Course Contract

Throughout most of my educational experience the only goals I ever really had were to merely pass the class if it was difficult for me and get an A if it was easy for me. I guess this class is going to require a bit more from me. So my goals are to (1) find something of value out of each class, and (2) not merely get through the class but learn from the class. Hopefully by the end of the semester I will have learned things each class period that can help me grow as an educator, and I will have grown myself by truly learning, rather than just retaining information to later regurgitate it up on a test.

I have the feeling this class is going to take a lot of my time, so it probably is a good thing to have to write down a weekly preparation plan. I'll start with Tuesday since this is the day class is held. Tuesdays are extremely long days from me, going to classes from 8 to 4, so I'll need to be sure I eat well and get enough rest so that I'm not falling asleep in class. Paying close attention in class and considering how these theories/concepts will help me outside of class will help me to achieve my first goal. Wednesday nights will be the best time for me to review what was learned in class the previous day and to schedule out the rest of my studying for the week. I'll save Thursdays and Fridays for studying, not merely mindlessly reading, the chapters or assigned readings. Saturdays will be the day to work on any assignments. Sunday I'm resting from all of it; I'm sure I'll need a day to recuperate from the previous week. And finally, Monday I'll spend making sure I understand the material and have everything prepared for the next class.

The study strategy that I feel works best for me is note taking, taking notes during class and taking notes while I'm reading the chapters. I'm pretty good at retaining information that I write down, so this works well for me. An interesting concept that was brought up in class was to connect new information to old information; this helps to put it to long-term memory, I believe was the idea behind it. I'll work on finding connects with the new information that I'm given.

To be perfectly honest I hate speaking in front of people, so as ridiculous as this sounds (I'm aware it sounds ridiculous) I'd rather bite off my arm than raise it to ask a question about something I don't understand. I'll work on that. In the mean time I'll probably stick to looking up information after class, or getting in touch with you if I really don't understand something.

Finally, I will reach my goals in this course by staying motivated to learn, attending every class, completing all readings and assignments and-I think most importantly-keeping my goals in mind.