Looking Back on 2016-2017

This is my end of the year animoto video for my senior year. It consists of many Education and Training activities as well as pictures from the 2017 school year. Enjoy!

Field Trip to SMU and the President George W. Bush Museum and Library

This blog assignment is found on Mrs. Kallas's wiki, which you can view here.

On March 30, 2017, our class took a field trip to Southern Methodist University. Here, we got to view an Education building and go into classes to learn about both augmented reality and virtual avatars. I thought the avatars were extremely interesting. I thought it was cool that they could be programmed to play the role of different types of students. This would be great for new teachers to practice how to teach and control their different personalities. I learned that there are many ways to practice lesson plans, even with computer automated students! I also learned how important it is to be aware of the personalities of all the students, because talking to one in a specific voice, may not be okay with the another. For example, we did not talk to Maria using the same tone that we addressed Cindy (CJ) with.

Click here to view the SMU Department of Teaching and Learning.

This is a picture from SMU of my sister, Emily, and me.

Next, we went to the George W. Bush Library/Museum. Click here to view the museum's website.

• One cool aspect of the museum was the Oval Office. This was an exact replicate of the President's office. Given by the name, it was an oval shaped office with white walls and a ceiling. It had sofas and a desk with a big chair like that of President Bush's office. Also, there were two flags. There were many windows in the office that gave a view of out into the rose bush garden. The office had a replicate of a yellow sunbeam designed rug, chosen by Mrs. Bush, and an oil painting, A Charge to Keep. On the ceiling was a large presidential seal, which you can view below.   

The Oval Office

Presidential Seal on the ceiling

Education Initiative Exhibit

• George W. Bush's famous education initiative was "No Child Left Behind", and it was his idea of taking accountability to the national level, in order to help failing children and schools in need. He wanted to get all students capable of reading, because he believed that that was the foundation for learning and education. Many students were failing in school because they were never taught to read, which made every lesson and topic difficult to understand. His idea was an education system "that's based upon sound fundamental curriculum, one that starts teaching children to read early in life, one that focuses on systems that do work" (George W. Bush). This was one of his ways of making a difference, and helping promote a successful education community. He even went to several elementary schools and read to them as part of his program.
  

Fred's Tools for Teaching (Chapters 1-4)

This prompt can be found on Mrs. Kallas's blog, which you can view here.
Click here to view our Book Study.

In class, we recently started a book study on Fred Jones's "Tools for Teaching". It is a great read for new teachers, giving them motivation, instruction, and ideas to prevent discipline issues. After reading just the third and fourth chapter, I am excited to continue reading and learning more about the great occupation of teaching!

Chapter 3 -"Working the Crowd":

    At my field site classroom, the desks are aligned in two parallel lines, running from the front of the class near the board, to the back of the class. Each line is composed of two desks facing eachother, and five or six desks long. This makes for an easy way to get to each student, and while walking down the middle aisle, the teacher keeps all students in the red zone, with just a few steps. By standing in and walking through the middle, the teacher would be no more than two desks away from each student. However, it is difficult to get to one side of a column of desks because they are roughly two feet away from the teacher's desk. With chairs pulled out, and jackets on the floor or on chairs, it makes it difficult to squeeze through the tight walkway and help students in need. Also, in order to help a student in the corner opposite of the teacher's desk, the teacher would have to walk around and through the aisle, or around both columns to get to the back corner. Overall, it is easy to work the crowd with two columns, keeping everyone in a near zone, however it can sometimes be difficult to get to the opposite side of the room. 

This is an example of my field site classroom, with the two columns of desks.
One is on the left, one is on the right.

Chapter 4- "Arranging the Room":

     According to Fred Jones, a teacher's desk should go either in the back, in the corner, or on the side of a room. As long as the desk is not right in the front of the class, it will work, and not "cost you eight feet of proximity with every student in the classroom!" (Jones 39). In my field site classroom, I would honestly leave the desk in the same location that it is in. Although it is may be described as "in the front of the room", it is in the far corner, and does not block the whiteboard or get in the way of the teacher. The students that are in the front row of the class are roughly four or five feet away from the board. With the teacher's desk in this location, she can easily get up and assist her students, and she is close enough to them to hear and watch over them when they are working. If her desk was in the back corner, she would not be able to always keep an eye on the students. In this location, she can still watch the students, and it does not prohibit them from being close to the whiteboard. Also, if she is teaching and needs to grab a book or an example from her desk, she is close enough to get it, and her computer is close to her in case she needs to click or project something.

