Hello! My name is Logan Pate, I am 21 years old, and I am from a small town called Fairhope, Alabama. I lived there for most of my life, until I started college at USM. Fairhope is located on the Mobile bay and is just a 20 minute drive away from Gulf Shores, so I grew up swimming, sailing,and participating in all things aquatic. I have one little brother, Wesley, who is a freshman at Auburn University, and two wonderful parents, Bonnie and Charlie. My boyfriend and I adopted a kitten last fall, who has become the most spoiled feline in the pine belt. His name is Barrett. I chose to pursue a degree in education after coaching the local swim team in my hometown. I loved being around the kids every morning, and seeing their happy little faces. It was also very rewarding to watch the children swim in their races, and reveal what they have learned and what I taught them. My ideal grades to teach are fourth, fifth, and sixth. My endorsement is in English, so I am very excited to teach reading and language arts. I am nervous about teaching math because it is not my strong point.
After reading the syllabus I am thrilled to begin this course. This course focuses on literacy of students in their adolescence, and I am interested in teaching children in this age group. This is the first course I have taken thus far that focuses completely on "the older kids", therefore, I am hoping to take away a great deal of knowledge from this course. I hope to learn which books are appropriate and ideal pieces to include in the classroom. I am also wanting to learn techniques to motivate children to read, because when I was that age reading was the farthest thing from my mind. I noticed that this class was very writing intensive. This could be a challenge for me because I have not had a writing class in a while. There also is going to be quite a bit of blogging this coming semester. I am not a blogger, so this may be a challenge for me as well. Over all I believe this is going to be a great semester, and I am eager to begin learning!
