Reflecting on this semester

This semester has taught me a lot! Working with the members of my group to prepare lessons for Ms. Darlings 4th grade class was an experience I will never forget. Being able to have the opportunity to walk into a classroom and make it like your own is awesome. My group and I created a Direct, Inquiry and Cooperative Lesson Plan for these students. We made sure that our Direct Lesson provided them with all the information they would need on Merchants, Markets and Mud. We also made sure that our inquiry lesson involved the students working with one another to prove their hypothesis and see whether they were right or wrong. We were able to see as the students used their money wisely while shopping in the Markets and we were also able to see how students collaborated and worked with one another to come up with answers. My group and I also collaborated to come up with these fun and engaging lessons. We thought for hours and days what would be the best way to engage students and keep their attention. When we finally started coming up with ideas we were so relieved. It was our time to shine and our time to teach. Although we were the first group to go and it all happened in a short amount of time and at such a quick pace, I thought we worked wonderfully together. Spending countless hours in the library we were able to complete lessons that we were proud of and that we were excited to teach and use inside of the classroom. We had materials ordered to decorate the room and make it feel like we were really apart of the Middle Ages. It is super important to always be engaged and creative, especially when you are a teacher for younger children. It is important to do things that excite them and want them to stay on task. Coming up with creating a letter and having the students shop through markets and make posters with one another was very engaging and I think thats why the students enjoyed our lesson so much, which was such a great feeling. My peers were also very helpful with their feedback and their constructive criticism. It is alway important to listen to other individuals who are on the outside looking in, in order to improve your lessons and make room for change. Working with my group this semester was great, we helped one another up until the very end and we were able to get through everything together. I thought our lessons were taught very smoothly, the children enjoyed them and they were all able to take something away from the lessons at the end of the day. This semester was great! I owe it to my group for making it fun and easy!


                                        

Job Interviews

Today was our last day of class and Dr. Smirnova had something wonderful planned for us. Today we will be learning all about interviews and what it is like to be interviewed by a principal. I thought this was an amazing opportunity being that a lot of us really have no idea what to expect when going out into the real world and experiencing a face to face interview on our profession for the first time. A group of our classmates were chosen to represent principals of different school districts. They started off by introducing themselves, where they work and a little background information on what the school district they were hiring was looking for. This prepared us for what it would be like to walk into an interview for the very first time. After these individuals were done introducing themselves it was their turn to go from group to group to interview each of us. We formally shook hands and introduced ourselves and then the questions began. You never really realize how hard it is to answer a question right on the spot with no prior knowledge because its being thrown at you for the very first time. It creates a lot of nerves and pressure as this individual asks you the questions then stops and looks at you waiting for your response. A million thoughts are running through your head at this point. You begin to think, what is the right way to answer this? And sometimes, you are even given a question that in your mind you have no idea how to answer. It is important to always stay confident and be confident in your answer. Even if what you are saying is wrong, if you answer the question with confidence and give background information, it shows that you were thinking about the question and put some thought into your answer. On an interview you can be asked almost anything, why do you feel that you are a good fit for this district? How will you accommodate for children with special needs? If you could be a color in the rainbow what color would you be? No matter what question is asked you need to stop, take a deep breath and take  second to think before rushing to answer. Being asked a number of questions was very helpful. If I'm being honest, the first question I was asked I had no idea how to answer. You become very nervous at this point and it is important to stay calm. As the groups went on and it was different individuals turn to interview me, I had gotten a lot better at answering the questions. I became more confident in my answers and I was able to relate my answers to past experiences. I felt that having our last day of class being used for interviews was exteremly  beneficial. In about a year, maybe a little longer for some of us we will be going on Job Interviews to become teachers. It is very important that we get the opportunity to practice hearing and answering questions. It is also important that we practice dressing and speaking professionally. I thought this experience was very beneficial and I am so glad I was given the opportunity to do this.

