News

I have been experiencing ever emotion possibly lately! On top of finishing my teaching certification, I have been nominated for a Special Educator position at a local school. I am very excited to finally be in a position I have worked so hard for. I will continue to take my courses while working which seems like a lot of work. I am nervous about getting everything done for my job and my courses. I tend to be an overachiever and don’t like failing. I am hoping to find a happy medium where I can continue my classes, succeed at my new job, and still take care of my family. I need to take the Praxis II this summer which I have bought the practice tests to study. I feel like this summer will be packed full of things for work and school, but I hope to have some fun before starting the new school year.

Amanda 🙂

Teaching Science

Today I started a new course called Strategies for Teaching Science. I’m excited to learn more about this subject and learn new ways to engage students in learning about Science. I will continue to work on incorporating higher order thinking questions and using technology in my lessons. I’m eager to work with the classroom teacher and begin creating my five lessons!

Final Reflection

Starting out in my course, EDU 702, I was a little nervous about all the sharing we would be doing through blogging, video responses, and twitter posts. I had never written a blog or even been on Twitter. This was all new to me, but I grew to really enjoy both of these.

I enjoyed reading my peers responses to courses questions or resources they might have shared on Twitter. It is comforting reading other’s responses to see they are working towards the same goals. Knowing others are struggling with the same areas as me, has allowed me to relax and enjoy the learning.

Twitter is a great place to share resources related to education. There is so much out there that there is constantly new information to be learned. I love this part of it. After participating in the live chats, I have started following other professionals in the education field. This has allowed me to have access to so much more. I find myself constantly checking Twitter for new information to read.

We created our lesson plans in a folder on our Google Drive where everyone has access to them. At first this was uncomfortable to do because what if my lesson wasn’t good? By having all lessons available to read, I was able to see that my peers were still learning as I am. I was also able to get good ideas to incorporate into my own lessons. One classmate did her second unit on the same topic as me, so we were able to compare activities and objectives to each other’s.

I have really enjoyed this course. I have learned so much!!! I have learned about new ways to interact with others (Twitter, blogging), I have learned about different programs/Apps to use in the classroom (Flipgrid, Seesaw, Google Classroom), and I have learned to be open to feedback from others. I am trying to have more of a growth mindset and understand that I am learning and can do it and use the feedback to grow from! I am excited to continue my education and use the resources from this class to better my education.

Tomorrow is my final lesson in my American Symbol unit. The students will be creating a symbol to represent themselves and taking a quiz on the American Symbols discussed. I will be observed by a member of GSC, but I’m not as nervous as I was in the beginning of the course. I am excited to receive more feedback. I look forward to learning more ways I can better my lessons, classroom management, and teaching. I have learned a lot in this course, but I am excited to move on to a new course and learn new strategies to teaching and to move closer to finishing my certification. This course has opened my eyes to higher order thinking questions and using technology in the classroom. Even though my school isn’t as advanced in using technology, I was still able to incorporate it a little.

Classroom management

Today I taught the second lesson from my unit on American Symbols. The class is always engaged and eager to contribute to discussions. I have found that there are several students in the class who get distracted easily or don’t even pay attention. This doesn’t happen with just me, I have noticed it each time I am in the classroom. The class is chaotic, and it really stresses me out.

Today I talked to another staff member (the teacher’s close friend) about the class and how they are always loud and busy. He stated that every class the teacher has is an “active” class. So, is it really the students or is it the teaching style? I watched this teacher struggle last year when my daughter was in her class, but I thought it was the few students in the class creating the chaos. This year I am seeing the same patterns.

One thing I would like to focus on is classroom management. I do not want to have my own classroom and go day by day with the constant chaos and stress of getting students to respect and listen to me. Setting appropriate rules and expectations is key. When the students have a routine, schedule, and a set of rules to go by, they are more likely to know what is expected and know what appropriate behavior is. I am looking forward to being involved with other classes to see how other teachers run their classrooms.

