Spring 2018 Student Teaching here I come!

Week 3 of classes was a great week! Today I got approved to be a student teacher in the Spring of 2018. Also our class got the opportunity to go to Washington Elementary and meet the teachers and principal we will be working with. I am very excited to start helping out at Washington. The teachers were very friendly, very opened to working with us and appreciative that we will be able to help them with whatever they need that day. This will be great experience for us to be working hands on with the students and give us many opportunities to teach and get comfortable in the classroom. We do not have a set list of things that we will be doing so it will be very realistic because we all know that is how it will be when we start teaching. Life happens and we will have to juggle multiple things at a time and change schedules around when different things pop up.
   This week we spent time talking about the professional development plan and how to create SMART goals. This will be very helpful and effective for us because these goals will help us grow as individuals and help us prepare for student teaching. We can also put them in our portfolio and show how we have grown over time. This is from NC standard 4. We need to be able to facilitate learning for our students. We as teachers need to set goals for ourselves and learn as much as we can so that way we will be able to facilitate learning for our students in the best way possible. The goals that I set for myself now, will effect my students in my future classroom. For example, one goal I am setting is to research technology that I can use to impact student learning. Once I have a list of different technology tools I can use, I can then take that list and integrate it into my teaching.
   Generalizations is another concept we spent time talking about and watched a video about. Generalizations are what we want our students to learn, but without telling them. We will need to have generalizations for each one of our topics and they will help us to create a better lesson plan if we have that goal and focus in mind.
   I have continued on with my outside technology research for this week as well. Although simple, I can have my students’ use a computer or laptop to blog or a use a diary online. I can use Blogger or WordPress to create templates for my students to fill in or simply give them a writing prompt to blog about. I can also have them use Twitter. I can have them summarize the lesson in 140 characters or less to see what main ideas they understood from the lesson. Blogger, WordPress and Twitter are three simple but great ways to assess what students are learning and it gives them an opportunity to express what they have learned and how they feel.

http://www.teachhub.com/12-easy-ways-use-technology-your-classroom-even-technophobic-teachers

First Full Week Complete!

We have just finished the first full week of classes of the second semester. Classes are becoming routine and we are getting into the flow of class and homework everyday. This week in social studies our main focus was concept vs. topic. We watched a video, made a visual about it, talked about it and got plicker quizzed on it. I would say this is a pretty important concept and we need to know the differences between a concept and topic. We also have to be educated about what studies fall under concept and what falls under topics. For example war would be considered a concept because it is timeless, abstract, universal and is the big idea. The Civil War on the other hand would be considered a topic because there is a time period on it, it is not universal or abstract and it is focusing on one war so it would not be considered a big idea. This would be both teacher standards 3 and 4. Standard 3 is that teachers know the content they teach. If teachers do not know the difference between a topic and a concept and where different areas of studies fall, they will not be preparing their students for life when they graduate. Students need to know how to be good citizens in our country. That is more important than teaching them about dates and definitions. Standard 4 is teachers facilitate learning for their students. Teachers need to know how their students think and learn. While they are preparing their lessons to teach to the class, they have to think of each of their students and include differentiation so each of their students have an equal opportunity to learn. I will use this in my future classroom by making sure I know the differences between concepts and topics and learn as much as I can about them while I am in school so I can be the best possible teacher to my students as I can.              

For my outside learning I have decided to learn about a new way I can use technology in my classroom each week. Since I am not very good with technology,  that is something I need to work on. I found an article online called "12 easy ways to use technology in the classroom, even for technophobic teachers" This describes me perfectly. The first way I can include technology in my lesson plan would be to do a powerpoint "game show review". It is an easy way to create a power point with jeopardy or who wants to be a millionaire gameshow. It is a great way to use technology, learn and have fun all at the same time.

http://www.teachhub.com/12-easy-ways-use-technology-your-classroom-even-technophobic-teachers
This is the website I found!

Jumping into the semester

Today I had my first day of Tuesday Thursday classes of the semester and boy did we take in a lot of information. Between 311 Fine Arts Integration and 307 Social Studies, I was overwhelmed with all of the information. This is not unusual for education classes, however I am extra overwhelmed because I have to interview for the teacher ed program in two weeks, I have to take the general curriculum test in two weeks and lacrosse season starts tomorrow. With all of tasks I have to complete I have no other option besides to stay organized, use my time wisely and get my work done ahead of time. Dr. Parker has been very helpful already. He gave us the  information we need in order to get ahead with the projects that we have due later in the semester.
  Today I learned what google cardboard was. I will now be able to use it in my virtual museum that I have to complete soon. We are in the 21st century so technology and all the resources we can use online have greatly increased and we need to be able to utilize them as much as we can. Technology is something we can integrate into the NC standards. Instead of teaching just about technology, we can use technology to to teach our other core subjects and make learning fun.
  I am excited to get started with Social Studies methods because I am ready to learn and obtain information. I want to be the best teacher I can be and be a good leader and example to my future students. In order to do this, I need to know the content I teach including Social Studies and the current events that are happening around us. I can use the information and the projects we do in this class to help me be successful in my future classroom. I can use the virtual museum we have to do in my future classroom, I can use the information I find about current events, and can use the experience we are going to have at Washington in my classroom as well. I am excited to see how much I grow this semester and am ready to get started!