                                              

P.I.G.S

This semester I was introduced to P.I.G.S. I was able to learn what these abbreviations stood for and what their meanings were all about.  Lets start off with P. Positive Interdependence. Then we learned what I stood for. Individual Accountability, followed by G. Group Processing and S. Social Skills.  Each of these words have a very important definition and meaning. I believe that it is important to use P.I.G.S in your classroom setting each and everyday. Beginning with PIGS we see Positive Interdependence. Some of you may wonder what that is, well positive interdependence has to do with giving a role with an individual that may be working in your group. It is important to make sure that the individual takes charge and follows this role in order to finish and exceed whatever assignment or project that you may be working on so that everyone involved in this group has the opportunity to do well on it and move on.  Individual Accountability is next, this is where each individual needs to show that they understand the material and what is being asked of them. Everyone in a working group has a job that they must follow in order to succeed in group work. Next, we learned about the importance of group processing. Group processing is where the individuals of the group need to work with one another to make decisions about their work and to see where they could add or improve to the work they have already done. It is important that the group works as a whole in order to succeed and get everything done on time and correctly. To me Social Skills is the most important part of PIGS. It is very important that individuals are able to work with one another and communicate with one another to finish projects, create lessons and so much more. If you lack social skills you are going to face a very hard time in the world of teaching. You need to be able to work with one another and be expressive about what you may feel. If there i something you think you need to change or make better you need to speak up to your group members in order to do so. If you have no social skills and you have trouble communicating with others this may place you in a perdiciment.  In class we all broke up PIGS and worked on the section that was assigned to us so we could become experts on that certain section and teach our classmates about it as well. I think that it is a great method and it should be used more often and spoken about, because before this class I have never heard of PIGS before. 

What do you know about the Earth

       

   Today in class we all pushed in our chairs and stood in a circle around the room. Dr Smirnova wanted each and every single one of us to share our knowledge on geography and how we would teach about geography in a cooperative lesson to our students. We all stood in a circle and passed around a ball which represented the earth. Each time the earth was passed we needed to look at whichever classmate had the earth in their hand and listen to how they would teach their students about geography.  This was a very engaging way to have the whole class working together and listening to one another. Once you caught the earth in your hands you needed to hug the earth and show how you appreciate the world we live on and you care about our environment and want to teach children how important it is to do the same.   Each of my classmates had very good ideas on how to teach students about geography and the importance of our earth. They all came up with informative and creative ways of teaching the children the importance of geography and how important it is to clean up after ourselves and not damage the planet that we live on. It was great to hear all of my classmates different ideas on teaching geography, it allowed each of us to listen to and grasp ideas from one another. You never really sit back and think about our earth and its geography but its and important topic that should be discussed to children at a young age. Littering is one of the biggest issues we have on this planet along with pollution. We begin to ruin our earth the second we leave any type of trash on the ground. I think it is important for students to participate in class with the teachers cleaning up the earth. Whether they pick up garbage around the school property or even take a minute to walk through the woods on a hike with the class to see all of the different things our planet has to offer when it comes to nature and geography. We often take where and how we live for granted. I think we need to be more apperciative about  where we live and see and teach our students about the beauty of geography.

Importance of Post Tests

            During this semester my job and the job of my group members was to inform students about the Middle Ages. It was our job to make sure students got a full understanding of medieval times and what it was like to live back then. We informed students of the importance of this topic and how these individuals lived their every day lives. We made sure students understood what life was like in the towns and how merchants had to shop around in the markets for good for their families. It was important to make sure they spent their money wisely. The lessons needed to inform the students of information on this topic. Having a post test was important because we were able to see how much the kids learned over time and if the kids were following what we were teaching them throughout the semester. These tests are important because they allow us educators to know where we stand with this topic and our students. These tests provide relevant and important questions that let us gather information on each individual student so that we are able to work on our lessons and make sure we have every child's need addressed.

       

         The questions we put into this test were very easy to construct. They were straight forward and basic questions that had to do with the topic. This assessment had a few questions that were based off of the information that was provided to the students. Questions such as, Who was part of the middle class? Was it merchants and craftsman? What days were the busiest? and what were women allowed to become in the middle ages? All of these questions were questions that were provided to the students to test their knowledge and see what information they have grasped throughout the semester. 

         

         It is important to take these quiz's into consideration and use the students responses in order to create a lesson. It is also important to address the incorrect answers with the students so that they are able to realize what questions they got wrong and what the correct answer is. Creating these assessments are very important so that you as an educator know where you stand with your students and their learning abilities.




                                         

Tlingit Tribe

                 Today in class we were assigned to groups that we would be working with to learn more about different Tribes. My group was the Tlingit Tribe, a tribe that I have never heard of before. My group worked together to collaborate a powerpoint on this tribe that we would later introduce to our classmates, so that they were able to learn a little background information on the Tlingit Tribe as well. The Tlingit Tribe was a tribe that was located from the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. They are known to live in Southeastern Alaska, British Columbia and the Yukon in Canada. There culture is different then ours in many ways, one being that their language is known to be an endangered  language and most Tlingit people today are speaking english rather then the Tlingit language. The elders that were and that are apart of the tribes are still trying to keep their native language alive, they don't want to see it die out. Tlingit is a very complicated language.  There are many sounds that don't exist in english, which makes it very tricky to learn.

