FINAL THOUGHTS!!!

Final reflection!

                  It feels like just yesterday it was the first day of the semester, and I was sitting in class thinking "Oh boy, this is going to be a tough class." I have learned so much from this class, and much more I haven't even realized that I have learned yet. The more I fill out on the edTPA, the more I understand the articles I have read. I did not fully understand everything that I was reading in the beginning of the class. I thought that I was going to be lost the entire time, but as class went on the more the readings made sense and the more things clicked. 

              I have used more technology this semester that I have my entire college career. I have reached out beyond PowerPoint Presentations and have utilized other programs in other classes. I have a better understanding of google docs and it has been very handy! I am not as scared of technology as I was the first day of class, and I plan on using more of it in my education classes and in my classroom.

           Although this class is very intimating I found it very helpful. Having the teacher evaluate you while you teach an entire lesson to an entire class is scary enough, but your peers evaluate you as well. I have never been evaluated liked that before, and I was very nervous about it, but I can guarantee that I am much more comfortable in front of the classroom now than I ever have been. I believe that this experience is one that is needed and is something to grow from. I don't believe that this experience is meant for something to dwell on, but rather reflect upon and grow from, and this is what I plan on doing. I am going to go into the next semester with a new sense of confidence no matter what I am teaching in the front of the classroom. I think the best part of my teaching experience in this class was when a student told me that I said a word wrong. This is something I have always feared, but when it happened I just said Thank you, and I repeated the word the correct way. I was no embarrassed like I thought that I would be, but rather I was impressed that the student said it correctly. I believe that these are the moments where we grow as people and teachers. 

If there is one thing I will take away from this class it is the use of the word "GUYS". I have refrained from using this word in class, and even at work. I was working on a mock lesson plan for another class and my co-teacher put the word "guys" in the lesson plan. I said "oh no, we can think of a better word than that!" 

This class was the most difficult education class that I have had to take, but not because of the content but because of the pressure of teaching an entire class for the first time. I am happy that it was a co-teaching class! This has been one of the best experiences I have ever had, and I know that it will be very helpful when student teaching!

Mock Job Interview

Today in class we practiced for job interviews. Since these were mock job interviews we could do little research of the "schools" that would be "interviewing" us. I had a hard time trying to figure out what to look over before the interview. I am usually the one to research where I would like to work and find out all about that place before going on the interview. I like to know where I am applying and this helps me with what I need to focus on for the interview. It was intimidating to have no information and to be interviewed by my peers. 
I thought that this experience was a valuable one, and one that everyone should have. I feel that I will be better prepared for when I do go on my interviews for my "real person job". I thought that the "Principles" did an outstanding job coming up with questions to make us think on our feet, and to help us see the questions that will be asked during an interview. I am not quick enough on my feet when answering questions, and I feel that this is something I need to work on. I think that the methods classes at MSMC are very good with preparing you for your future. I am thankful that Dr.Smirnova had us practice this very important skill. 

Creating a Pre-test

In class today we created a pre-test for our students. We had yet to meet these students and we were ALREADY thinking of how to create a test to assess their prior knowledge. I was confused on how to design this test with out actually meeting these students. Our class was divided up into four groups and each group had a different topic that they were to create questions for. We had JUST met our group partners and I didn't really know any of them so this was all new for me. We were not sure what to ask the students. We came up with some questions in the end that we were still unsure about. I found this to be difficult and I wasn't sure how we were to use it in the class.

UPDATE! 
So after we had our field work we had asked the students to fill out another assessment test. This was a post-test. When my group started meeting and creating our lesson plan I understood the pre-test. I understood the reason for why we needed to assess their knowledge of where they are in their learning. We needed to know where to start teaching! This I just didn't think of until we had to create a lesson plan and we were unsure of what they had known. 

Grateful is a choice!

Today my teacher asked us to read an article from The New York Times : Chose to Be Grateful. It Will Make You Happier.
     So before I even began to read this article I was caught by the title, and this was right before Thanksgiving and I just sat there thinking about how to make my life happier and if gratefulness plays a part in it. I had decided that Yes, I am happy because I am grateful for everything in my life. Everybody that I am able to call my friends and family, I am grateful for my cats. I had mentally made an entire list of things that I was grateful for and the entire day I just thought about how unhappy I would be if my life was missing these things.
      When I FINALLY read the article some things stood out to me. Like when he mentions about how some people are more grateful than others due to a gene (CD 38), this describes my best friend. You could give this girl one sock not a pair just one and it could have a hole in the toe and she will tell you Thank you, and How much she just loves it. All authentic feelings, she doesn't fake this kind of gratefulness. She has always been this way, and no matter what you get her for birthdays or holidays she is grateful just to see you.  

     I really believe that choosing to focus on the good things in life make you a happier person and a more grateful person as well as positive. Positive people do not focus on the negative things in life, rather they look at the good in any situation. This is something I noticed does really work. I have a job where in one location the workers focus on the bad things that the store manager does. The employees do not focus on the good that she brings to the table, and I bet if you asked them what is something good that she has brought to the company they couldn't name it. They could name it if they tried, and I can see the moral and the happiness in that store plummet when the store manager walks in. The employees are not complete jerks or any thing the store manager is far from perfect and has some social skills that need work, but she does bring good things to the table. My other store is a store that focuses on the positive things in the store. The employees and managers talk to each other like this " Hey Susie! Great job with produce this morning it looks amazing, but did you notice that the signs were off?" She would respond with "Thanks, It was a tough truck. I did noticed I just didn't get to it yet." Then I went on to tell her that I would take care of. Those positive interactions in the store and focusing on the positives really makes the employees want to come to work. The entire staff looks at the store that way. They tell me things like, Oh the truck was hard it was 15 pallets, but at least nothing broke. The positive atmosphere that is that store is inspiring, and they are grateful for the small things like nothing breaking while putting truck out. The two stores have different feelings when you walk into the door, and is felt by everyone. The store that has the negative out look has a high turn over rate and the store that is positive has had some of their employees for 10 years. 
      

