I am going to miss all of our Seniors from the 2013 graduating class.  They all are stand up individuals and will live very successful lives!
 
In twenty five years of living, I must admit I have been wrong hundreds if not thosands of times.  So when it comes to the app, Pinterest I must admit I was completely wrong.  My best friend has been addicted to the app for months now always showing me the wedding ideas and home decoration ideas she pins on there.  I labeled it as a girls only site and wantednothing to do with it.
Thankfully I took a chance and decided to explore the app.  What I found is that it has a lot of uses for guys as well.  For example, I don't have to post pictures on their, however i can explore pictures and pin pictures that are appealing to me to one of my boards.
A guy looking to to upgrade his backyard scenery could look under the sections, gardening and home/decor and find tons of ideas to choose his next fire pit or custom bbq.  Also a guy could look under Men's Fashion to view clothing styles and to help select his next wrist watch.
I really feel that the site gives someone the opportunity to expand their credibility especially in fashion and home/decor.  If the person shows a savvy sense of style in the pages they create and post they could become notorious as someone that people online look towards as an example, building up their private industry.
 
In its first season of Pacific West Conference play, Fresno Pacific had four
players honored as members of the 2013 All-PacWest team, the conference
announced Thursday.

Junior infielder Brett
Bishop
became the team's first ever first-team All-PacWest
selection while senior shortstop Steven
Moon
, junior outfielder Kaohu
Gaspar
and senior relief pitcher Ryan
Cheek
were named third-team All-PacWest. Bishop was also
named NCAA Division II First Team All-West Region by the American Baseball
Coaches' Association (ABCA).

Bishop hit .325 and led the team in runs
scored (38), doubles (11), homeruns (9), RBI (46) and slugging percentage
(.534), finishing among PacWest leaders in each of those categories as well.
Bishop also provided steady defense for the team, playing multiple positions
including catcher and all four infield spots.

Moon finished the season
strong, batting .293 and coming in second on the team with 48 hits, nine doubles
and 28 RBI on the year. In addition, Moon consistently dazzled Sunbird fans with
his gold-glove caliber defense at shortstop.

Gaspar led the team with a
.461 on-base percentage and 13 stolen bases. He batted .326 with 33 runs scored
(2nd on team), six doubles and 19 RBI.

Cheek finished with a team-best
2.05 ERA out of the bullpen in 22 innings pitched. He struck out 18 batters and
notched three saves while posting a 2-0 record.

FPU's pitching staff led
the PacWest in ERA, but despite strong numbers, neither of the Sunbirds' top two
starting pitchers, J.D.
Salles
and Wilson
Ashford
, were named to the all-conference team. Salles led
the team with 82 strikeouts and Ashford went 8-2 with a 2.27 ERA.

The
Sunbirds finished 21-15 in conference play to finish in fifth place out of 10
teams. The team reached the championship game of the NCCAA West Regional before
falling to PacWest co-champion California Baptist. CBU's Zach Esquerra was named
PacWest Player of the Year while Jon Bengard earned PacWest Pitcher of the Year.
Grand Canyon's Andy Stankiewicz was named Coach of the
Year.       
 
Picture
Deal with professional portfolios has been much more beneficial than I could have ever imagined.  Sites that I had never heard of nor dealt with such as LinkedIn and personal web pages create a place where you can create an actual advertisement whether it is yourself working towards your career goal or for example our baseball program will be able to give our fans constant updates on our season and the professional careers of our past players!
The benefits of LinkedIn are very simple, I had no clue how to work the website or create an account and there were constant pop ups reqqustions my professional and personal information and the next thing I knew the my page was formatted and set up for me!  I felt accomplished with very little labor!  The other benefit is that companyies and other professionals are able to search and find you based off of your information that your page contains and if they are searching for it!
With LinkedIn all of the pages are formatted the same, so there is a very difficult way of making your page stand out.  This is when past employment or the university the individual may have earned their degree may trump the search process.  Which could hurt the large amount of young indivi

 
Picture
Under the link featuring Statistics in Sports I found a tab labeled Career in Sports Statistics.  I was very curious as to what and possibly how this was considered an actual career.  Then I began to think of all the record keeping and time commitment it would take so I knew just then that I had to explore!
The website states that it is very valuable to begin a career path as an intern or part-time worker for a professional team, college or statistics agency.  This career path is similar to any other career especially that of one in the sports world.  As a college coach it is extremely difficult to immediately become a Head Coach, most of the time you begin as a graduate assistant or lower assistant coach and through hard work gradually work your way up the coaching ladder until a place is willing to take a chance on you as a head coach.
The section I found most interesting was labeled, "what kinda of data do you collect and analyze beyond team and individual performance?"  The answers of long-term trends, performance by age and effects of changes in roles, equipment and stadiums was something I could relate to right away.  In baseball performance by age is critical when it comes to players receiving new contracts, as well as how they perform against certain teams in certain baseball stadiums is always fun to view also.  In college baseball, new bats were created a few years ago, these bats have drastically decreased the power numbers in college baseball, somethin

 
Picture
I am in my third year serving as an assistant baseball coach and as the recruting coordinator for Fresno Pacific Univeristy.  My ultimate goal is to someday become a college professor and head baseball coach at the California Junior College level.

