How do I become a teacher?
This is proving more difficult then anticipated. I need to be highly qualified under No Child Left Behind (no teacher left standing). In order to be highly qualified I need to pass Praxis. I still need to figure out a lot of stuff about doing that and whether a minor in German and Spanish will be enough. I will need to be, in the end, highly qualified in German, Spanish and social sciences so that I can teach any of those subjects. I feel with that under my belt I will be able to get a job nearly anywhere I wanted. It will involve a lot of schooling but it will be worth it.

How can I be successful at UMF?
I need to be very organized and stay on track. I should use my four year plan as a way to stay on track. I need to also go abroad to further expand my language abilities. I am going abroad which will probably put me behind yet again. I am going to have to seriously plan out my schedule so that I can take classes during may term and summer. There is no possible year I can graduate without at least one extra year. I need to learn Spanish and will be attempting to take some courses this summer at Augusta because the Spanish courses here I won't be able to take because of practicum.

How can I use knowledge of the learner to be a better teacher?
I think one of great things about foreign language classes is that it can be designed to better allow students to express themselves in different ways. I can design programs that will engage my students in different ways. There are such a variety in learning styles and a lot of those can be addressed. In my classes there will different learning techniques to address that. The way I learned vocab words was using three different methods. There was a list of words and the student would write the word in English. Then we would repeat the word multiple times while at the same time designing a hand motion or action to accompany the word. For instance the word for stand up is steht auf. They would write "stand up," repeat the word(s), then stand up. This helps out with the auditory learners with the repeating of the words, the visual with the reading and writing of the word, and the kinesthetic learners with the motion of acting out the word or doing a hand motions.

Which theories and historical influences should most impact the schools we'd like to have?
A combination of a lot of ideas would be the ideal situation. There is a lot of change in educational philosophy so it will be important to keep reexamining our techniques to better meet the needs of our students. We need to keep NCLB in the back of our minds so students meet the standards. We also need to look at the changing face of special education students in the classroom and make sure that we can meet their needs as well as the rest of the students.