Naked

The story we had to read for class was called Naked a plague of ticks. In general this was a story of a boy who had a terrible case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. None of the people in his life could understand why he acted the way he did. They all thought it was something he could controll. It was really sad to read about his life. He said it would take him hours to get home from school because he would have to take the exact amount of steps he had before. If he did not take the same amount of steps he would have to start all over again. Also, he constantly had thoughts running through his head. He was always worried that he didn't do something in the proper order. When he worried he would have to go and do whatever it was he worried about. There was one thing he said that really impacted me the most, "What I really hated, of course, was my mind. There must have been an off switch somewhere, but I was damned if I could find it." This quote really made me think about my life and how lucky I am. There are times when I constantly have things running through my head, but they can easily be fixed. I could not imagine not being able to make the thoughts go away. Life would be extremely hard. You would not be able to concentrate on anything and your world would be extremely jumbled. People who suffer with OCD should not be looked at as odd, they should be respected... Imagine if you had to live with extreme OCD every single day of your life...how different would things be for you?

Research Paper: Questions

There are many different things I need to complete before I even begin to write my research paper. Throughout the process I have asked myself numerous questions. One specific question I propose to answer is “how does the classroom environment affect students learning abilities.  These learning abilities consist of test scores, ability to perform and quality of work.

When it comes to my thesis statement I can honestly say I have not even begun to think about it. After today’s class meeting I have some ideas in mind. The current thesis statement I have come up with is: Though education has changed in many ways, classroom environments have not. Many students have to suffer not only emotionally but physically.  By making some changes in our school’s environments, students will be able to learn at a better rate and test scores will be improved, most importantly students will finally be comfortable with their schools.

In all honesty I really do not know much about my topic at all, that is why I chose to research it. What I do currently know is basically how students actually feel in their classrooms. It is really sad to hear and see what students have to learn in. To me it shows that schools do not give a crap, especially college campuses such as IUP. I also know how it feels to learn in a poor environment because I have had to learn in some pretty bad environments since junior high.

There is a lot that I need to find out about this issue. Many different things factor into my research. For example, the color on the walls, the color of the carpets, the type of lighting and the type of seats a student has to sit in all affect the way a student learns. Hopefully by continuing my research I will be able to come up with answers to some of these things that deal with my topic of study.  So far some of the information I have come across has greatly helped me. The information is also extremely interesting. Not many people realize how much their surroundings affect them. Most people think designers just some in and make something pretty, but low and behold they do much more than that. If a place/room if designed well it seriously can change someone’s life or at least help them out.

So far the sources I have looked up are….

Book: The Brain in Mind

Book: A whole New Mind

Scholarly Article: Student’s Choice: Recommendations for Environmental and Instructional Changes in School

Scholarly Article: Classroom Physical Design Influencing Student Learning and Evaluations of College Instructors: A Review of Literature

Book: Educational Psychology

Scholarly Article: The community College Classroom Environment: Student Perceptions