For this week of class, we have continued working on parts of our unit, and learning so much as usual. We are learning about guiding questions and I find this very interesting, because for one, I did not realize that there are three different types of questions to ask your students. First you have factual questions which are questions that are specific and timely. Next you have contextual questions, which are questions that are not timely or specific. Finally you have provocative questions, which are questions that are meant to stir up debate in your classroom. Now for provocative questions you as the teacher cannot voice your own opinion, that is very crucial to your job. Also, this week we had our Professional Development Plan meetings with Dr. Parker, and seeing all the work that is going to go into those is a little overwhelming, but it most definitely can be accomplished and will help me so much in the future.
For this blog post, I decided to do read an article from the Edutopia research highlights from 2015. The article that was most fascinating to me was then article about students with ADHD, and how to help them wiggle around and concentrate in class, with little to no distraction from the other students. This article really stuck with me, because for me, I suffer from from struggling to focus in class, and always moving around. I always got in trouble in my younger years for wanting to get up out of my seat, or playing with other kids stuff while the teacher was talking. I'm pretty sure I suffer from a little bit of ADHD, but it is not bad enough to anything about. I always have this rock that I keep with me, and whenever I feel like getting up and moving around, I will take that rock and fidget with it. This actually helps me a lot! So, I will talk about some things that I read about in the article that may help children in your class that are like me, not to be a distraction.
In the article they talked about squeeze balls, and how playing with them under their desks can help them to fidget a little and not be a distraction. Another cool fidget tool that was mentioned was silly putty or play dough. I think that this would definitely help me out, and I wish I would have thought of this sooner. My top favorite helper for students with ADHD is using exercise balls as chairs, instead of actual chairs. This not only helps with students with ADHD, but it also just helps the whole class to pay attention. I hope to use this strategy in my classroom someday, but I will have to test and see if it really will not distract other students, even if everyone has one. Some other cool ways to help students with ADHD are with, velcro, gum, doodling, background noise, swivel chairs and standing desks. I am not to sure how well the doodling works, especially during a lesson, because I know that when I doodle in class, I am not paying attention at all. Therefore, this theory will need to be tested a little bit more. I also really like the idea of swivel chairs. I have loved my college experience so far, because in most of my education classes we have swivel chairs, and that is so great for me!
I can tie this article on ADHD to the North Carolina Teaching Standard number two that states "Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment For a Diverse Population of Students", because ADHD is a diverse population in relation to students with learning disorders. Teachers need to establish a respected environment for these students, and help them to push through their learning disorder with the help of the teacher. The teacher should use some of the ideas listed above to help the students with ADHD, because as teachers, we want our students to be the best that we can be!
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
SMART Goals, Generalizations and Conceptual Lens
This week in Social Studies Methods we have learned a lot of different things, that I have never even heard about before this week. First, we learned about the SMART goals and how they help us as teachers to form goals for our PDP's. This week we had to submit a rough draft of our PDP's to Dr. Parker, and going off of the SMART goals, they made this process a lot easier to understand. Without the SMART goals, I feel as if my goals would be very broad and not achievable. Next, we learned about what a Conceptual Lens is, and how that effects our lessons. I learned that the conceptual lens the compelling question in your unit. Also, the conceptual lens should support the title of your unit. The lens should be seen as a way to get from factual knowledge to conceptual knowledge without having to tell the students exactly. The conceptual lens causing for a deeper understanding, and that is a main goal for students. Lastly, I learned what generalizations are, and how they are important to your unit. Going into today's class, I was very confused from the generalization video, only because it was so new to me. However, talking among classmates and participating in a generalization project, helped to clear up my confusion. A generalization is meant to tie two concepts together, and that will be the focus of your unit. The goal for generalizations is for the students to understand and spot the generalizations without the teacher having to tell them.
Whew, okay that was a lot to learn for one week, but thank goodness I know what all that means now.
Onto this weeks research. Once again, I decided to use an article that I got in an email today from NeaToday. The article is titled "Is Kindergarten the New First Grade? Without a Doubt, Say Researchers" The title in itself really stuck out to me, because I was very confused what they were trying to say. I know that education is advancing at a fast rate, but how could it be a whole grade level? Well, this is what I found out upon reading the article.
