Change of Major!

So last Friday, November 13th, I changed my major from homeland security to Pre-Nursing. My intention is now to apply to the VCU School of Nursing for the fall 2010 semester. I am extremely excited/nervous about this change. I've decided that instead of such a high profiled career, I would like to go into the health field and help others. I've always been a people person, and love associating with others, so I feel this is a more appropriate career for myself. Another reason for this change, besides the fact I want to help people, is that I've recently realized that I've always thourougIy enjoyed math and science. It's one of those weird things that you dont realize you like/miss until it's gone. With my homeland security major, I had completed all my math and science requirements last year and this year, they were absent from my schedule. For an average person, this would be great, but for me, I found myself missing the mathmatical equations and scientific thought process. With this sudden switch, I now have a difficult challenge ahead of me. I have to gather all of my academic materials and apply to the nursing school by the beginning of January. Remember the SAT's?? That test you took way back when? Well, I have to request those scores so I can properly submit them to the university. I also have to fill out the application as well as find letters of recommendation. This process seems a little overwhelming for me, but I know I can successfully complete this process and hopefully achieve my goal of beign accepted into the VCU School of Nursing.

"Just let go of the day and have fun."

"Just let go of the day and have fun."

This quote I got from James Phillips- aka "LROC". He is an upcoming rap producer originially from Liberia, who has worked with people such as; lil john, nelly, usher, and mariah carey. He approaches his music in a fun way and it's just a way for him to relax. His melodies are simple and he is influenced by his African roots. I admire his outlook and his quote because you dont hear of too many people today with such a positive view. I like the fact that after a long day he's inspired to work on his music which is his way to "just let go" and "have fun". I am surprised that with all of the success that was mentioned in an interview with CNN that I have not heard of him before. Anyway, I just wanted to share some words that were inspirational to me, and a motto that I hope to repeat to others. =)

CNN link;
From Refugee to Rap Producer http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2009/11/10/i.africa.lroc.refugee.bk.c.cnn

Teacher Update #1

Ms. Linda Jackson had emailed me last week, telling me that she would be fine with me and ginny mentoring her only, as opposed to her spanish classes. I figure this would be more beneficial for her because we can work with her to find some good teaching materials on the web that she can experiment with and use towards her teaching. My goal is that she will become familiar with different technologies such as facebook, twitter, googledocs, wikis, and different data bases,and then because of that, become a better teacher because she would be able to relate to students and the work-world that we are growing up in today. We have not met with her yet, however we plan to very soon.

Teachor Mentoring

So far, my partner and I have not met with our teacher. However, she did email me yesterday explaining that she is excited to listen to our ideas and such on technology. She mentioned that she wanted my partner and I to talk to her high school students as well and help them out with anything they need. I am not really sure how I feel with this proposal, because I'm sure most students in high school know all about the current web 2.0 technologies such as facebook, twitter, podcasts, etc and I feel it may be a waste of time. But, if this is what she desires and if this is what her students actually need, then I have no problem sharing my knowlege. MJ had a great suggestion that I may use, which was to talk to the students about different research tools they can use. I have a few tools that may be helpful for them because just recently I actually had a workshop with a librarian who simplified it for me. So I can be some assistance in that area. I am excited to hear back from Ms. Linda Jackson, so Ginny and I can start "mentoring" :)

iGoogle

Because of my WRLD 203 class that I am taking at VCU, I've been introduced to "iGoogle". iGoogle is basically your personalized google page. You can put anything that you desire on this page including news, weather, photos, etc. You can gather information from anywhere across the web without ever having to leave your iGoogle page, if you design it to fit your needs. I feel that by viewing someone's iGoogle page, you can probably get a decent perspective of that person's interests/personality.

Currently on my iGoogle I have a "gadget" for; weather, blogger, the date and time,nytimes, tvguide.com, newsday.com long island, facebook, gmail, healthy eating tips, my recipes:dinner tonight, sports scores, celebs by access hollywood, music, and filixer movies. With all of these gadgets I can do multiple things without ever leaving igoogle.

You can also tell what my main interests are. For example, you can tell that I am interested in Long Island News by the newsday gadget. This is where I am originally from, and where my family currently lives, so its convenient for me to be updated through iGoogle every time I use the internet. I like to be kept updated with sports scores from my NY teams, so the sports scores gadget is also convenient. The filixer movie gadget is one of my favorites because I am informed on the newest movies to hit theaters. Having facebook on iGoogle is awsome. I can log onto my facebook account through the iGoogle page, or just simply click the link to take me to the facebook homepage. The last gadget I will mention is the blogger gadget. I like this gadget because it allows me post on my blog directly from iGoogle. Not only is it easier for me to do it this way, but having it on my page is a constant reminder that I 'have' to blog for WRLD 203.

In close, I love that I have become introduced to iGoogle. It's extremely convenient for me to have my top web pages and interests all on the one page in front of me. Not only is it convenient, but its also very informative and keeps you up to date with whats going on in our world.

A Cool New course with a Hip New Teacher

My World203 class has a cool professor named Kathryn Murphy-Judy, aka MJ. She's an awsome lady who, for growing up in the hippie generation, is quite engaged in the 21st century. MJ came off as a caring, optimistic, and understanding person. Based off this fact, I could immediately tell that this course was going to be exciting and not another boring lecture course. She explained that World 203 was a course in which we would be looking at global media, and social networking, and how it is affecting us today. I was anxious to start learning more about facebook, and blogging, and to finally learn about twittering and google docs. All of these things have such a tremendous impact on everyone in society including businesses/corporations. So far, after a few weeks of learning and becoming familiar with these new technologies, I feel much more adapted to my own time. This sounds funny to say, but you would be surprised how sometimes you don't realize that technology can surpass you. Because I am more knowlegable now with some of these technologies, I feel better prepared for the work world in the future. I wouldnt say I've been having trouble with the thinking and learning in this course, although sometimes communication can be difficult. Difficulties in group communication are to be expected though and I wouldnt say that it has been detrimental to the class.