I am interning at Snow Heights Elementary School with my mentor Linsy Garner in her Kindergarten classroom during English. I am looking forward to a new school year with Mrs. Garner and a class full of new students that I can help throughout the year. This first week as in intern I helped the long term substitute around the classroom and create folders for the class.
Rules are always important for learning because it provides a system for the students to follow so they don't get distracted or tempted to do things they aren't supposed to do. Rules keep classrooms running smoothly because it's a guideline for the students to follow, without rules a classroom would be chaotic and full of distractions and problems that a teacher wouldn't be able to handle alone. The consequences will be on color change scale. Green will be no consequences, yellow will be a note home to the parents, orange will be a phone call to the parents, and red goes to the principles office.
Last year I really enjoyed competing in the event "Impromptu Teaching" because it was something that challenged me and my partner throughout the entire year and we did fairly well considering it was our first year competing and we advanced all the way to Nationals. This upcoming year I plan on competing in the event "Impromptu Lesson Planning" with Tiana Whitmore similar to our event last year. I also wish to participate in the Portfolio Contest since I already have a portfolio and will just need to update it. I believe that I will be successful with these because I already have experience with these two things so it won't be too difficult to prepare for nor will it be stressful.
"The Smartest Kids in the World and how they got that way" is a great book to read if you are wanting to learn more about teaching in other countries. This book is interesting to read about to me but it took me some time to get into it. Out of the three different students I relate most to Kim because she had her mind set on doing something and she didn't stop until she reached that goal. It sounded like an impossible task at first but Kim didn't stop until she new it would be possible to go to Finland.
I believe that the United States would greatly benefit if they adopted the same education format as Finland. Finland has just recently moved to the top ranking of the country with the smartest kids but they weren't always like that. They made a change in their system which worked. Finland doesn't assign homework for their students which allows them to focus more in school rather than be distracted with things outside the classroom like other work. In South Korea students are so focused on school that they don't spend time on sports like the U.S. does. Sports in South Korea are out of school activities and not focused on as much as the U.S. Students are so tired from working on school so much at home that they will fall asleep in class and the teachers don't see anything wrong with it. Poland also had teaching methods for their students that the U.S. would never consider because we are so technology dependent, students in Poland don't even use calculators for their classes while the U.S. can just pull it up on their phones whenever they need it.
My Web Tool is Symbaloo which is a website that allows you to bookmark multiple webpage links on one screen that makes it easier to access for teachers and students. Using Symbaloo may be confusing at first but youtube has a handy video from Symbaloo that teaches you how to use the website.
Symbaloo is free to all users, there is a Premium Symbaloo that has more options such as a more customizable and easier ways to share Symbaloo with students, you can also now categorize webmixes by grade and subject or whatever else you want! The paid version is $35 in the classroom, $120 for the school, and $220 for the district. This site does not have an age restriction plus its super easy to sign up!
All you have to do is:
enter your name
enter your email
create a password and enter it twice
and agree to the terms and conditions
To add a web mix once you've made an account you have to:
click the "+" symbol
click "start the quick start"
choose a layout
select "create a webmix"
and install the selected webmix
Symbaloo is super helpful to teachers and students because it's an easily accessible homepage that navigates to frequently used web pages that you choose. If you are a teacher you may want it to access your campus home page, district home page, Skyward, Pinterest, your email, or other websites that you use on a day to day basis. A teacher might use this in a classroom for their students to make it easier for the students to find so they don't waste time searching for a website or an online activity and its already linked and ready to go thanks to Symbaloo and it can be used for any subject or activity!
Last weekend I traveled to Houston, Texas to participate in the Texas Association of Future Educators State conference. The competition was held at the University of Houston.
Our Chapter did fairly well in competitions, my partner, Tiana Whitmore, and I are advancing to Nationals for Impromptu Teaching, we also placed at state in Scrapbook, Teacher Created Materials, and Outstanding Chapter. My favorite aspect of the trip was getting the opportunity to go to Houston and compete with my best friend, Tiana, and the excitement we experienced to be advancing to nationals in Boston. Here are a few photos to show you the fun I had at TAFE State!