Since it is an elementary classroom, the current location of the desk successfully helps "facilitate mobility and proximity".

Absenses Add Up

Click here to view the blog prompt on Mrs. Kallas's blog.

In order to prevent a student from getting behind due to absenteeism, one should:

1. Hire a tutor for them. This will provide extra help for them, so they can stay on track with what the class is learning. Instead of trying to catch up during class, missing even more classwork, the student can make up work after class, and still continue on with current classwork in school.
2. Keep the student in from recess/P.E.. This would give the student one on one time with the teacher, and not take time away from learning in class. (This has been done many times in my field site classroom, and though the student may not be thrilled about it, the extra time is always beneficial.)
3. Send a video of the lesson and handout home with the student. Last year this was done for me when I was absent due to TAFE State, and it was very beneficial because the video took the place of taking notes in class. A video allows for the teacher to talk through the steps, and also show notes and examples. If a student did this, he/she would no longer be behind in his/her schoolwork because they would complete it in their spare time at home. If they have questions, they could ask the teacher the next day, which takes less time than the teacher having to reteach the entire lesson.

Click here to view a website on absences from school.

    In order to encourage good attendance, teachers should talk to parents and persuade them into bringing their children to school. They should note how two absences per month can lead to failure in graduating high school. They could also provide incentives such as letting them bring a stuffed animal to school or picking an item out of the treasure box (depending on the grade) if they have perfect attendance for a certain amount of days. Teachers could also provide consequences, such as not getting to do a fun activity or having to sit out at recess to finish the schoolwork they missed. Whether teachers decide to provide incentives or consequences, it is important for students to attend school so they do not get behind, ending up with suffering grades.

Teachers Go Beyond the Call of Duty-- What's Your Calling?

This following blog post came from Mrs. Kallas's blog, which you can view here.

      This year for the TAFE Region and State Competitions, I am competing in four events. These events include the ELF Test, Portfolio, Chapter Scrapbook, and the Breakout Session Presentation. I chose to do these based on my observations from last year. For example, the Chapter Scrapbook competition seemed very fun last year, since I love doing crafts. Also, I had my portfolio done last year, so I decided to do that competition since it wouldn't need much work. Breakout Sessions was also chosen because I helped do it last year, so it seemed fun to be able to do a presentation, while also interacting with other students.  I enjoyed each of these competitions, and would not have changed my choice! My favorite part of these competitions was the fact that I got to work with a group in two of them. Also, I enjoyed the fact that portfolio and scrapbook both consisted of the activities we do in this class. Those two competitions highlighted all of the great opportunities and experience available to us in Education and Training. However, one issue that I came across while creating my presentations was the lack of time. We had to miss many days at our field sites, and also had to rush the week before contest to finish scrapbook and portfolio. I never had time to run through each of my competitions and practice presenting until the day of competition.

Scrapbook group at the awards ceremony

     Since I was so stressed trying to hurry and complete my projects, the only thing that I would change is that I would have started earlier on the projects. This would reduce the stress and rushing that I had to do in the final week before competition. However, through competing at Region, I have learned how to work productively with a group, and also make something acceptable and presentable even if I do not have much time to prepare. After this recent competition,  I am very excited for the State Conference that is held at UT Arlington in February. I plan to add more artifacts to both my portfolio and the scrapbook, and also rehearse the breakout session presentation before the state competition.

What Would You Do?

Click here to view this blog assignment on Mrs. Kallas's webpage.

Scenario 3:

     If I were stuck in this situation, and the substitute told me that he/she did not need my help, and told me that I could leave, I would first inform him or her that I have to stay at the field site for my full class time, and ride the bus back to campus. I would ask if there is anything that I need to assist with, such as grading papers or helping a student in need. If the substitute still wants me to leave because he or she has it "all under control", then I would go into the class next door and ask the teacher what I could help with. Based on experience from last year, there is always extra work to do in the classroom or in the hallway, and I know that even if my mentor teacher doesn't need help, I'm sure that a different teacher would appreciate the extra set of hands. It is not acceptable to start working on homework, because that is our time to assist our field site teachers and students, and our full attention needs to be focused on the classroom.

Habits of Mind; Thinking Flexibly

This is the tackk I created to explain Thinking Flexibly. Enjoy!

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