Week 6.......

This week I've learned how to do three separate tiered groups for centers in math methods. Each center was fun and educational. One group practiced adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing by rolling a dice. Another group practiced rounding by "shopping" for groceries. The last, top tiered group went further and practiced rounding bigger numbers than the other classmates would be able to do. NCTPS.3.c is realizing the interconnectedness with content areas/disciplines. This discipline area is a great way to have students on level without feeling lower than another. My biggest struggle this past week was fitting into the group of girls with my major. While they are all sweet, I can't shake the feeling that I'm not desired. Maybe this is happening, maybe it's not, time will hopefully help me think positively about this situation. I may confront this situation, but as of now I want to further along my education without worrying about others. With NCTPS.1.e we must be able to handle any emotions professionally. It is no help to ourselves, co-teachers, and students to be upset or unkind. My most satisfaction was working on my unit plan for SCED330. I have gotten ahead and made a unit plan to ease the stress when it comes time to turn this in. Next week I will continue to get sources for my PDP. The mid-semester evaluation is next week. I did not have the chance to contribute to the class this week, I will look for more opportunities next week. I have been listening to many TED talks this week outside of the classroom. I have listened to many stories about influential teachers, and teachers that cause someone to dislike school. One thing I've realized is it does not matter what age group you have, at any point in a child's life they can be influenced for the rest of their lives. I have been taking note of things that hurt, like calling out someone in front of all of their peers on bad behavior, making rude comments about grades, not ever rewarding someone when others are awarded. It is a shame that there are many people out there that do this. 

My current event for the week was how the wind shifts during seasons, from being cool or warm. Wind is caused by the warming of the earth by the sun, which produces uneven heating. This can be taught in any classroom because everyone has felt cool and warm wind. We never know if the students have or have not learned about this, and it's always interesting to learn about things in our daily lives.

Regarding the hyperdoc this week, inquiry-based learning is effective because it is student centered. Instead of the teacher talking about what science can do, the students experience what science can do. It all starts with an idea!  In my classroom I will engage by raising interest, I will let my students directly involved to explore, I will have students explained what they discovered, I will elaborate by expanding concepts, and I will evaluate with a quiz. 

This tweet is an inspirational video I found that
can help keep us on track. We need to remember
to let kid's creative sides come out.
Some love school, some do not. Let's have all
of our students be the ones that love coming.

For my second tweet I posted about what all
of teachers are probably thinking this time of
year. The weather is getting colder, which means
our students are getting sicker. We all need to take
our vitamins and precautions so we can always be
at school.

For my third tweet I posted something that
significantly relates to our SCED class. We have
just learned about STEM. This is what the future
seems to hold as potential jobs for our students. We
need to be well equipped with understanding.

Week Five

I’m still very glad all of my fishies, Doodle, Strudel, and Nemo, are alive and well, always swimming with a great amount of energy. This ecosystem is not what I expected it to be, I honestly do not know what I was expecting. Here are some things I have learned with creating this self-sustaining experience.
 The dirt we use is most important while planting
 I can grow plants successfully
 I still have no idea what the correct amount of water to add is, I may be adding too much
 I really like fishes, or perhaps I like that they are thriving. Either way they’re cute!
 I lose things easily- where did my slug and cricket go? (Maybe I shouldn’t mention this)
 The amount of effort put in does not correlate with success.
        If we are carrying out the wrong actions, we will get the wrong results
        Self-evaluation- like adding too much water- is necessary
        Do not follow what others are doing, because it may not work for you
      Evaluate from your own experience and your own work, DO NOT evaluate yourself based on someone else

Unfortunately it has become that time where the work I have done and studying has caught up to me, making me very tired. This week I struggled most with motivation. I gave myself many pep talks yet I could never follow through with what needed to be done. This week I had tests and assignments in every class, even the ones I haven’t had anything due for since the start of the semester, and after I would do the bare minimum I would stop doing work. I didn’t successfully do anything to help this I’m sad to say. Every day is a new day with a fresh beginning, I slacked this week but will be better the next.

What thinking brought me the most satisfaction? My confidence in realizing I am in the same position of my peers. My peers, meaning the girls in the education program with me, are absolutely amazing. Their work is always tip-top and I have honestly never seen the kind of work they have done with other students or even graduates. I’m proud to be graduating with them, they are all very smart girls. There are times where I do not feel like I have over-achieved as well, but we are hardest on ourselves. As long as I believe I am sufficient, then I am. Next week I hope to find more information on experiments I can perform with my class without worrying about safety issues, and of course everything being age appropriate.

