Is it really October?

Where has time gone... In May I said I was going to use my blog to tell of my study abroad experience in England this summer as well as my Student Teaching this year, well that did not go as well as planned.  I got to England and was having a grand time, and when I went to blog about what I was learning, I realized my internet was not so great.  So, instead I journaled.  I learned a lot on the trip, including how to incorporate drama into literacy as well as make it more hands on.  There was a lot of fascinating pieces that I would never have though of and that I can not wait to use.  If you have any questions feel free to ask.  Do you use drama in your classroom? Then I came back and started student teaching in August in a third grade classroom.  I loved it! I learned a lot about reading and writing workshop as well as words their way.  Today we heard from the Literacy Coach about Writing workshop, more in depth about writing workshop in the district, and I feel that it is amazing for students to work individually on what they want to talk about.  It is more individualized for each student. I can not wait for the rest of the year in my 8th grade and kindergarten phases, and then my final semester of student teaching in 3rd grade.

End of semester

This semester has come to a close, and as sad as it is to say goodbye to all of my students, it is also opening new doors to new opportunities.  As I said at the beginning of the semester, I was working on developing my personal learning network, which was a part of an Independent study. I knew I would be learning a lot from blogging and Twitter, and with no prior experience in blogging or twitter, I did not realize what all it could provide to me as a future educator.  I  found many helpful blogs, people to follow, pieces of technology, and much more.  I read blogs and check my twitter daily, which before I had never done.  I have found all different resources that I will use in my classrooms, as well as just important information, that will forever be important to me as I start teaching in the Fall. 

Although my class may be over, I look forward to using my twitter and my blog to tell of my study abroad experience in England this summer as well as my Student Teaching next year.  I know that this Personal Learning Network will be a great resource for me in the future. So, I ask, what other ways do you keep up on what is going on in the world?  Also, what are your favorite pieces of technology, blogs, or other teacher resources you use for your classroom?

Last clinical

As the end of the year draws near, I have had to say goodbye to all of the students I have been working with.  On the last day of my first grade clinicals, all of the students spent time reviewing what they had done throughout the year, and I feel that I learned a lot as well as my student.  Some of the activities I completed with my student this semester were a 5 person Readers Theater of the Hungry Caterpillar with Props, creating an A to Z animal book, and reading different books (her favorite being "The Night I Followed My Dog").  We used my ipod and computer a little, but I would have liked to spend more time with technology. Throughout the year, I felt limited on the technology that I could use, due to the fact that the students did not know how to type very well and we had to provide technology rather than using the schools. As a teacher how do you overcome the technology limitations?  What type of technology do you use with students?

Community Involvement

At the beginning of this school year, I applied for a position to mentor a student from a school in Chicago.  The program CONNECT is designed to target 7th/8th grade students who have the potential and want to learn about and attend college, but may not know about how to get there.  We traveled to Chicago and met with the students, it started with just sitting and talking about our families and what we like to do in our spare time.  Then each week we skype with students for 20 minutes and throughout that time we develop a deeper connection.  I watched others connect with their mentee and learn so much, while mine was so shy and I felt like I was not good enough, realizing she will only open up if I do.  Slowly we connected and built a great relationship. As she applied for high school, and she needed advice on what to do for her applications and she is worried about making bad choices in high school.  I told her that she has family and friends to help her make good choices, and that she is smart, and that started our bonding.  Ronnie Mackin states "The hard thing is building a place that engages the community and gets parents truly involved.  This work involves many complex systems that must work together in unison.  You have to hire talented and mission-driven staff who believe in the limitless potential of every kid".  I would completely agree with this, but would like to know how to get parents and the community involved.  What are ways to get them involved in the school and the students involved in the community?
This week we had our last visit to see the students, and we have been working up to our community involvement activity.  We talked with students, community, and teachers and decided that on our last trip we would bring Physical Education equipment for the students in the school as well as doing a few learn about bullying activities.  We got active with physical education equipment, and then spent time discussing how bullying, gang violence, etc. has effected everyone.  We completed a truth circle, labeling activity, and then created a wall mural.  The mural had quotes, sayings, and words to represent anti-bullying. What are things that you have done to discuss anti-bullying in your classroom or school? 