The article was conducted by comparing research from 1998 to 2010. However, Common Core was not around in this time, therefore some of this information is up to change. The article was talking about different statistics from teachers in 1998 to teachers in 2010. Some of the statistics were staggering. One section of the article was talking about how music and art declined significantly between 1998 to 2010. In 1998, the percentage for teacher who implemented music and art into their classrooms everyday was 34%, and in 2010, that number dropped by half to 16%! I do not know about you guys, but I do not think I would have made it through school without art and music in my life. I seen those specials as an outlet for the day, and they were a way to express ourselves in a way that is different than just math and reading. Also, testing was not even thought of in kindergarten in 1998, they have no statistics for this, but in 2010 44% of teachers reported using standardized testing 1 to 2 times a year, and 23% once or twice a month! We test our babies a little too much, in my opinion.
I agree that we need to a few tests to see how the students are improving or how they are possibly falling behind, but the amount of testing that we inflict on our students is crazy, but it is state standard. I think that we are being dictated by test scores, rather than how well our students are doing in our class, and how they are picking up on essential skills that they need in their lives, and important social skills. In closing, I want to say how important it is to integrate in every lesson that you teach. That way, despite all of the testing, we can make sure our kids have fun and get the skills they need to succeed in life.
I could tie this article to NC Teaching Standard number five which is, Teacher Reflects on Their Practice, because the teacher is responsible for analyzing students learning, and by testing, yes that is one way, but we have other ways to know. We can analyze students by facial features, their actions or maybe even by the questions they ask.
Article Link: http://neatoday.org/2016/01/19/is-kindergarten-the-new-first-grade/
Whew, okay that was a lot to learn for one week, but thank goodness I know what all that means now.
Onto this weeks research. Once again, I decided to use an article that I got in an email today from NeaToday. The article is titled "Is Kindergarten the New First Grade? Without a Doubt, Say Researchers" The title in itself really stuck out to me, because I was very confused what they were trying to say. I know that education is advancing at a fast rate, but how could it be a whole grade level? Well, this is what I found out upon reading the article.
The article was conducted by comparing research from 1998 to 2010. However, Common Core was not around in this time, therefore some of this information is up to change. The article was talking about different statistics from teachers in 1998 to teachers in 2010. Some of the statistics were staggering. One section of the article was talking about how music and art declined significantly between 1998 to 2010. In 1998, the percentage for teacher who implemented music and art into their classrooms everyday was 34%, and in 2010, that number dropped by half to 16%! I do not know about you guys, but I do not think I would have made it through school without art and music in my life. I seen those specials as an outlet for the day, and they were a way to express ourselves in a way that is different than just math and reading. Also, testing was not even thought of in kindergarten in 1998, they have no statistics for this, but in 2010 44% of teachers reported using standardized testing 1 to 2 times a year, and 23% once or twice a month! We test our babies a little too much, in my opinion.
I agree that we need to a few tests to see how the students are improving or how they are possibly falling behind, but the amount of testing that we inflict on our students is crazy, but it is state standard. I think that we are being dictated by test scores, rather than how well our students are doing in our class, and how they are picking up on essential skills that they need in their lives, and important social skills. In closing, I want to say how important it is to integrate in every lesson that you teach. That way, despite all of the testing, we can make sure our kids have fun and get the skills they need to succeed in life.
I could tie this article to NC Teaching Standard number five which is, Teacher Reflects on Their Practice, because the teacher is responsible for analyzing students learning, and by testing, yes that is one way, but we have other ways to know. We can analyze students by facial features, their actions or maybe even by the questions they ask.
Article Link: http://neatoday.org/2016/01/19/is-kindergarten-the-new-first-grade/
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Learning LOTS
This week has been super hard core. I have learned sooo much, that I have never even seen or heard of before. Social studies method has really helped me understand what my teachers have been talking about. I have heard before about content, topics and differentiation, but this week all of those words come to life for me. I learned that content was was not the same thing as a topic. Content is the big idea of a lesson. The content cannot be bound to time, it is universal, transferable, timeless and abstract. A topic is more specific than the content, and is not just straight facts. As for differentiation, I have gotten to watch a few videos on it that make the word differentiation into a verb. Differentiation is catering to every child's individual needs, and helping the student to learn the way they want too, no matter the learning disability or physical disability. Also, Dr. Parker showed us this amazing app called Plicker. Plicker was by far one of the coolest assessment techniques I have ever seen. Plicker is an app, where you go to the app, and put in your students names and it assigns them to a number, and you print out these pieces of paper with strange shapes on them. On the four sides of the paper, there is an A, B, C and D. There is a multiple choice question on the board and you raise your paper up with the paper tilted showing the answer you want. As the paper is held up, the teacher uses their phone to scan around the room to get the answers of the class, and it tells the teacher who got it right, and emails the teachers the results. IT WAS AWESOME! I highly suggest you check it out if you have not yet.