      After reading this article I thought about the other day when I took 20 minutes to do nothing but watch a silly cartoon in bed. I was completely relaxed and it felt amazing after the long semester that has been crushing me. I remember getting out of bed and saying "wow that was absolutely amazing!" I had taken that type of relaxation before work or right after a long day at work for granted until I went back to school and forgot how amazing it was to have those moments. I think going back to school and depriving myself of them has made me so much more grateful for them! 

I challenge you to be grateful for at least three things DAILY in your LIFE and they CAN'T be the same things every day! Every day for two weeks has to be a different thing that you are GRATEFUL for! Record this in a journal with your mood of that day, and try it during different times of the day and with different feelings. ARE you going to be MORE positive in the END?

Until Next Time..

Native Americans Research

In class today we had a cooperative learning lesson to research a Native American Tribe and create a power point to explain the tribe to the rest of the class. I was not looking forward to this at first because we have done this in middle school, and I thought that it was just going to be a repeat of what I have learned already. BUT BOY WAS I WRONG...

My group got to explore the Muscogee Tribe and this tribe was very interesting. I learned quite a bit about this tribe the their ways. This tribe was often called the Creek Tribe because they lived near creeks. Although they were forced out of their homelands they re-established their home in Oklahoma. This tribe did not wear the traditional head piece that many Native Americans are "remembered as" The men in the tribe did wear their hair in a Mohawk style.

The Muscogee tribe wore the traditional breech cloth and moccasins. The women wore wrap around dresses. In the winter the men would wear leather leggings to keep warm and mantels made out of deer skin. 

We needed a way to make our tribe engaging to the entire class so I was very relieved when Jenna told me that she knew how to do their traditional dance! I was very excited! She taught the entire group how to do the stomp dance and we got to perform it for the class! Every group had a traditional dance and most of them were done around a fire and to Mother Earth. I found this very interesting. I will use this in my classroom when teaching the students about Native Americans. 

I think my favorite part of this lesson was learning about all of the other Native American tribes and their lives and comparing them to the lives of the Muscogee. We played an awesome scavenger hunt game after we presented the Native American tribes. This was a clever way to make sure that the students were obtaining the information.

A video about the Muscogee tribe that is very relaxing!

Newspapers & Current events ONLINE!

Today I presented a current events lesson with my partners. We presented a lesson on the 5 W's: What, Where, Who, When and Why. We used these to deceiver a news article. In this lesson we taught the class how to use wordle and include that into a current event project. When we were coming up with an idea of what to do we had decided that wordle would make reading a news article fun and interesting. We thought that in our classroom the students could each a news article of a current event that they would need to read for friday and bring it in but in the form of a wordle and explain it to the class using the 5 W's.

This is the wordle we used in our lesson and from this wordle I could explain to the class what the article was about. Who write to article and the article's title. The class all made their own and shared them.This activity can be modified for most ages. The wordle can be added for the middle level grades and dropped for the lower level grades. The upper level grades like fifth and sixth grade could use the wordle to write a summary about their article to present to the class. The wordles could be included in a power point that all of the students contribute to. I had a lot of fun working with this program and making a wordle. We used an online news site called newsela, and I really like this site because you can quiz yourself on the article or highlight important features of the article.

Every group presented a different way to use current events in the classroom and I have found them most helpful in thinking of creative ways to get students excited about reading the paper and involving themselves in the world beyond their front door.

I remember doing current events in school every Friday we had to bring in an article about a court case (it was for a criminal justice class). We had to provide a summary explaining what happened in the court case and who was involved. I found this a lot of fun but it was because it was a subject that I wanted to learn about. I remember doing this current events activity in 8th grade and it was not as much fun. I was never interested in the articles that I picked and that was part of the problem. I would like to take this activity one step further and incorporate the community into the current events project. I would like the students to pick articles that are taking place in their community and how they could get involved and depending on the grade level challenging the students to get involved on their own. The students who are too young to do this I would incorporate food drives or other ways for them to get involved in the classroom, the students would then bring their food to the soup kitchen or church that gives it out to the needy. Having the students see where the food goes I believe is very important for them to grasp the concept of community and helping and giving.

I was given an article "5 Ways Students Can Visually Explore the News." by Richard Byrne
This article was very interesting and gives great examples of how students can explore the news on their own. All of the ways he goes into are all online and all free!! I really liked the Newseum's Today's Front Pages. This website is really awesome! It connects where the papers are written with in relationship to where you are plus it gives you the front page view of their paper! I played around with this site and It was a lot of fun to see how many papers are written in certain states and the distances between them. This can spark a conversation about cities and towns and why there maybe more papers written in the city verses a town.

I would like to challenge you to think of ways to incorporate your class in the community around you. How will you educate your students on the community they live in and how will you get your students to realize that there are people out there less fortunate then they are?!?

Until Next time!