Creativity cannot be described with a specific definition because creativity varies from person to person. What is creative to one person may not necessarily be creative to another. I believe that creativity is defined by an individual and how they view it and not something that can be defined as a whole. Creativity matters in Education because it helps with personal learning because different people learn in different ways so it takes a certain person to be able to approach learning this way. A way it would help teachers is to be able to think creatively by coming up with new lesson plans that is able to keep the students engaged with what they're learning that day so they will remember it later. The only way to fix creativity is to encourage it and be open to new ideas that others have. An example could be as simple as a math teacher teaching a formula and a student discovering a simpler way to solve the equation but the math teacher shooting it down because it wasn't the way they taught them to do it. If the teacher would have tried to accept the new way of learning and encouraged the students new discoveries then students today wouldn't feel ashamed or scared to try new things and think outside the box to solve a problem and there would be much more opportunities that would open up for the world to see and prosper because of this growth in acceptance.
The ideal learning environment for me is one that is not structured so much like a classroom but has a calm peaceful layout that's spaced out. I would never have rows of desks in my classroom but rather tables that are spaced out throughout the room for a more comfortable working space.
I think learning time should never be longer than thirty minutes with breaks in between so the students have time for a "brain break" that will keep them focused more for the next activity rather than tired and lethargic. To elevate a students performance I would track their progress over time and how much they've grown from the beginning to the end of the lesson because it shouldn't be expected of a child to pick up something new they learned if they've never learned anything about it.
This activity is for a Kindergarten classroom and for the subject of Reading and Writing. It will help students remember what happens in a story and give them the opportunity to add their own ideas to it. Making this activity is very easy, the only thing I needed was the book "Corduroy" by Don Freeman and a stuffed bear of Corduroy. I will read them the book in class then ask them to tell me what happened in the story and retell it in their own words which helps with their memorization. After I have read the book I will choose a random student with sticks or another method and they will get to take the plush Corduroy home and take pictures and/or draw their weekend with him. They will also write about their weekend and when they get back to school share with the class what they did. This is an activity that will be used throughout the year and at the end of the year I will put together each students pictures and stories of what they did with their new friend and put it into a scrapbook
Scenario 1 explains an intern missing the bus to go to his/her field site because they made the decision to go out to lunch so their significant other offered to give them a ride which they accepted. This is a situation that would turn out bad because they would arrive to their school site late and possibly miss something that would upset your field site teacher in which they could contact the students EAT teacher. If I were in this situation I would not attempt to go to my site school late, I would contact my site school teacher apologizing for my irresponsibly. I would then go back to the BCTAL and work on something else that my teacher would assign to me.
Shel Silverstein is the author and illustrator of "Where The Sidewalk Ends". Although this is not a book that has a main plot line or specific characters that grow and develop, I feel as though this is still a great book to read to your students because it's not only silly but still gives the students life lessons to remember throughout their life. I still remember many of the different poems that I read as a child and everything I took from them on how you should treat people to how to make others happy. Being able to read several of these short poems to your class a day is a great way to see the types of writing that they enjoy or don't enjoy. By reading many different short poems daily while keep the students interested everyday by introducing so many different fun stories to engage their learning. Some key words or questions that you could focus on with your students from this book would be to ask them what their dreams are and what wishes they want to come true. The first page of this book opens a wide range of topics to engage your students in. With each new poem brings a new opportunity for new questions every day which could lead to having a "Question of the Day" for when your students walk in or for the beginning of the book before you show them what the author had in mind for that same question.
Two college programs that I have considered for teaching are both schools in Texas. The first is Texas A&M University located in College Station, and the second is University of Texas in Austin. Texas A&M costs $308 per credit(full-time, in state) while University of Texas costs $8,402 per year(full-time, in state). For both schools I could get a Bachelor of Science, Special Education or Early Childhood Education Degree. Scholarships that would be useful for me would be the Opportunity Award, or if I decide to continue to do music in college I could get a Corps of Cadets Scholarship.
The steps to becoming a teacher include 1.) get an education 2.) earn your teaching credential 3.) find a job and 4.) your teaching career. Five reasons Texas would be a could place to go to college would be it's close to home but not too close, the cheaper in state tuition fee, Texas is ranked 29th in the nation for salaries, the average salary per year is $51,090, a teacher with a masters has a higher salary in Texas than others, and there's a shortage of teachers with bachelors of science and special education. Having a brother that teachers in China has opened my eyes to so many things to look forward to in teaching. I can personally say that teaching in another country would be very satisfying and rewarding. Teaching kids a new culture along with the subject you are already teaching them would be so beneficial, not just to the students, but you as well. To teach abroad you need to be certified in at the bare minimum having your bachelors.
