Mike Festi
***An explanation on the background: Winter is my favorite season. I feel that it gets a bad rap because of the freezing temperatures, poor driving conditions, and back aches from shoveling. But, if you don't dwell on the negative, I think you might just become fond of winter as well.
Educational Resources Eastern Connecticut State Univeristy Connecticut State Department of Education Colonial Connecticut PowerPoint |
My name is Mike Festi, and I am a graduate student at Eastern Connecticut State University. I am enrolled in the Elementary Education Master of Science and Certification program. This site provides a little background information on my education and interests. The following photograph was taken while riding the B-Line train in Boston. I don't have any pictures of myself actually teaching within a classroom setting; so in the mean time, this one will have to do. It's artistic, which means it's out of focus.
The navigational tools at the bottom of the page should help guide you through this site. These links are for documents that will give you an introduction to my educational background and some of my thoughts on education in general. Resources located in the box above and to the left are websites that I feel might aid the classroom teacher in many different areas.
For the here and now, I'd like to take the opportunity to about some of my personal interests. I have several hobbies, maybe too many for one person to have. In terms of outdoor recreation I enjoy snowboarding (winter theme), surfing, golf, ultamite frisbee, and tennis. Tennis is something that I have recently picked up; however, my skills aren't very polished. If I were to play someone that is beyond the beginner's level, it would probably be a humiliating experience causing me to never say the word tennis again. For mentally stimulating activities, I enjoy playing guitar, listening to music (I listen to a lot of different styles of music, but to say that I listen to a little bit of everything would make me a liar), reading (Chuck Pahluniak, Stephen King, and Roald Dahl are a few of my favorites), and I am an avid movie watcher. Film is probably my first interest above everything else. Just like with authors, I have a long list of favorite movie directors. Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Sam Raimi, and Tim Burton are the first that come to mind; but I know that there are several others. As to favorite genres, I have an odd fascination with horror movies. Most of the movies labeled in this genre are absolutely terrible and tend to be sequels or retellings of the same story (Friday the 13th parts 2-12 are fundamentally the same movie as Friday the 13th part 1, which is fundamentally the same as Nightmare on Elm Street). But, when done right, I feel this genre generates some of the most entertaining films ever, well, filmed. I didn't mean to go off on a tangent, but I feel that horror movies, much like winter, don't get the respect they deserve.
For the most part, that covers my recreational interests. Please take the time to explore the other areas of the website. Particular areas of interest include my Education Philosophy and Teaching Challenge.
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