This week I helped contribute by having the measurement paper for anyone to use when measuring our plants. I also made sure to take care of Savannah’s ecosystem while she could not make it to class, taking notes on what I did and measuring her plant sizes. I’m not sure what all we will be doing next week, but I am sure I will find a way to help.

I have enjoyed Math Methods with Dr. Nanney SO much! Everything she has incorporated into her lessons for us has been greatly beneficial. Tuesday she showed us how to teach word-problem lessons to students while showing us the benefits of the different techniques we can teach that will help each student successfully carry out. Some students do better with adding, others with multiplying, and others with subtracting, etc. Teaching different methods will give our students the option to work out problems in a way they most understand. I appreciated that lesson as well and took many notes. I am always learning beneficial content that I will undoubtedly use in my future classroom. I had to get a separate folder for this class with how many notes I’ve taken so far!

Just like Maslow's Hierarchy of needs states, no one can concentrate on themselves or learning without having their needs of nourishment and a safe place met. We can help with their nourishment at least, and this leads to less stress and better learning. Most of us are here because we love these kids, I know I am. It's refreshing to know they can go home and not be hungry. This correlates with the NCPTS.2.c. We treat our students as individuals, not just another face in the crowd.

This final tweet is something that hits close
to home in our SCED classroom. We are
constantly talking about why investigating
and having students learn on their own
terms is more beneficial than them having
the facts given to them without context or
anything to really pull them in. Experiments
are not only fun, but great to investigate
the why!

This next tweet is about a teaching making posters for student learning. The posters were made by what the students said they were struggling most with. This helps greatly in the class by students having an immediate reference while working, having repetition by seeing it multiple times a day, and less time taken up when a student is struggling and needs reminding of how to carry out a problem. 

One thing that is very current at the moment is that it is supposed to be fall, yet is still 80+ degrees Fahrenheit out! I absolutely adore the fall and the drop in temperature, so I am highly disappointed to not be enjoying cool weather in a sweater. While there is still controversy about whether or not the earth really is hotter, you can see here that our temperatures are rising from earlier years. This is all thanks to climate change, a disappointing factor for us cooler weather lovers.

The hyperdoc this week is on chapter three of our textbook.
How is knowing different from understanding? We can just recite the facts and be considered to "know" something, but understanding is where we can put information in our own words and retell or even teach the information. The benefits for us would be that we can successfully teach our students.

Week 4

To be an exceptional leader is to also be an exceptional follower. How can someone expect to lead well if they do not know what followers require? Sure, anyone can read articles and obtain knowledge about how to be a good leader. But reading about leadership will never amount to experiencing something for oneself. So, instead of me trying to lead my way as a new teacher, I want to be a follower of a good leader. I want to know what any concerns are and how to approach them. I want to set an example to my students that it is okay to not always be in charge, that others should have a chance at leadership as well. With this, I will demonstrate leadership. As NCPTS states, we are leaders in the classroom. I will always be a leader in my classroom. The way I dress, the way I talk, and all that I do will be observed by someone. I need to always represent good, moral character in the schools, out in public, anywhere I go. People expect teachers to set an example for their children therefore I will set a respectable example of myself for where I work and graduated. I aspire to be more than a teacher. I aspire to be a role model in my community. 

It is unfortunate to say I went through this week with nerves every day. Even now, as everything is settled I still feel myself overwhelmed. Not by school, not by people, but our current weather climate. I even made my twin sister Heather come home, family means everything to me. I learned that I need to prepare myself mentally for the challenge I am about to put myself through. When I took the fifth grade math test, I was embarrassed by how many problems I missed. My thinking started scrambling for the right way to go about this, so starting Saturday I will spend my day creating a step-by-step plan to be successful. In this I will create formal and informal math assessments for the content I am working on. 

I am most proud of the work I am putting into my ecosystem. I felt a lot of doubt around me that there was no way I would succeed. My fish are doing well and are active, their names are Doodle, Strudel and Nemo. I have never successfully planted anything, I do not have a talent for landscape so I focused my talents for indoors. My plants are growing well and fast and I'm so ecstatic of the progress I've made keeping my ecosystem managed. I have also made sure to check on it everyday and note all that is happening. 

The most satisfaction I had this week was not in Science Methods. I have done well in psychology which I look forward to studying. I also worked with edTPA this week, doing little at a time to not be overwhelming. I am familiar with edTPA, but have never worked on a full lesson with this outline. I have much more understanding and relief with this template. 

