Week 8...This Is It!!!!

Hey everyone..welcome to my week 8 blog post!! Yep, you read that correctly...it’s week 8 and this class is coming to end!! I have truly found this class to be very interesting and eye opening. My only regret is taking so late in my college career, I only have four class left until I am done and I feel that this class could have helped me when I first started at Brandman rather then when I almost done. None the less I have taken in everything from this class and will apply towards my last four classes here at Brandman. 
Now on this weeks assignment, a literature review...I will be honest and say this final assignment was anything but easy for me. I had little difficulty with understanding what exactly I was going to be doing and I hope that in the end I did what was expected. I read through all the assigned readings and feel that I understood the lay out of the literature review, I’m just a little unsure if I worded everything correctly. Over all I feel like I submitted and good piece of work...the only thing I feel like I’m missing is actually writing a research paper. One thing is for sure, if I ever have to do a research paper in the future and I get to pick the topic I will be using mine on standardized test and whether or not it’s really needed.

I wish you all the best of luck in the future and I have enjoyed this class and feel I have gained so much knowledge about researching over the last eight weeks!

Take Care,
   Melissa

Week 7...falling a little behind

Hi everyone, welcome back to my research blog. Well week 7 has been a very stressful and week filled with sickness in our house. And due to these issues I have fallen behind on school this week...I have my sources for the week 7 annotated bibliography but I have not quite completed the whole assignment. So this weeks blog post isn't very exciting or filled my quest to finding my sources since each one was found during different times throughout the week. I wish you all a very happy week and am excited to say that next week is it...I have made it through another 8 weeks of school and am so excited to be that much closer to having my degree in my hand!!

Have a great week! ~Melissa~

Week 6...Close to the end!!

Hey everyone, welcome to my week 6 blog post!! I can’t believe I only have 2 blog post left in this class. This week has been another week filled with learning new things. When working on the assignment for this class I used the links provided and was introduced to a new database full of journals with open access. Also this week had a great review of what academic integrity is. I have had a number of classes here at Brandman and every so often the first week of class takes a look at academic integrity. I think that it is always important to have that friendly reminder to be honest and truthful and do what's right. However, after typing that I feel just a little sad that as adults people still need the reminder to honest and truthful. Although it stinks we have reminds to be honest, I found this lesson came as a good reminder for to be sure all work is cited correctly on my up coming papers so I don’t get in trouble. I’ve had an issues with citing in my papers but the reminder will just have me paying more attention to those aspects to up coming my papers.

Hope you have a great week!

~Melissa~

Week FIVE...only 3 more left!!

Hey everyone...welcome back to another week here on my research blog! This weeks research has again showed me that I’m starting to really catch on..I know that mind sound crazy to say but so often during my college years I have done research but have most likely never used the same search tool and ideas over and over again. This week was different from last week in the sense that I found a peer-reviewed article that brought a different dynamic to my research topic. So often I look for an article that fits the idea that have for the direction I want a research paper to go but this weeks article I found gave an actual educators point of view. This was not something I would normally use, simple for the fact that I like to stick to hard evidence and facts for research papers, but once I read the article I realized that having an actual educators ideas and knowledge would be perfect for a future research paper. Mostly because when you’re researching the topic of Standardized Testing and if it’s really important the opinion of a teacher my be just the perfect touch to a paper! 

Thanks for stopping and taking the time to read my blog!

Week 4 ~ The Half Way Point!!

Hi everyone, welcome back to my research blog! Well this post is going up minutes into week 5..which honestly is a little crazy! It seems like every term of classes seems to be going by faster and faster. In week four we were asked to find a peer-reviewed article that we could use for our paper and I have found the article but have gotten a little behind with class work and hope to get it turned within the next few minutes. This last week has been a little hectic for me but I found that this class has really helped me become more in-tuned with my research skills...so with all the craziness of kids being on spring break I was able to get my research done with ease and found my article quickly. I am also finding that using specific search items (i.e. or/and) has really allowed me to expand or narrow down my searches for my topic. I feel that after this week I have found a topic and have some great references to use in getting my final paper finished without to much stress. Overall this week I was able to use the skills I have learned in past three weeks and apply them to a search without stress and frustration, like I have had in the past.

Week 3 ~ Researching & Understanding

Hi everyone, welcome back to my research blog! 

These past few weeks have been filled with research, research and more research and finding out so many new things about researching in general. Last week we were asked to use some of the online research tools that the University provides for its students, as well as, a regular outside research tool (i.e. Google/Google Scholar). After making many attempts in the Universities tools I hit a wall and started to grow frustrated with the site and with myself. I have done countless research papers for other classes and could not for the life of me figure out why I was getting no where. This is when I switched over to Goggle Scholar and found results quickly. However Goggle Scholar can be tricky sometimes because you may have a great find but you can’t access the whole book with paying for it. After finding a book I felt could be useful for my paper I searched for it in regular Google and was able to access the whole book without limitations, and found this to be a HUGE success after looking for what seemed like hours! Over this past week I have had the chance to review last weeks searches and to think about them, and I feel that the errors were on my side, I believe I am trying to find information out for a topic that may be a little too direct. And due that reason I feel that I will be reevaluating my topic in the week ahead and maybe looking down a different path for my research paper then I had originally planned. Overall doing the research has been very helpful and informative to see what information is out there regarding topics that are interesting to me and that could be helpful to my future career, and although I grew a frustrated at a point it helped me grow and learn to take a step back, look closer at what I was doing, and make changes where they were needed.

Week Two Blog Post

Hi everyone! First I want to thank everyone for stoping by and reading my first weeks post. And I would like to apologize for not getting this post up sooner, to say this week has been crazy is an understatement. But enough of that now onto the assignment for them week!

I first started my research for the week two assignment in the Brandman Library, and then branched out to some of the other recommended search engines. After trying every search way I know (i.e. keyword, journals only, dates, etc) and I was unable to find any sources geared towards my topic. This is what lead me to search Google Scholar looking for any kind of of resources. After a few minutes of searching I found a wealth of information for my topic and was a little overwhelmed by all the different options I had to look through. However with that being said I found that the more I research my topic the more excited I get keep looking to become more knowledgeable in the area not just for my paper but for my future career as a teacher. 

When it comes to my topic, Effectiveness of Special Education, I want to really focus on why we have special education and what it is meant to do. I know that may sound like a very broad area but I want to look at special education from the beginning...I want to see what made this country decided to offer education to those with special needs. I want to look at what the purpose of special education started out as and what the purpose was/is to the state(s) and what the purpose of it is to the educators who teach it. I also want to look into how special education has evolved over time. I have a lot passion for this subject and I really just want to provide my reader with as much information about my topic as possible.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 
~Melissa~