Blog 4; senior seminar

thinking into my near (hopefully) future about my senior seminar... my palms are starting to sweat! If I had to choose 3 possible research projects i might like to do for my senior seminar project they would obviously be "teacher education" based.

The first and most important "investigation" i might like to do would be something like all of the works we've read so far this semester; how has my personal experiences, education, family, friends, background in general, shaped the person i am today and how will it effect me as a teacher in the classroom..?
With this I would say there is a lot of personal research that needs to be done. It probably will be much like an autobiography but at the same time, i might not be able to finish it until I'm actually in the classroom to get interviews and visual analysis.
(that just gave me another idea-)
i would probably do the first part of my research before getting into the field. write the introduction, what i am looking for as a "newcomer" how i reacted or handled experiences in my life (how they've shaped me) and how I've overcome them. This being mainly in school- teachers I've had or had to deal with. what I've seen and what I've decided i definitely don't want to do in my classroom.
after I've compiled a rough list of the things that have shaped me in the classroom i would probably do some research into other teachers and their experiences as a "new bee".
then after being in the field, i could answer my own questions and form new ones for the years to come.

possible question 2...
how might the economic, ethnic and demographic setting of the region i teach in contribute to the positives/negatives in the school?
there would be a lot of visual analysis and interviewing. I would have to do statistical research to see the demographics and numbers to take into consideration and above all- the economics of the town/city I'm working for. that will definitely have a big impact on how i productively work in the class and the school system in general. depending on an urban or rural community changes the pay scale for a teacher's salary. that's a big part of waking up everyday WANTING to go to work. So definitely some research on demographics of a town in which i may become employed.
Lastly for senior seminar, i would probably like to do some research on how i, as a teacher, can impact and create a foundation for each child i teach. I aspire to have a well constructed and organized classroom which plays the role as a stepping stone for my children's futures. Without discipline and an enjoyable environment, the students won't get anything out of their experience. A lot of the early education and elementary education is memorization and repetitive learning. I don't want my kids to memorise, take a test and forget the information the next day or even their next year of schooling. I want my classroom to (in following years) say oh yeah! i remember when Ms. MacDonald told me a story about that and it reminds me of this.

Through research, statistical research (statistics of a town influencing my salary), ethnographically research (changes the way i may teach a class or how it impacts the general feel of the classroom) , visual analysis,(when i become a teacher, visually seeing my own class and how it's going as a whole) interviewing, (again, my own class) oral history (stories other teachers write) brainstorming (what i can do to better my teaching attributes) and archival research (methods other teachers have found to work) i can become a better person and teacher, eventually, through these seminar research topics.

*please excuse my spelling and grammar (or lack there of)...i was writing and it was flowing out of me, i didn't want to break my train of thought!