My actions will be drilling myself down to prove I am worth being in this program. First I will write better assessments, hopefully with feedback, then I'm going to create a comfortable environment I can dedicate my time to. I am realizing the areas that need improvement, that's why I'm going to do this. I know I will be a wonderful teacher.

This week I brought vegetables for anyone to use for their ecosystem. These will provide nutrients and food for insects present. Next week I will continue to work on group projects and show I am an asset to any team.

I learned about how hurricanes form this week. I can successfully answer questions like: ow do hurricanes form? How do hurricanes get their name? Why do hurricanes rotate the way they do? I like learning new things I did not realize I didn't know. This follows right into NCPTS by teachers know the content they teach.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1S9JGaGqppMEuW8uVJ8wNrUNtBlaqeME-s7Hbhxj412U/edit?usp=sharing

The link above is chapter two's hyperdoc link that Kelly W., Chris S., and I completed. We talked about science inquiry skills and science investigation skills like observation, explaining, documenting, experimenting and more. To answer some questions, my most memorable science project was in eighth grade we had to collect around fifty different types of bugs and classify them. It was hard, but going on trails with friends was a great experience. In the picture with the butterfly I believe the butterfly is helping itself to a nice meal, or pollinating. Lastly, I believe one big disadvantage of engineering is how quickly we are polluting our air and destroying natural resources.

This tweet by McGrawHill Education
gives great advice to not only be confident,
but have a successful year.
My favorite part about this article is when
it is stated to go backwards.
Backwards as in start where they're going,
then begin with this in mind.

I love this tweet of teachers giving
new teachers words of encouragement.
Being a first-year teacher can be hard,
but knowing your fellow teachers are
cheering you on will make you feel better.
When I'm a first year teacher, I know I
would very much appreciate this.
When I'm an experienced teacher, I will
help support all new teachers.

Last but not least is another phrase from Amy

Fast. Just as we praise and encourage our

students, it is important that teachers could

use praise and encouragement as well.

We have a tough job that we love, we need

an environment in which we can always remember that love.

Week 3

In regards to my learning this week, I understand factual, procedural, cognitive, and metacognitive instruction. This was helped greatly by doing our activity of having to correctly place statements on the right instruction. When we reviewed over our answers, asking questions helped greatly in my understanding. Factual is the knowledge of content, procedural is doing something with the content, cognitive is understanding the why behind the content, and metacognitive is being able to create a personal opinion based on the content. I did struggle to grasp this concept at first when my peers seemed to understand it. I knew asking the amount of questions I did was extensive, but I asked anyways because no question is a bad question, especially when you genuinely don't understand. I had the most satisfaction when I started noticing phenomena around me. Mostly when I am outside it's to get to another place, not to observe what is around us. It's refreshing to realize the content we are learning and going to teach is present in our lives. Next week I would like to keep a careful watch over my ecocolumn and try to keep my insects, fish, and plants alive. This will be a big accomplishment because I have never attempted this. 
This week while creating our ecocolumns I drove to the river, brought a cup to dig and catch (unsuccessfully) fish with, and even brought a towel for anyone who needed to dry off from the water. Next week when my team starts our science fair project I will make sure to have my materials ready and pull my weight for whatever is needed of me. I have been researching fourth grade science standards to understand what is expected of them, then I have asked a teacher how they view these standards that will help me build a learning target. Currently, weather is an active topic so I have been studying this hurricane and wind movements. During this time, hurricane Irma is making its' way along the east coast, coming right in our direction of Charlotte, where my twin sister lives. Not only am I noticing the drastic changes in our day-to-day weather from being cold and raining to no clouds in the sky the next, I am also observing the fear that is striking fear in everyone around me. In accordance to NCTCS, it is important to discuss different points of view, as long as it is appropriate to talk about. Teachers shouldn't only talk about another culture when they have a student from that culture, but talk of other cultures so they already have knowledge of where the student may have come from. 

My first tweet concerns the relevancy of content. We may want to teach them of what we learned in school, or keep the same content that was used years before. If the content we teach is not relevant nor a requirement by the state, we shouldn't spend our time on it.
My second tweet is something that really hit home for me this week. Failure in itself is already hard for a student to accept. If a student feels as if their worth is tied into their test taking skills by our attitude towards them, then we need to reevaluate ourselves and  what our unintentionally bad actions can do.
The third tweet I chose for this week is a skill that is needed for teaching, and that is patience. It can get frustrating when a student does not work fast or does not understand even with help, but it is better for them to do it themselves. When they do their work themselves they must think about it instead of getting an answer without understanding why it is the answer.