Friday, August 26, 2011

Blog Assignment 1: A little bit about myself

Hi everyone, my name is Owen Gill and I am 30 years old.  I am married and have three kids.  My wife's name is Adrienne and my children are Evan (8), Madison (7), and Colton (3).  I am a secondary education major with a focus on history.  I have lived in several places.  I was born in St. Petersburg, Fl on February 27, 1981.  From the time I was born until I was 4, I traveled cross country with my parents who hauled private boats that ranged from 30' to over 100'.  We settled down in Bryson City, NC when I was 4 and I lived there in the heart of the Smoky Mountains until I was 17 years old.  From there, I lived in Los Angeles, CA for about 6 months and then  moved to Mobile, AL for my senior year of high school.  I graduated from Murphy High School and met my future wife while I was there.  However, I moved away to Tampa, FL and we grew apart.  After seven years, she found me on Myspace and I came back to Mobile to visit her.  I have never left since that day.
I am also in the Army National Guard and I am enrolled in the ROTC program at South Alabama.  I plan on staying guard when I commission as an officer and become a history teacher and coach.  I have a tremendous passion for helping mentor troubled teens and help open up doors to opportunities that they are rarely aware of due to the environment they are subjected to.  Teaching to me is one of the most important jobs in the world today.  We are directly responsible for how prepared children are for the doggy dog world we live in today.  I want to do my part and I am really excited for the opportunity to learn from this class and apply it to my teaching when I get the honor of that position one day.  I look forward to talking with everyone in this class and I hope we can all learn from each other on how to improve and perfect our craft!
After watching Dr. Pausch's video on time management, I would have to say that it is a simple but brilliant solution to a problem many students and people, in general, have on a daily basis.  I think the part that I enjoyed the most is about doing the ugliest part of your list first.  I have always felt that you do your list based on getting the dreaded parts done first.  Because psychologically, it gives me a sense of relief and makes the other tasks on my list become easier because there is no stress.  Most people save that for last because they feel that if they do everything else but leave that last thing to another day, they have accomplished their day.   But the truth is we tend to shy away from challenges or obstacles that we feel are too difficult.  Then they pile up and now there is a whole day or week of ugly things to do.


2 comments:

  1. Hey Owen!

    Welcome to EDM310!

    I'm glad to hear MySpace did something before it became defunct. It's great to note your enthusiasm for teaching as well. That's heartening.

    Note: It's "dog eat dog world". But "doggy dog" is pretty funny. I kinda like it.

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  2. First and foremost, I would like to show my appreciation for your service to our country, thank you for all that you do! Secondly, I also commend you for the level of dedication it must take to raise three children and serve our military all while working hard to achieve your aspirations. I myself have three kids, aged 5, 3 and 1, and there are days I am pulling my hair out. So, I could not imagine balancing and meeting the demands of all three! What an incredible example you are setting for your kids though. I find it encouraging to know someone with your level of devotion and compassion has such a yearning to work with troubled teens, all too often they get written off and pushed to the side.

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