I still have a whole lot of research that i need to do. I basically just started the other day when i was looking for ideas for my questions that i would be asking for the blog. it surprised me how much stuff i actuallly found about my topic. if igured there would be some stuff but not quite that much. i’m happy there’s a lot of stuff forme to work with though. that’s gonna make my life a lot easier. holy shit i wish this cough would just go away. i hate being sick… but anyway, now after class today i understand a litttle bit more about where we have to publish and what the fdifference is between just online stuff and publishing in an actually maagazine or something like that. i don’t know what else to write… so it’s going to be an interesting process trying to get whatever i write to be published. oi’m not actually sure if i would want something i wrote published where a whole bunch of people can read it cuz i know after it is i’m gonna see all sorts of stuff that i should have cahnged or whatever. and all these peopel will be criticizing me for it even though i know that they really won’t and it’ll actually be really cool. i think….

1. My main research question is “how does music affect the learning of children with autism?” I’m curious about this because I’ve come into contact with quite a few autistic children, all of varying degrees, and the problem of autism/asberger’s intrigues me. The music part of the question came about partly because I’m a music student, but also because of things dealing with music that have been proven such as the Mozart Effect. I’m curious if music can have an effect on the way children with autism learn or if it can help them learn even better.

2. What attempts have been made to study the effects of music on the learning abilities of autistic children?

Does it matter what type of music is used?

How much does the aid of music help autistic children?

Does the music have a different effect on children of different ages?

What are the best ways to teach autistic children using music as an aid?

3. Most of the research done about autism seems to be about why it occurs and what it is exactly. My study will focus on how to teach these children and help them develop with the aid of music.

4. I will mostly read and put together any research already done that i can find. From there I will possibly try to interview a few individuals with parents of autistic children or psychologists who are knowledgeable about the syndrome.

5. www.pmea.net/

www.menc.org/

www.psea.org

www.autism.com

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/autism/article_em.htm

i think i’m gonna write about autism. it’s interesting. i’m probably gonna go with the idea of how music can effect the ir learning, and how it’s used in helping these kids.  it’s maybe gonna be hard to find stuff about this topic abut i can always talk to  parent so f children that i kno w who have autistic children and what their ideas are. it’s a pretty gcool topic in my opinion and it could be very useful for me as an educator and possibly as a parent i n the future and helpful to other parents who have autistic children. there is a lot of iinformation about autism in general i’m sure. we talked about it a little bit in ed =psych but we didn’t cover it very much. he basically told us that if we want to know about it at all we just have to research it for ourselves. but mostly where my knowlege comes from is babysitting three kids who all had different levels of autism. sometimes they were a challenge, but it was very interesting watchingt heam and notin what the differences in their behaveiors were. it might partly have to do with their parent’s parenting skills as to how they were raised. and then there was nick who i met

Music Education in schools

This is a very important topic for me. As a future teacher, it is important for me to know why the teaching of my subject is important to students and their futures. So many schools in America are cutting their arts programs and the effect on the arts as a whole has been almost detrimental. These schools need to know why it is important to keep music around. I think, through research and my own personal experiences, I can bring some new insight to administrators and teachers alike

The Tudor Family Dynasty

This topic is very important to me because these people are part of my family history possibly. They had a major impact on European history and I would like to know more about just how far that influence extended and to what areas. I would be able to bring my own insight into what they managed to do and maybe prove just how important they were to the history of England, and even to the rest of the world.

Autism

I want to know more about the struggles of autistic children of all levels in a school setting. I know several autistic children. Some of them have problems accomplishing even the basic tasks of living, while others are almost like normal children. This is an important topic because often times, many people don’t understand these children or they think that these kids are just ‘retarded’, when that’s not really the case at all. I think I can help shed new light on the struggles of these kids and how everyone else can help them in our already challenging world.

The jazz style has influenced the evolution of other modern types of music.

How has jazz influenced the evolution of other modern styles of music?

How has jazz influenced the evolution of other modern styles of music in America?

7(ish)

1. Music (History of the clarinet)

2. Music (History of jazz and/or its effect on modern music)

3. (The Importance of) Music Education

4.  The Tudor Family

5. Personality Disorders

6. Autism

7. History of Marching Band

8. Escape Artists

9. Urban Legends

10. Evolution of Technology

Writing a paper about me and who I am has always been difficult for me. There’s the question of what exactly do I tell people? How much detail should I go into? What if I leave something important out? Will anyone even care to read about what makes me who I am? Where do I even begin? Eventually after settling down to write, I figured I should “start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.” That was what Maria from The Sound of Music taught me.

My parents have often told me and my brother about when we were both young children. I always love listening to their stories of the things that we did. They also will share anecdotes from when they were children or first married. My mom, Peggy Tudor, has all sorts of great stories from when she went to college here at IUP many years ago. I figured that she was the best source of information to find out about my childhood, so I gave her a call. This is what she told and my father told me.

