Blog #2

1. In the "morning meeting" readings you were exposed to several teachers who do morning meeting in their classrooms. Please find one of them, list his or her name, and explain what they do or believe about morning meeting.

I really enjoyed the article Bell to Bell Teaching, by Kathleen Stumpf Jongsma. Kathleen believes that every moment of the school day is valuable and can be used to encourage learning. She believes in using activities that help students to think on their feet as well as solidify information the students have learned in class. All of the activities she suggested can be used during morning meetings and closing time. The article is a great reference sheet to use when planning my own morning meetings.

2. In both part I of Differentiation in Practice and chapter 1 in Fulfilling the Promise, you find a short list of curricular elements that teachers can adjust and a short list of student traits or characteristics teachers can respond to. One of the books lists 4 of these, while the other lists only 3. What do you think changed in Tomlinson's thinking to add a 4th curricular element and a 4th trait to her original list?

The original 3 student traits or characteristics teachers can respond to are readiness, interest, and learning profile. Later Tomlinson added the Affect.. The original 3 curricular elements teachers can adjust are content, product, and process. Tomlinson later added learning environment. I believe that she added learning environment because they are key factors of differentiation. Students respond differently to aspects of a classroom and it is important to provide your students with a place that they all feel comfortable learning. I believe that she added affect to remind teachers to be aware each student feels differently about each subject and that when students are excited about what they are learning they are more likely to be engaged in the lesson.

3. In the introduction to The First Six Weeks of School you read about the importance of establishing a friendly, predictable, and orderly classroom as a "prerequisite for children's academic achievement." Is "friendly" as important as "predictable" and "orderly"? Why or why not? (Please refer to ideas you find in the introduction to The First Six Weeks of School.

I believe that establishing a friendly classroom is just as important of prerequisite for children's academic achievement as establishing a predictable, and orderly classroom. Being organized and being predictable are important; however, in order for the behavior of the students to be predictable and organized you need to have the students participate in activities that build trust between peer to peer as well as between student to teacher.  If students have developed a relationship with one another as well as with the teacher they will want to make the classroom a nice place and will follow the expectations, schedules the teacher has put in place.

Blog #1

1. What grade (and in which school) will you be teaching?

I will be teaching fourth grade at Copper Canyon Elementary

2. What is your favorite children's book?

To Kill A Mocking Bird

3. If you watch TV, what shows do you most enjoy?

Gilmore Girls

4. What movie affected you enough that you'd be willing to see it again?

The Blinds Side

5. What are you really good at?

School, water skiing, crafts

6. What is a talent you wish you had?

painting

7. Tell me your background in sports and/or athletics.

I danced from age 5 to age 14. Then played lacrosse all through High School. I currently run about 3-4 miles a day.

8. Tell me your background in visual arts, dance & drama.

I danced from age 5 to age 14. I've been in 6 plays, but I have no training.

9. What is your musical background? (Lessons? Singing? Instrument? Read music? Enjoy listening to music? What kinds?)

I took the piano for thirteen years. I love playing the piano, it is emotional therapy for me. Anytime something is bothering me or making me upset I play until I feel better. 

10. What would you be doing this summer, if you were not going to be an intern?

Working, and going to Lake Powell :)

11. What would you like me to know about you that I haven't asked?

I love life, and look at it as a big classroom. 

PDP: My Beliefs

As I begin my career as a professional teacher, I believe that it is necessary to use technology in the classroom, and in my lessons. However, it is important to keep in mind that in life you must keep a balance in all things. 


On a day to day bases students use technology more often than not, and it is important while teaching them to use technology to teach them the importance of human interaction as well as learning that you have to work for somethings. Not everything is instant gratification.


When I am a teacher, I hope to have the ability to use technology in a variety of ways. I would like my students to know how to really use the internet to their advantage in their education rather than as an escape from the reality of life. I want them to understand that it will help them to better their lives. 

PDP: Lessons Learned

I found all of the assigned articles and videos very interesting. The first video I watched was the Millenial Generation. This video was filmed only a few years ago, and in that short time, many of the questions the student brought up had already been answered and the technology has already been developed. I can't believe how quickly technology changes and progresses.


I agree with a lot of the concerns that the article "the new www" has. I have nieces and I have watched similar things happen to then. My niece claims that she cannot get to sleep at night if she does not have an i-pod in. I am very nervous about our future as a human race with the constant need for instant gratification. I believe that technology is one of the major causes of this.


Another video I found interesting was the Did you know video on youtube. The reality of the new technology coming our way and the effects it will have on our society is overwhelming at times. I could not believe that in a little over ten years their will be a computer that is capable of thinking the way the human brain does. It makes me wonder that if Disney & Pixar were accurate in their prediction of the future in the movie "WALL-E". That eventually technology will do everything for us,  and we will only live for pleasures and forget the satisfaction that comes from a days hard work.

PDP: Strengths and Weaknesses

According to the UNI survey and the NET Standards I discovered that my largest technological strength is my capability to develop and create technology enriched lessons that my students will enjoy. I also found that one of my technological strengths is creating graphic organizers for my students to use. Another strength I have is managing my class website. I have learned a lot in that area this semester and will feel very comfortable using that tool as a teacher. According the UNI survey and the NET Standards I realized that my largest technological weakness is my knowledge of computer terminology. I know how to do a lot of things on the computer; however, when someone tries to give me verbal instructions on how to do something on the computer I am not able to follow their direction very well. Another weakness that I have is my lack of knowledge of video conferencing. I have never used it nor do I understand its use in education.