In order for this to happen I need to come up with a great coaching resume filled with tons of contacts and support from others in the coaching world.  The great coaching resume will come from winning games, and to win games one must recruit greatly players.  I preach a family style atmosphere here at Fresno Pacific, the students will be at a place that truly does care about them on and off the field.

I work as hard as I can in the recruiting world.  I want to get out on week nights and weekends to see as many players that I possibly can.  In doing so I have met a ton of collegues in the coaching world that have come to respect the time and effort that I put into our program,  there is a possibility of getting several different letteres of recommendation from these coaches in the future if I ever have a chance at a head coaching job. 

I have learned that the best networking strategy is to simply be yourself, your true colors will come out at some point so if you are simply your regular self everyday then your players and coaching colleagues will come to respect you a lot m

 
Picture
Like most educational techniques there are both pros and cons to using wiki.  It is beneficial becuase it allows students to remain in a comfort zone of thought and delivery with their information, there is no fear of the perception they could get from their peers on their speech and delivery technique. 

The main negative I gathered from learning about wiki's, is that it could hinder the real life communication skills preparation that students get from constant in person, face to face feed back by using in class learning systems.  By never getting over these obstacles, students are able to remain constantly comfortable, and some of the toughest situations in the real world are anything but comfortable.  Another negative for using some wiki's is the possibility of attempting to use it as a possible scholarly source, when it is free to the public and editable by anyone.  Who's to say the information is 100% factual and unbiased?

 
I am embarrassed to say that up until this afternoon I had never heard of "linkedIn" or anything about it.  After creating an account it was rather easy for me to see the differences between LinkedIn and Facebook.

I have been a facebook user for nearly 7 years now.  I use facebook as a simple social networking tool, it allows for me to stay in touch with friends from my past as well as update my friends on my life through my posts and pictures.  I do not use it as an advertising tool in any sort of way.  Meanwhile, LinkedIn seems to be an online resume application that serves as the purpose of networking with other individuals that share your same professional interests.  I view it as a way to promote yourself professionally through your page as well as a way to keep an online resume updated through your professional advances and activities.  It was very clever of the website to ask you questions on your past work experience and education as a way of creating your page for you, without the user having to decide how t
 
Picture
Computer and Ipad apps in education could become very useful tools if used for the correct purposes.  For example, for  students particular apps could help them organize their schedules and assignment for their classes.  I use a checkoff list app that I create a list of my homework assisngment at the beginning of every week with the due date next to them and simply go down the list and complete all of my assignments in order.  This method has really helped me reduce stress in my life and saved me time as a quick reminder of what I have going on.
For Teachers there are several apps that allow them to create folders for each student and allow them to log any discipline problems or missing assignments. 

The LanSchool Teacher's Assistant App is an amazing app that I found.  With Ipads and laptops taking over our education system, it is very simple for distractions to be created during a lecture system in our classrooms.  With this app however, teachers can reduce student distractions by blanking screens, limiting applications and limiting web browsing on student computers. This helps direct student attention from their computer to the teacher.  It is also useful for monitoring student activity within a classroom setting, the Thumbnail feature allows you to view all screens as well as see the current application and website that the students are running.  

The app is also great for student and teacher private interaction.  Students can be quickly polled during a lecture with true/false or multiple choice questions.
Students can also silently request help from the teacher.  A small question mark appears on the thumbnail with the student questions.

The Teacher’s Assistant will automatically discover student computers on the instuctor's Ipad or computer notifying them of any computer or Ipad users in the area.

 
Dreaminder really caught my eye!  I am a huge believer in following your dreams and setting high goals for yourself.  Dreaminder is a free tool that helps you remember what you want from your life. Reflect on your life, write down your dream and set the date when you want to be reminded  of it.  This free web application could be extremely useful for any type of goal, however it made me think of a goal like achieving a certain amount of money in a particular bank account.  In six months when you are alerted of your goal with a reminder, how close are your to reaching that amount of money in a bank account ?

    Author

    Matt Souza, 25 years old.  Assistant Baseball Coach- Fresno Pacific University.
    PHIL 4:13

    Archives

    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All