Social Action Research Topic

For my social action research topic I would be interested in learning more about the obesity rates in this country and how they are correlated to either race, gender, or social class. Since I am a future physical education teacher, my focus will be on children and teenagers. In today's society the obesity rates are on the rise among this particular age group because of a variety of factors. For example, technology is replacing physical activity. Also, the child or teens geographic location could play a major role in whether he/she is active on a regular basis. The family lifestyle has also dramatically changed over the last few years. Families are no longer cooking and eating around the dinner table. Instead they are eating fast food and TV dinners while trying to rush out the door to soccer, football, or basketball practice.
This topic is important to me because I feel that every child should have an equal opportunity to be and remain physically active. It will be my responsibility as a health and physcial education teacher to help promote and be a walking example of this lifetstyle. It is my passion to help children and teens recognize simple daily activities they can participate in to stay healthy. For example, the NFL has a program called "Play 60" where they encourage all children to get at least an hour of movement daily. I think it would be fun to start after school programs for children such as running and walking clubs, dance classes, or simple intramural activities.
For my research project, I will gather information from online articles, journals, and websites. I will also look for magazines and books that cover this growing national epidemic as well.

Diversity and Social Change

In today’s society, diversity plays a large role in business, politics, education, school, and the work force. Diversity is what makes our country so unique. If everyone was exactly the same, we would live such boring lives. Seeing blacks, whites, Asians, and African Americans all working together for a common goal is what makes this country so powerful and strong. We are all very different, yet very much alike. This unity hasn’t always been present, but I feel that it has reached a point in our country where everyone can now work and live in harmony. As a future educator, it will be important for me to become accustomed to such a diverse society. Working in a public school setting will allow me to get a first- hand experience of children from all walks of life. Students with different ethnic, social, and economic backgrounds will all be sitting together in the same classroom, learning the same material. It will be my job as a teacher to bring the students together.

I grew up in a small, rural town in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Caucasians were the predominate race in my hometown so I wasn’t exposed to a diverse society such as IUP’s college campus. It’s so amazing how you can drive one hour away from home and see such a different atmosphere. The diversity present on this campus will help prepare me for my future career.

Since obesity is a growing problem among today’s children and teens, I would be interested in researching how race, gender, social class, and language affect their overall health and well-being. As a future physical educator it would be an important topic of investigation.

Activity Five

The Family in the USA

*Traditional family
*Single-parent families
*High divorce rates (50%)
* Important family values
*Parents having fewer children
*Both parents in the work force
*Military families
*Inter-racial marriages
*Family adoptions
*Couples choosing their careers over starting a family
*Couples waiting longer to unite in marriage
*Parents taking their child/children to day care or after school programs
*Families spending less time around the dinner table
*Technology/media replacing traditional family conversations
*Parents working late nights/shifts resulting in children being home alone or with babysitter

Linguistic History

During middle school and high school I remember writing descriptive essays, persuasive essays, personal narratives, poems, and research papers. Also, when I was a young girl I wrote in a journal. It highlighted the best parts of my day such as what I ate for lunch and the fun games played at recess. For the most part I found writing to be fairly easy except for certain promps and/or topics that were unfamiliar or of little interest to me as a student. To be honest, I don't read books on a regular basis. I prefer magazines, newspapers, and online articles. In a high school creative writing class I was asked to construct a children's short story. It was fun to think of a plot, create characters, and draw pictures to make the story complete. I also wrote a variety of poetry in this particular class about the seasons, holidays, and love. With today's technology, the only time I generally write letters is for thank you notes or birthday cards. Most of the time I e-mail or text message friends and family to keep in touch.
While growing up, my parents helped expand my vocabulary by teaching me new words, but did so in an informal setting. Teachers on the other hand spoke and taught more formally by giving homework, quizzes, and tests. The only time I was exposed to a second language was in high school when I took Spanish. I found it difficult to carry on a conversation. I knew a lot of words, but had trouble forming them into complete thoughts and sentences.
I feel that essay and assignment writing is harder than other forms of writing because you must answer a particular promt/and or question that may not interest you in any way. You aren't writing because you want to, you're writing because you have to for a certain class. I find it easier to free write about a topic of interest to you as an individual. I enjoy writing to my peers because I feel that I can easily relate to them about a variety of topics. I also found it was easy to write to a younger audience, such as children's books. However, I would find it difficult to write to an older audience or an audience in which I would be unfamiliar.

Introduction

Hello,
My name is Nicole Pelesky and I am a sophomore Health and Physical Education major at IUP. I'm excited about my future career as a teacher because I enjoy working with children and helping them learn new things.