Honors Program
I enrolled in the Honors Program under Dr. Peter Staffel in the fall of 2010. In this program, I was required to take four honors seminars, complete two mentorings with other professors, and complete and present an honors senior project. I also had the opportunity to attend several enrichments with the Honors Program and College. We visited several Pittsburgh museums and attended a variety of different plays in both Pittsburgh and Wheeling.
Seminars
I took my first seminar in the spring of 2011, and it was called Unplugged. In this class, we investigated and explored the way that technology affects aspects of our daily life, from nature to love to friendship to childhood to family to food. I completed a project involving surveying students about their family relationships and technology use to see what types of correlation existed.
I next enrolled in a seminar on the uses and history of the graphic novel, in which we learned about the design elements of comic books, discovering their roots in silent films and wood carvings, and explored many of the common graphic novels and comic books today, including well known superheros and other books like Watchmen and Maus. In this seminar, I completed a research project on the use of comic books in the classroom setting because I found it so fascinating.
My third seminar was science related and was an exploration of venomous animals. We learned about the various species of venomous animals and discussed their living habits and toxicity. We went out into the woods to discover creatures right in our own backyard, and I wrote a complete pre-teen level workbook about all the venomous animals study, complete with descriptions, pictures, and activities.
My last seminar was about sociolinguistics and how language varies depending on the speakers. We explored how people from different geographical locations, professions, and genders speak differently. For this class, I completed an action research project in which I analyzed how different math students responded to questions to determine the best ways to teach students at different levels and of different genders based on the way in which they themselves talked about math.
Mentorings
For my two mentorings, I worked alongside two different female faculty members. I first worked with a professor in the math department to learn about math anxiety and its symptoms and solutions. In this mentoring, we discussed a series of articles others had published on the topic, and my findings were written into a paper I was writing for an English class. My second mentoring was completed during my senior year; I worked with a nursing professor to produce a short handbook of what to do during medical situations and emergencies in the classroom. I created simple reference sheets for major situations, such as pink eye, burns, appendicitis, siezures, and diabetes that I can store in my future classroom for reference.
Senior Project
My senior project was a series of workshops I piloted called "Becoming an iTeacher." These were a series of free workshops offered to students and faculty where they could learn the many ways to utilize iPads within a classroom setting. More details of this project are included on the "iTeacher Workshops" tab at the top of this page.
Seminars
I took my first seminar in the spring of 2011, and it was called Unplugged. In this class, we investigated and explored the way that technology affects aspects of our daily life, from nature to love to friendship to childhood to family to food. I completed a project involving surveying students about their family relationships and technology use to see what types of correlation existed.
I next enrolled in a seminar on the uses and history of the graphic novel, in which we learned about the design elements of comic books, discovering their roots in silent films and wood carvings, and explored many of the common graphic novels and comic books today, including well known superheros and other books like Watchmen and Maus. In this seminar, I completed a research project on the use of comic books in the classroom setting because I found it so fascinating.
My third seminar was science related and was an exploration of venomous animals. We learned about the various species of venomous animals and discussed their living habits and toxicity. We went out into the woods to discover creatures right in our own backyard, and I wrote a complete pre-teen level workbook about all the venomous animals study, complete with descriptions, pictures, and activities.
My last seminar was about sociolinguistics and how language varies depending on the speakers. We explored how people from different geographical locations, professions, and genders speak differently. For this class, I completed an action research project in which I analyzed how different math students responded to questions to determine the best ways to teach students at different levels and of different genders based on the way in which they themselves talked about math.
Mentorings
For my two mentorings, I worked alongside two different female faculty members. I first worked with a professor in the math department to learn about math anxiety and its symptoms and solutions. In this mentoring, we discussed a series of articles others had published on the topic, and my findings were written into a paper I was writing for an English class. My second mentoring was completed during my senior year; I worked with a nursing professor to produce a short handbook of what to do during medical situations and emergencies in the classroom. I created simple reference sheets for major situations, such as pink eye, burns, appendicitis, siezures, and diabetes that I can store in my future classroom for reference.
Senior Project
My senior project was a series of workshops I piloted called "Becoming an iTeacher." These were a series of free workshops offered to students and faculty where they could learn the many ways to utilize iPads within a classroom setting. More details of this project are included on the "iTeacher Workshops" tab at the top of this page.