I was born into the world on December 22^nd, 1987. It is the shortest day of the year sometimes, being the first day of winter, and from what my parents tell me it was also “a very cold, dark night.” I’m told it was spaghetti night because it was Thursday. My parents and my older brother, Dustin (who was 7 at the time), were gathered around the kitchen table eating when mom realized it was time to go to the hospital. Apparently I chose a popular night to be born because when they arrived at the hospital, all of the birthing beds were full and there were other people waiting. They were made to go walk the halls until a space opened up for them.

When they got a bed, they broke her water for her and I was born almost immediately. Both Dustin and I were easy in that respect. However, we were both difficult pregnancies. Dustin was born one month premature because of pregnancy complications with anemia, among other things. She didn’t have those kinds of problems with me, however I wreaked havoc on her back to the point where about 6 or 7 months in, she had to be laying down the majority of the day. I also gave her a hiatal hernia, which later in life caused her to get acid reflux.

From the time I was born, I was always a momma’s girl. Whenever my mother would put me down to sleep or for any reason at all, I would cry and want to be picked back up. But she and my grandfather were the only two that I would let hold me. For some reason I didn’t seem to like my dad or my grandma.

I grew up quickly and relatively easily. The doctor told my mom from the start that I was going to be trouble because I was only a week or two old before I started trying to roll over. He said to watch me because I was strong and I would be walking very soon. And sure enough, by 9 months, I was already on my feet and walking without assistance. Soon after walking, I started climbing. I would climb anything and everything and jump off of it – often nearly giving my grandmother a heart attack.

When I got to school, I was generally a talented student. I always got along with my teachers and did my homework. I was the typical goody two shoes type of child. Yet, it wasn’t an act or anything such as that. It was just my personality. I’ve always been almost phobic of getting in trouble in any way, shape, or form and I will do everything to see that I do what I’m supposed to so I don’t get yelled at. My parents weren’t what you would call strict. However, they didn’t just let me do whatever I wanted. My mother was a teacher. She knew how to not take any crap of children. And then, partly thanks to my brother, I discovered my love of music when I joined band. I started taking lessons when I was in fifth grade. From there music of all forms has taken over my life. I will openly and very proudly admit that I’m a band geek… Music is now, and forever will be my life. Band is not the only area that I dabble in though. I also enjoy singing and theater. I’m here at IUP as a music education major. Eventually, when I graduate, I want to be a music teacher. I would love someday to have my own high school marching band. Music has changed my life in a very good way. It has opened me up to all new experiences and helped me to meet a lot of great people. Without it, I’m not sure where my life would have been directed. Most of my friends are in the band. And it was partly because of marching band that I got together with my boyfriend. It has a been a major part in shaping who I am now.

Lastly, me as a person… Well, I think I’m generally pretty easy to understand. I’m smart, caring, lovable (so I’m told), and a little high strung at times. I love to read books of all sorts. I can usually be found with my head buried in a book. Usually I tend toward the murder mysteries and anything about vampires or the supernatural. Also, I like to just sit back and listen to music instead of playing it myself a lot of times. I listen to a little bit of every genre you could think of – anywhere from rock, to classical, to rap, even to polka. I can’t cook to save my life. I can be very shy sometimes, but I can also be very outgoing when I’m with people that I’m comfortable around. People often confide in me because they say I’m easy to talk to and they know I won’t tell everyone. I’m very accepting of almost everyone and I try to get along with all types of people. However, this is all just a very small part of what makes up the real “me”. If anyone really wants to know what I’m all about, they have to go get to know me.

Bibliography

Tudor, Margaret. Personal interview. 20 Jan. 2008.

The Sound of Music. Dir. Robert Wise. Perf. Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker. 1965.

Tudor, Shauna. Giants Stadium. Flickr.Com. 21 Jan. 2008 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/14492172@N04/2213446570/>.

Questions:

1. The style that this essay is written in is narrative. It is a narrative essay because it tells a story and it is written in the first person.

2. The audience for this essay would be anyone who reads my blog – in particular, the people in my English 202 class.

3. The two things that I would most likely revise in this essay if I got a chance to do it over again would be my intro and my conclusion. I think they could maybe be a little bit stronger. I would also modify the format of the paper a bit and change the direction in which I was going with it. I think it could have been more focused on some particular aspect of my life – probably the music portion of it.

Dictionary.com defines research as a “diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc.” Although this may be the true definition, there is so much more to research than just this. Research looks at a particular subject area from many different points of view, possibly quite different from the researchers. It is not just reading about a subject extensively. It is getting to know that subject inside and out.

Most people think of research as a boring, monotonous type of project. However, we research almost every day without realizing it. Any time a person looks up something on the internet or reads an article on a particular subject in a magazine, he is researching. Anytime someone learns something new from the internet or reading, it is research.

Research is what we do when we have a question we want answered or a problem we need to have solved. We read up on that particular problem. We experiment with different solutions to see what works best. There really is no right or wrong way to research. It is whatever works best for the individual performing that research. Research is our way of learning new things.