Digital Citizenship/Leadership

This week in my course we are discussing digital leadership. This really hit home because my 8-year-old daughter, who is in second grade, has just started going on the computer on her own and watching youtube videos. She has her computer in our office, so I am able to monitor the things she watches but I haven’t really discussed the important factors to remember when using the internet.

Needless to say, I have started talking with her about what is and what is not appropriate to do on the computer. I will sit with her and show her the many things she will be able to use the internet for in the future. Right now, she is only watching music videos and GoNoodle videos, but she does like to look up German Shepard pictures and that could always lead to different web searches.

I feel like first grade is good time to begin having this conversation with students. In my situation my daughter isn’t exposed to a lot of computer time at home, so I didn’t need to have the conversation. Now that she is older and more mature I will dig deeper into the topic. I am glad we are discussing this in our course.

Patterns of Social and Political Interaction

While learning about how to teach Social Studies, I have learned that it is a broad area to teach.  Social Studies is broken in five content areas which include Civics, Economics, Geography, US History, and Word History.  Within these five areas there are also 10 themes.  One theme I would like to discuss is Patterns of Social and Political Interaction. 

The Patterns of Social and Political Interaction theme “focuses on the changing patterns of class, ethnicity, race, and gender in social and political relations” (NHCSS, 2006).  When looking at the theme through the different strands, different topics arise.  Human rights issues would be a Civic example.  For Economics, the changing role of women in the economy would be an area to discuss.  The Geography strand would examine immigration issues and why people were motivated to leave their county.  US History may be examined by teaching about slavery and racism, where World History would discuss migrations and cultural diffusion.

Here are examples of essential questions that relate to this theme:

“Why is it important for all people to be treated equally no matter what their differences are? Is a multicultural society viable? How do changing patterns in social and political relations initiate social movements? How have societies historically limited or encouraged social mobility? Why do humans engage in ethnic cleansing?” (NHCSS, 2006). 

Resource:

New Hampshire Council for the Social Studies. (June 2006). K-12 Social Studies New Hampshire Curriculum Framework. Retrieved from https://www.education.nh.gov/instruction/curriculum/social_studies/documents/frameworks.pdf

Getting close to the end!

I am currently at the half way mark in my course! The units I have created have been fun making and teaching. I have taught 3 out of the 5 lessons in my first unit! I am really excited to start my second unit on American symbols! I have learned a lot about incorporating high order thinking questions and activities. Now when talking to students or designing activities, I have it in the back of my mind to use questioning that allows them to use deeper thinking.

After looking at my schedule for my four remaining courses, I have decided to take the Praxis II and Foundations of Reading exams this summer. I am super nervous as I do not like taking tests, especially test you have to pay for and continue to take and pay for until passed. I will begin with the study guides online and any other resources I can find to help. I have heard the tests are easier that Praxis I and I have also heard they are harder, so I don’t really know what to expect.

Have you take the Praxis !! of the Foundations of Reading exam? How were they? I’m excited to take them and continue on with my courses.

Week5

This week I am creating my unit 2 lessons and still revising unit 1. I am back and forth about what I want to do and how to incorporate different things into my lessons. Is anyone else having this issue?

I will be teaching my second lesson on Thursday where I will be observed by my FPF. I was super nervous last week being observed, but I am feeling a bit more relaxed this week even with all the people who are going to be in the room. My FPF will be observing but I will also have the classroom teacher in the room, a guest speaker (a friend who is a police officer), and now the school principal would like to sit in to get pictures of the police officer talking to the class. So now I will have 4 people in the room with me during my lesson! Ekk Over the years of teaching you will be observed many times, so it is best to get over the fear of being observed now! 🙂

 

 

Lesson #1 finished

Today I taught my first lesson from Unit #1. I am doing a unit on community helpers. Today the students learned about nurses and their importance in out community. Everything went as planned except for the nurse being out for the day. It worked out because the substitute did an amazing job with the students during our mini field trip to her office. The students did a great job listening and asking questions while we were there.

After the lesson was over and the students went home for the day, I was able to sit with the classroom teacher and reflect on the lesson. I was able to identify some things I would like to tweak in my future lessons. I love working with someone to discuss how things went. I love the feedback!!