Journal 1

Hello, my name is Adam Bass, 19 years old, and a sophomore at NIU.  My hometown is Lincolnwood, IL and I went to Niles West High School.  I never did anything professional related to music, although in grade school, each year, we were made to sing songs in front of other kids and parents and I took a 1 semester course in guitar my junior year of high school.  Although, I love to sing a lot and would always sing in the car or to my friends even though I am not that talented at singing.  I also have done Karaoke with my friends quite a bit and one of the songs I love to sing the most to everyone is "Dancing Queen."  I listen to music like all the time.  The music I listen to is Rock, Pop, Alternative, Japanese Pop, Japanese Rock, and Anime music.  I don't really follow any particular group, but any new music I get, I pretty much listen to non-stop for weeks.

I currently have an iTouch and it has 2648 songs on it.  All the genre's I said above are what I listen to and I have it with me everyday, everywhere I go.

The activities we did were pretty fun; at first it felt a little embarrassing, but as we went on, it became easier to let loose and putting myself in that mindset, it helped me be able feel how it is like teaching little kids and putting myself at the same level as them.  We learned it by first acting as if we were the kids, and then we practiced doing what we would be teaching them to do.  They are important to children because when they first go into a classroom for the first time, they will most likely be scared, nervous, and not know what to expect, so it is our job to make them feel comfortable with us and with the other students in the class.