            The Tlingit Tribe is also very into the culture of art. They spend a lot of time weaving baskets, making chilikat robes and carving.  Carving is the largest example of artwork in this tribe.  They create artwork on totem poles, much life family crests and the creation of some animals. Because of their culture they also wear certain types of clothing. Their style of clothing was considered to be "art form" they wore a lot of ceremonial dresses along with carved masks. Some also carried special weapons  along with their everyday outfit and appearance and they wore their chilikat robes. For survival and food this tribe relied on fishing. They were known to be fishing people. The males often spent time outside catching fish and sea mammals from their canoes so that they were able to provide their families and themselves with food.  When they weren't out fishing, they were spending their time hunting.  They hunted animals such as deer, mountain goats, caribou, moose and some birds. The women were also able to help out when it came to supplying food. Although they did not hunt they were able to gather small things to eat such as shellfish, seaweed, berries and even some roots right from the ground. This tribe had a routine and a certain way of doing things and surviving.

             When it came to their living environment their main territories were the mainland coasts, islands, bays of southeast Alaska and British Columbia. This tribe spread through many different locations and areas. The land was usually made up of tall dense forests, oceans, mountains and even rivers. The climate was not always the best, this tribe had to deal with cold and rainy winters due to their location. Their living conditions weren't bad at all though! They were able to have a roof over their head. They lived in rectangular plank houses that were built from red cedar trees or from fir and spruce trees and they often painted their houses due to their family symbols. The houses all had unique designs on the outside. These houses are so big that they can fit up to 50 tribes members in them at once. This allowed everyone to have shelter and a place to sleep at night. This tribe did whatever it as they needed to do to make it. They had one inspirational individual who they looked up to and who helped them. He went by the name of Sitting Bull and he was a Native America Chief.


            This is all the information my group was able to gather on the Tlingit Tribe. We provided this information to our classmates and were able to give them a little insight on what is was like to be apart of the Tlingit Tribe and what your everyday life and duties were. Men often hunted and built things, while women worked on art and family chores. I was able to learn a lot about a Tribe I had no idea even existed in a short period of time.


Here's the Link  to our Powerpoint Presentation on the Tlingit Tribe, Hope you enjoy!



                             

Quiz Time !

           Ever stop and  think about the philosophy of teaching? What is that? Is there just one concept or is there a million concepts that go into it. The truth is, every teacher has their own philosophy of teaching. There is not one correct way to teach, there are many different ways and each teacher follows their own method of teaching that works best for them.
         
           Each year you are given a classroom full of new faces and not only do you have a certain way of teaching but they have a certain way of learning. Everyone has their own comfortable way of learning and understanding and that is why its important as a teacher to be open to and aware of all the different methods of teaching. You as a teacher need to be ready for all types of learners. You need to be able to plan your lessons accordingly, and make sure your students are following along throughout the course of the school year and retaining information that they can use as the years go on. I was given the opportunity to take a quiz on my philosophy of teaching. This quiz breaks down question by question the way you perform as a teacher in the classroom. It gives you methods that you are able to use and you need to pick the method that best suits you. There are four sections of this quiz there is personal source, social interaction, information processing and behavior modification. While taking this quiz you are given a lot of different types of questions. It is important to stop for a minute and think about each question before answering. After putting some thought into each question you need to come up with the answer that best suits your style of teaching. Some questions I was able to zip right through where as others I needed to stop and think for a minute. I think this quiz was very engaging. It made you think into your way of teaching and learning and how you do certain things within the classroom. This quiz caught my attention in many different ways and I think it was very beneficial and an eye opener for teaching methods.
   
         At the end of the quiz, I was able to see where I fell in each category. When it came to social interaction I got a high school of 31, which didn't surprise me because I am a very interactive person. I like doing hands on activities and working with other individuals. I also got a high school in Behavioral Modifications because i also think that is very important inside of the classroom. You need to be able to have control over your students to provide a strong learning community within the classroom. I think this quiz is a great way of finding out more about yourself as an educator and a test taker. It makes you sit back and think and answer your questions to the full extent. Try it out! See where you fall!