My First Day as an Intern

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

For my second year of interning, I am interning at Walker Creek Elementary, with Mrs. Lacey. Click here to view Mrs. Lacey's webpage. Mrs. Lacey has been teaching for twenty one years. 

Mrs. Lacey

Here is a silly picture of my sister Emily and I before we
went into Walker Creek and met our new field site classes!

  This year, I decided to intern with a first grade class, instead of kindergarten. During the time interval that I am at my field site, the class is learning mathematics.

    I am extremely excited to get to know my new students this year, and to watch them grow individually. Since I moved from kindergarten to first grade, it has been so exciting to see how much information the students already know, compared to last year. Before my first day, I edited and made some changes to my introduction poster from last year, and emailed my field site teacher, to ensure she knew that she was expecting me. I wore jeans, converse, and a red tank top with my button down Education and Training shirt over it. I brought my introduction poster for the first day. When I walked into my classroom, I was extremely excited to meet my class, and see which students I had from the year before. I was also a little nervous to meet them, and introduce myself to a class of about eighteen students. During my first week at my field site, I gave my introduction, using my About Me poster, and then I helped with a mathematics addition lesson. Surprisingly, I also got the opportunity to work individually with a few students in the hallway. This makes me extremely excited for this upcoming year, because I know that I will get a ton of experience through teaching lessons and individual work.

This is a picture of me in my field site classroom.

So far, this year has been extremely different than last year. Last year, since it was my first year, I sat at a table for the first few days to observe the classroom. This year, however, I started working one on one with students the first day that I was there! Almost every day that I go to field sites, I go in the hallway with two or three of my students to assist them. Since I am interning at the same school, and have many of the same students, this year's experience has been similar to last years, however it is different because I am doing an older grade. The students are already so much more mature than last year.

My Plan of Attack

The following blog assignment came from Mrs. Kallas's blog, which you can view here.

Now that school has started, it is time to start thinking of competitions to compete in this year. Last year, I competed in Ethical Dilemma with three of my classmates. We excelled at Region, and competed at the State competition. Though it was great, and I enjoyed doing it with my classmates, I am not going to do that competition this year. Since I have less time in class to work, I am thinking about competing in the Portfolio Contest, and the Scrapbook contest. 

Click here to view a list of all the TAFE competitions.
Click here to visit the Educators Rising website.

Click here to view the guidelines for the Chapter Scrapbook competition.
Click here to view the guidelines for the Portfolio Contest.

   The Portfolio Contest is individual, however the Chapter Scrapbook is a team project. Since we kept up with a portfolio in class last year, I already have mine done and almost ready to go for the TAFE event. I will need to add some extra things on it, but majority of it is complete. On the other hand, my two classmates, Emily Beam and Makaylia Mcdonald, and I are starting to work on Chapter Scrapbook, and more of our classmates will join us in the future. In order to be successful, we will need to use our time wisely in class in order to get the scrapbook done by the date of competition. We will need to work together in order to get the scrapbook to look flattering, and have all of our past events and activities in it. 

Steps to get started on Scrapbook:

1. Agree on a theme (Patriotic)

2. Design an outline/plan for the scrabook

3.Begin creating pages for previous events from last school year

4.Continue to add in pictures and activities from last year before Region

To achieve our goal and finish the scrapbook on time, we only have a couple of months to get it complete. Region Conference is in the first week of November, so we do not have a large amount of time to prepare for contest.

Welcome to the 2016-2017 School Year!

    Last Monday, August 22nd, brought the first day of our 2016-2017 school year. For me, it brought the first day of my last year of high school. 

I am so excited for this upcoming school year, and all of the opportunities it will bring. This year, I will be sure to make the best out of every opportunity and event, because it is my last year with many of my close friends and family. After this year, I will be on the road to college, and one step closer to having my own classroom! As my second year of being an Education and Training Intern, I am so excited for all of the adventures that this year will bring, so follow and join me as I make the most out of my Senior Year! 

2015-2016 End of Year Video

This is the BCTAL Education and Training video for 2015-2016!

Looking Back on 2015-16

This is my end of year animoto video!

 

End of Year Final Exam

Below is my book trailer for the book, The Smartest Kids in the World, by Amanda Ripley.

Book Study, Part 1- The Smartest Kids in the World

This following blog came from Mrs. Stevens' blog prompt, which you can view here.
Click here to listen to an interview with the author, Amanda Ripley.

The Smartest Kids in the World

  While reading the first part of this novel, I found it very interesting to read about education in different countries. Though each country has the common goal of preparing their students for their next big step in life, they have their own way of doing so. So far, I think this is a great novel which helps us understand how different we are from other various cultures around the world.

      Out of the three students, I most relate to Eric. Eric is the graduated senior whom went to study in Korea, and is the only one of the three whom enjoys math. Just like Eric, math is not only my favorite subject, yet it is also my best subject. As I was reading, this grabbed my attention right away. Since I have always loved math, and even sometimes look forward to taking a test because it is "fun", I have never fully understood why some people think math is awful... or even impossible. This immediately connected me to Eric because Kim and Tom both loathe math, yet Eric actually enjoys it. Throughout the novel so far, Eric is very empathetic and positive about his amazing opportunity that he got to travel to Korea. This was very significant to me, because I, too, always try to stay positive and look forward to see what opportunities may arise, even in the scariest of situations.

     After reading about the three schools in the various countries, I was extremely surprised to see how different each and every one of them were. Even though I obviously knew that each school wouldn't have the exact same education system that we do, I was not expecting the dramatic changes that appear when comparing schools in America to those in Finland, Korea, and Poland. Even though each school has it's pros and cons, I think Kim's school in Finland would be the best in the United States. Since schools in Finland stray from using technology, and use classic chalkboards instead, I think the students would be forced to actually pay attention in class, rather than procrastinating on iPads or phones. Also, it is noted in the novel that the teachers are talented, creative, and actually love their jobs. I think this would greatly impact American students because having teachers that are actually excited to teach would encourage students to participate and engage them in learning. Having more satisfied teachers, like those in Finland, would greatly impact the education in America.