My name is Nicole Gehrman. I am currently a senior at UWM. I'm a Middle Childhood-Early Education major in the School of Education program. I am currently entering my 3rd block of the program. I also have two minors in science and social studies. I'm originally from St. Paul, Minnesota and was raised in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Some interesting things about me include that I ran for the White Bear Cross-Country team for 7 years. I have the same birthday as Ghandi and George Harrison is my favorite Beatle.
I signed up for this course because the title Irish Tradition caught my attention. I'm very interested in learning about different cultures. I nanny for a family from India and I have enjoyed learning about their customs and traditions. I am looking forward to learning about Ireland. I visited London last year and desperately wanted to travel over to Ireland. However, money and time didn't allow it. Hopefully I can visit in the future, I've heard Ireland is a beautiful country.
My favorite novel is Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. I read the book when I was in high school and I believe that it inspired me to pursue my teaching career. I also enjoy novels written by Nicholas Sparks, Dan Brown, Jodi Picoult, Phillippa Gregory, among others. I typically choose books that engage me into the story and help me escape from my daily life. I hope to gain a new perspective on life everytime I read and a new way of thinking in ways I didn't imagine before.
I have taken the required English courses at UWM as well as an African American Women's literature course with Rikki Clark. I greatly enjoyed the class and I feel that I gained a lot of insight from the course. I believe that an online literature course may actually be easier to have critical discussion about the novels we read. On an online course we are all required to participate and present our opinions. In regular courses not everyone chooses to participate. Therefore, more perspectives and ideas will be shared during our online discussions. I have read many types of literature. I have always enjoyed reading, some of my favorite novels include; Until They Bring the Streetcars Back, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Catcher in the Rye, and The Great Gatsby (the author F. Scott Fitzgerald is from St. Paul!)
To be compeletey honest I don't really have that much background knowledge about Irish tradition. I know that Irish Tradtion includes celebrating St. Patrick's day. I also know that there have been religious controversies in Ireland. I have heard the tales about leprechauns and the luck of the Irish!
Other internet sources that I belong to include; facebook, myspace and twitter. The whole blog thing is very new to me.
The Tower Bridge in London, England is a place that I have been to. I went in March 2009 and fell in love with the city. The bridge holds a lot of history.
A website that I frequently visit is www.trakstar.com. The site offers a lot of teaching lesson ideas for teachers and introduction to curriculum topics. As an education major I use this website a lot.
I love this youtube video because it is so funny. Growing up in Minnesota, Herb Brooks was a local hero. For those of you who don't know him, he was the hockey coach for the University of Minnesota for many years and he also was the coach for team USA in the 1980 Olympics. The little kid in the video is imitating Herb Brook's speech from the movie Miracle. They movie is about how Herb Brooks led the USA hockey team to win the gold in the 1980 Olympics.