Kindergarten

Yesterday I helped in a Kindergarten classroom in the morning.  I will be working with one of the students throughout the the summer, and the teacher and I are working together now to get things ready for summer.  During my 3 hours in the classroom, I was able to see a few things I would love to do in my classroom.  She incorporated technology, movement activities, and discussions into her lessons keeping her students involved in lessons.  She used "feed the pig" as a behavioral tool, having student pay one of their coins when they were not following directions.  What have you used or seen used in classrooms?
Throughout the class, the students were using the interactive whiteboard, and were able to take turns doing each activity.  Personally my favorite activity was when the class completed the song "When You Subtract with a Pirate".  The students were singing along and answering the math problems.  It turned a lesson into a fun activity. What activities have you seen used to teach rather than just lecturing?
Students and teachers also provide positive support for each other, giving positive comments throughout the day.  These are called bucket fillers, and they write them on slips of paper and put them in a bucket, which the teacher then distributes to each of the students buckets at the end of the day. I personally thought that there would be days that some students would get none or very little while others got a lot, but she says that everyday everyone gets about the say amount.  Is this something you have used or would consider using in your class?
This experience has taught me a lot about setting up my future classroom and different techniques I can use in my room.  Any other tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Lying

Last night I attended a professional seminar about the lies in our society.  They talked about how athletes, actors, and other famous people all lie throughout life.  As the speakers were talking about the types of lies, I was curious, what makes a good lie versus a bad lie in the education world.  As a student I hear teachers consistently say "use citations" or "don't cheat" or some variation of not taking another persons work.  In my opinion this is a bad lie, and it is good to stop it, but what about the little lies that are what students want to hear or what we should say?  As a teacher, where does the lie begin and reality stop in situations where reality is not what should be told?  An example is anything in the personal life, do students need to know this, or do you bend the truth to fit what they can know?
What causes you to lie?  Dr. Julie Kardos and Dr. Naline Lai, talk about lying from the child/teen perspective and what to do about it.  I believe that they have a lot of good ideas behind what motivates lies. I believe the things that motivate children to lie also motivate adults.  The worry of letting someone down or trying to cover up a problem, is something we all do. How do you deal with lying at all ages?  Is there a way to stop it in society?  Also, where did the lies start; are they innate or learned?

Blogging

In January I started working with a first grade student who loves dancing, athletics, horses, etc, but has no interest in reading about them.  My first thought was to make the learning more active, putting on a play together.  Boy was I wrong, she told me she did not want to act anything out.  Within the last few days I have been trying to come up with a creative way to have her write, and Jenni van Rees blog about student blogging, was just the spark.  I presented the idea of writing about whatever she wanted for a couple of minutes on my computer.  I showed her some of the student work from Jenni van Rees class as well as from Kathy Cassidy's class, and she was ready to start today. This tiny bit of technology and independence sparked a fire inside her. For the future I am considering a photo story or some other form of technology that can be incorporated into a first grade literacy class.  I have limited access to technology, mainly being an ipod or a computer.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  

First Clinical of the Semester

A little background information before I get started.  I am a junior elementary education major at Illinois State University.  I am currently working on developing my personal learning network through the use of blogs, twitter, and other useful tools.  I have little experience with this, and over the last few weeks I have been searching for a few blogs to help me in my lesson planning for clinicals.  First, I will talk about that and then about my clinical.
Each semester education majors are required to partake in clinicals, which is a step towards teaching in our own classroom.  Each semester I have had a teacher who tells us exactly what we are going to teach, how much time to spend on it, what level the student is at, etc.  It never felt like I was learning a lot about reading my students until this year.
Our first clinical of the semester we knew the age of our student and their gender.  I have worked with children before, but having to teach based on getting to know my student and understanding their strengths and weaknesses, that was a whole new ballpark.  I read a few blogs from different people about activities that had been done, tips for clinicals, and other important ideas, and soon came to realize that these 3 years of school have prepared me for this very moment.  I used Kathy Cassidy's blog to come up with a few ideas to bring in to my lessons.  I found that her use of technology is something I want to incorporate into my lessons.  I also used a blog by Michelle, in which she gives important aspects about clinicals, like staying positive, being clear, and importantly being professional as well as many more.  Overall I felt that this bit of blog searching I did really opened my eyes to all of the tools the internet provides to us.
I have a student who is a first grader.  This student likes to stand and move. He/she is an athlete and very active both at school and after school.  I noticed that there was constant movement during the lesson, to keep focus on book we were reading.  This student wanted to work on other projects, such as coloring, talking, etc rather than the task at hand, but when we were working, we accomplish everything planned.  We have read two books so far, and I have realized that this student struggles with larger words.  In the role of a teacher, I picked books by level for the first meeting from scholastic book wizard one was a 1.9 (Rumble in the Jungle) and the other was a level 2.2 (Henry and Mudge).  The student struggled with some words in "Rumble in the Jungle" such as ravenous, ladyfriend, gorgeous, ferocious, and wallop.  Then, in Henry in Mudge, the student only messed up Henry's name, saying Harry, which was not a meaning changing error.  It did not effect the story the the student did not notice.  I have loved my first week of clinicals, and after talking with my teacher I know one idea for the semester is to work on strategies to help the student to read larger/harder words, and help with improving their vocabulary.  Thank you for taking the time to read my blog! I would love any feedback you may have or suggestions on what you would like me to blog about!