, the artist has a passion for the song that no one else can understand and seeing the artist's passion creates a sense of energy and connection between the performer and the listener that is truly remarkable. When I went to a Foo Fighters concert in Memphis in 2011, singer, Dave Grohl came out with just his acoustic guitar for an encore. I was sitting in section 307 B of the FedEx Forum and I was pretty far away and up pretty high so I couldn't see the concert that well. Connected to the stage was a cat walk and at the end of the cat-walk was a platform. Grohl stood on the platform and it elevated just high enough for me to have a clear view of the singer. Before he played "Best Of You", he pointed at my section and said, "Section 307 B, thanks for coming out tonight. There's no (lousy) seats at a Foo Fighters concert." I then sang along with Grohl and the entire FedEx Forum as he played, "Best Of You".
As you may have been able to tell, my favorite songs are very important to me and something that I really enjoy writing about. I think this assignment is something that students will enjoy and will cause them to become excited about writing. This is also a great way for the teacher to really get to know students and to know how they view themselves and the world around them. I think assignments like these are going to help students look forward to going to school and will create an overall, positive school environment.
The song I chose to write about for the actual assignment is "Ain't it Enough" by Old Crow Medicine Show. While this song is extremely important to me, I feel that I still need to tell everyone about a few of the other songs on the list. The following are the 10 songs I've chosen as my life soundtrack:
1. "Ain't It Enough"- Old Crow Medicine Show
2. "I Got A Name"- Jim Croce
3. "Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full Of Promise"- The Avett Brothers
4. "Float"- Flogging Molly
5. "Heart Of Gold"- Neil Young
6. "I Hear Them All"- Old Crow Medicine Show
7. "The Once And Future Carpenter"- The Avett Brothers
8. "Blackbird"- The Beatles
9. "Best Of You"- Foo Fighters
10. "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"- Bob Dylan
It's also worth mentioning that several other songs just missed the cut such as "Baba O'Reilly" by The Who, "Old Man" by Neil Young, and "Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall" by Coldplay.
As I mentioned earlier I could write an entire book over each of the songs on this list. While I strongly recommend the following songs for any music listener, for the sake of everyone's time, I'm only going to write about "I Got A Name", "Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full Of Promise", and "Best Of You". These are songs that I all feel that I have a strong connection to and that I feel really some up the way I view the events in my life and the world around me.
"I Got A Name" by Jim Croce is a song that I first heard in Quentin Tarantino's film, Django Unchained. I thought the song sounded amazing the first time I heard it and after the movie, I immediately bought the song on ITunes. The song seems like a very good representation of where I'm at in my life right now. The verses in the song include the recurring lines, "I got a name", "I got a song", and "I got a dream". At this point in my life, I've got an idea of who I am as a person, I have a message I want to deliver to the world, and I have a dream that I'm chasing. My favorite line in the song is "If it gets me nowhere, I'll go there proud." This song is also special to me because shortly after I started listening to it, I found out that it's also one of my dad's favorite songs. When I hear this song, I think about my future and the goal that I'm working for in my life and I also think about my dad and how much we have in common even though it might not always seem like it.
"Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" by The Avett Brothers is a song that I heard for the first time just last year. As I'm about to begin my student teaching next fall, I feel that this song is particularly special to me because it really sums up my feelings about my time in college. The chorus in particular states, "There was a dream and one day I could see it. Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it." I've had a dream throughout my time in college and now I feel like I'm getting closer and closer every day to seeing it and I'm doing what I can to demand that "somebody free it". The chorus continues, "And there was a kid with a head full of doubt so I'll scream 'til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out." I don't think there's a much better description that I could give of myself during my first year and a half of college then "a kid with a head full of doubt". I had so many doubts about myself in college. I doubted what I wanted to with my life, where I wanted to be, and if I was even good enough. I'm not literally going to "scream 'til I die" but I will keep working towards becoming the best teacher I can be and I will keep following my dream until "the last of those bad thought are finally out".
"Best Of You" by Foo Fighters is a song that I've loved ever since the 8th Grade. Of all of the songs I have on the list, it's the song that I've known the longest and I guess you could say, has been with me longer than any of the other songs. When I hear this song, I think of people, events, and times in my life that have come and gone and the emotions and passions I felt during those times. This song has been able to describe the way I've felt about friends that have come and gone and family members who have passed away as well as different events and times in my life such as graduations and weddings. I feel like these people and these times have all gotten the best of me in some way. My favorite line in the song is the bridge which states, "Has someone taken your faith? It's real. The pain you feel. The life, the love, you've got to heal. The hope that starts, the broken hearts. Your trust, you must confess.....is someone getting the best of you?". I think this part really describes all of the feelings and all of the attitudes you can have towards a person or a time in your life.
Another thing that makes "Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" and "Best Of You" significant is that I've heard their respective artists play each song live. I think there's definitely something special about seeing an artist perform a song live because you can have a first hand view of how the song seems to affect the artist personally. It's hard to explain, but having written the song, the artist has a passion for the song that no one else can understand and seeing the artist's passion creates a sense of energy and connection between the performer and the listener that is truly remarkable. When I went to a Foo Fighters concert in Memphis in 2011, singer, Dave Grohl came out with just his acoustic guitar for an encore. I was sitting in section 307 B of the FedEx Forum and I was pretty far away and up pretty high so I couldn't see the concert that well. Connected to the stage was a cat walk and at the end of the cat-walk was a platform. Grohl stood on the platform and it elevated just high enough for me to have a clear view of the singer. Before he played "Best Of You", he pointed at my section and said, "Section 307 B, thanks for coming out tonight. There's no (lousy) seats at a Foo Fighters concert." I then sang along with Grohl and the entire FedEx Forum as he played, "Best Of You".
As you may have been able to tell, my favorite songs are very important to me and something that I really enjoy writing about. I think this assignment is something that students will enjoy and will cause them to become excited about writing. This is also a great way for the teacher to really get to know students and to know how they view themselves and the world around them. I think assignments like these are going to help students look forward to going to school and will create an overall, positive school environment.
