Federal Court Facts

District courts are able to hear a multitude of different cases. These include criminal and civil cases. There are seperate courts for bankruptcy cases, though. A case can make its way from a district, to appeals, to supreme court through appeals, if they are granted them. The case usually  only gets to the supreme court if there is a difference of opinion between judges on in the appeals courts.

 Mike

Learning Goals

One of my main learning goals that I set for myself this semester was to keep in better contact with my mentor teacher. I feel that so far I've done an alright job keeping in contact with her throughout the week. I know if I can send at least two or three e-mails a week that I will have a much better idea of whats going on in my classroom. The more organized I am in my preparation for tutoring the more profound my affect will be in the classroom.

Mike Tortolon

Importance of Reflection

Reflecting on what I've learned in my time at my PDS has been rally important and has helped me uncover a lot of ideas and ways to improve myself as a teacher. At this point I still agree with my original blog post. My only problem is that my blog is not really utilized. Luckily, the Benedum program gives me tons of different opportunities to reflect on what has happened in my classroom. It's really important to communicate, not only with your blog partner, but with all sorts of educators. It goes back to my original idea of the entire compiling all our thoughts to create ideas.

Mike

Do you think it would be more beneficial if we had a large group of people following each others blogs instead of only following each others?

Digital Storytelling

I feel like there are a few things that have happened at my PDS school that could help create a story. I have a few interesting and diverse students that could play roloes in them. An interesting take I have is that I have a participant and some days an intern in my class, so it always is interesting to see the kids react with four teachers in the same room.

I feel a good story has to keep someone captivated and want to keep reading. I would never want to bore someone to death with a bland story. What will make this assignment hard for tutors is the little amount of time that we spend in our PDS classrooms. Also, a good story should have a good ending. You don't want it to trail off in the end.

Any time you can incorporate media into a story it really helps it along. If something unvbelieveable happens you have evidence to back it up.