Language, Literacy, and Learning in the Content Areas Intro.

I originally created this blog for my INST 4015 class, now I will be using it for SCED 4200.  Older posts were to fulfill requirements for INST 4015.

Introduction:
I am currently a student at Utah State University studying Engineering and Technology Education (ETE).  I plan on teaching pre-engineering and technology courses in high school.  I don't enjoy doing introductions and telling people all about myself, so I will stick with the suggested list of things to include in the assignment description.  I don't see myself as having many interesting hobbies or interests, but I have always liked learning how things work and building and fixing things.  I am in the process of building my second fully-electric bike.

I started out studying Physics in college and was thinking about teaching, but after spending some time in quantum mechanics during a sophomore level class I decided that what I wasn't interested in abstract theoretical things that I couldn't see.  I preferred to stick to Newtonian basics.  After little thought and consideration I transferred to mechanical engineering.  I could combine my interests in building and designing things with physics.  After suffering through numerous calculus classes, statics and dynamics I decided that engineering wasn't exactly what I thought it would be.  I was in the engineering program long enough to make some interesting observations.  Many mechanical engineers are great at math, but are severely lacking common sense and experience.  I started working in manufacturing when I was 15 years old and have seen many instances where an engineer designed something without using experience or common sense.  This is what I want to change as a pre-engineering teacher.

I think that this entry has dragged on long enough and has sufficiently introduced myself and my reasons for wanting to teach in my content area.