As a teacher I would like to frequently use technology in my classroom. I feel that in the technological age we live in it is necessary to use technology in lessons to keep students engaged.I would really like to learn more computer verbage. I feel that it will improve my use of the computer as well as my ability to instruct my students while they are using the computers.
Over the course of the semester I have really learned the importance of chatting while working on an assignment on google docs. It has saved me so much time this semester!! I would like to increase my knowledge of the use of video conferencing because I believe that it will also be a time saver as I continue my education and as I become a professional teacher. 


I have an Apple computer, and at the Apple store they offer courses on learning how to use your mac. A way for me to learn more about video conferencing would be to attend one of these courses. As far as improving my knowledge of the computer language I feel that it will improve as I take more computer classes in school and as I use the computer more when i become a teacher. The best way to learn computer vocabulary is to use the computer. Another way to improve my computer vocabulary is to watch a video on youtube that reviews basic computer terminology.

Field 4 (we discussed that I could make this up for my missing November blog)

Doc,

We discussed in class Thursday December 2nd that I could make up this blog due to my confusion on the dates of fiield. It is for my missing blog in november.

Field was a really great experience. I went into it saying that whatever experience I had was what I needed to become a better teacher, reguardless of if it was a good or bad experience. The first week of field was a little rough. Our teacher did not introduce us to the class and did not make us feel very welcome; however, as time progressed things got better. The students loved having us in the class, and really enjoyed our lessons.

I feel that over field I improved most in the area of classroom management. The first couple of days was really rough, but as we reflected on our experiences and applied what we learned to later lessons I felt a lot more in control.

I really enjoyed integrating technology into my lessons, and the students really enjoyed it. When they saw that we were going to use the laptops they were so excited. Our field teacher only does a lot of direct instruction so they enjoyed the variety of instruction while we were teaching. I also feel like we reached a variety of learning types. Over all, field was a great experience.

What I am Learning: Digital Story Reflection

Digital Story Reflection

Westland Elementary School is a traditional calendar school located in the middle part of West Jordan, Utah at 2925 West 7180 South. Westland Elementary was opened in 1972 and was remodeled in 1996. Westland is one of 32 schools in Jordan District. The Jordan District serves more than 49,000 children living in the communities of Bluffdale, Copperton, Herriman, Riverton, South Jordan, and West Jordan. Utah. My cooperating teacher was Sara Weston, 4th grade. Ms. Weston’s class is made up of 28 fourth graders- 18 girls and 10 boys. The students range in age from 8 to 9 years old. Twenty-four students are Caucasian, 4 Hispanic, and one  Polynesian.

We developed a good relationship with Ms. Weston over the course of the field experience. She was willing to answer any questions that we had about her classroom and supported the completion of all of our required field assignments. She was impressed with our digital story and said it looked like we had put a lot of time and work into creating it; however, she said that as a teacher it is not a realistic use of her time. She could find a video created professionally that would be as applicable to the lesson without all of the extra time spent creating it.

Though Ms. Weston cooperated with the completion of the lesson we gave her on how to create a digital story, she felt it was a waste of time. She did not understand how it was applicable to our training to be better teachers, especially because she will never use the information she gained from the lesson. She felt that we knew how to make a digital story, and that we were comfortable during the instruction.

The training session with Miss Weston went well.  She was very cooperative and listened as we showed her our digital story and then continued to show her the program we used and how to use it.  Miss Weston thought we did a good job on our digital story and found it neat that we were able to make it.  However, she said it was not  a useful product for her and that she would not use it in her classroom. She said if she were to use a digital story she would find a more applicable one online. This way it would save her a bunch of time and unnecessary work to make one herself and it would be more professional.  

The service-learning experience went fine.  We did a good job in showing/teaching Miss Weston our digital story; however, she found it not applicable to her.  She told us that she would never use a program like this to make a digitial story and that it would take up too much of her time.  Based on our discussion with her, we found the service-learning experience to not be effective.  It also took up a lot of time to complete to simply show to the class for a few minutes.

Our cooperating teacher did not gain a lot from the experience.  As we have stated above, she found it unnecessary for her class and would find a different way to get the information across.  She stated that teachers are very busy already, and having to make her own digital story would simply take too much time. She did think the program was creative but would not use it in her teaching career.

From this experience I learned how to create a digital story and use a program I would otherwise never have learned.  I learned that college students can make a great tool engage students. However, I learned that making a digital story is far too time consuming and that the time making it and preparing it for the students is not worth the effort. There are more professional videos available to use.

The digital story in my opinion was not worth the time and effort.  We put a lot of work, time, and consideration into making this video for us to find out that it was not necessary.  I don’t believe the students learned more or benefited more because we made the video.  If I were to use a digital story when I am a teacher I would find an applicable one that was professionally made. This would save time.  Therefore, I did not find this assignment worth my time when there are already many great tools, resources, and videos to use.