So for this weeks research, I am going to talk about student safety because I feel that that is super important. Especially in todays day and age. I get emails from NEA, and this was an article that I was emailed, and I found it to be super interesting. The article is titled "Education Support Professionals Going Above and Beyond for Student Safety", and the article mentions a lot of ways that school professionals are trying to make schools feel safe and nurturing to its students. However, three instances stood out to me the most. The first was a school security officer named, Victor Marquez, who talked about what it means to be protecting a school full of children. Watching the video of his interview, really puts what he does to protect students into perspective, and how any kind of little thing, like a playground scuffle, could turn into something detrimental. The next was a bus driver, who taught other bus driver's how to be safe, and what to do in case of an emergency. Her name was, Karen Barnes, and she cared so deeply about the safety of her students. She taught things such as, how to properly fasten a car seat, or how to strap in a wheelchair. Barnes had recently designed and built a special needs wheelchair training center, so that she could train more people at one time, and i was so popular that she built another one in another terminal. The last big section that stuck out to me, was a teacher named, Jean Fay, who talked about the Sandy Hook shooting. Fay was saying that instead of arming the teachers with guns for these kinds of situation we should arm the teachers with the resources needed to continue to provide the best possible education four our students. In the article Fay states that, "The children are our nation, and are the most valuable resource we possess. We need to provide a school environment where the children feel safe. Arm our teachers, guidance counselors, and staff support with the resources they need to reach students, every day" (neaToday). I think that there is so much power behind that statement, and it gives me chills to think that you have so many little children's life's in your hands every day. It is our job to protect them.
I think that this article could tie into standard one of the teaching standards, because the teacher is demonstrating leadership. Every day when we walk into our classrooms, we are making the decision to protect our students, and do whatever it takes to ensure that safety. We are the leaders of that class, we need to nurture our students and keep them safe, in every way possible.
Here is the link to the article I researched!
http://neatoday.org/2016/01/13/esps-student-safety/
So for this weeks research, I am going to talk about student safety because I feel that that is super important. Especially in todays day and age. I get emails from NEA, and this was an article that I was emailed, and I found it to be super interesting. The article is titled "Education Support Professionals Going Above and Beyond for Student Safety", and the article mentions a lot of ways that school professionals are trying to make schools feel safe and nurturing to its students. However, three instances stood out to me the most. The first was a school security officer named, Victor Marquez, who talked about what it means to be protecting a school full of children. Watching the video of his interview, really puts what he does to protect students into perspective, and how any kind of little thing, like a playground scuffle, could turn into something detrimental. The next was a bus driver, who taught other bus driver's how to be safe, and what to do in case of an emergency. Her name was, Karen Barnes, and she cared so deeply about the safety of her students. She taught things such as, how to properly fasten a car seat, or how to strap in a wheelchair. Barnes had recently designed and built a special needs wheelchair training center, so that she could train more people at one time, and i was so popular that she built another one in another terminal. The last big section that stuck out to me, was a teacher named, Jean Fay, who talked about the Sandy Hook shooting. Fay was saying that instead of arming the teachers with guns for these kinds of situation we should arm the teachers with the resources needed to continue to provide the best possible education four our students. In the article Fay states that, "The children are our nation, and are the most valuable resource we possess. We need to provide a school environment where the children feel safe. Arm our teachers, guidance counselors, and staff support with the resources they need to reach students, every day" (neaToday). I think that there is so much power behind that statement, and it gives me chills to think that you have so many little children's life's in your hands every day. It is our job to protect them.
I think that this article could tie into standard one of the teaching standards, because the teacher is demonstrating leadership. Every day when we walk into our classrooms, we are making the decision to protect our students, and do whatever it takes to ensure that safety. We are the leaders of that class, we need to nurture our students and keep them safe, in every way possible.
Here is the link to the article I researched!
http://neatoday.org/2016/01/13/esps-student-safety/
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Here We Go!
This semester is going to be a busy one, and I know that there will be times, when I feel like I am not going to make it. However, despite the fact that I have a 20 hour semester load and competition cheerleading season is in full swing, along with basketball games, I know that I will persevere. I have faith in God, that I am in the right place in my life to fulfill my purpose. Therefore, God will get me through any struggle. The first look at the social studies methods Black Board page, made me want to cry, because of all the new stuff and all the big things that were due. However, in class today we participated in an extremely fun scavenger hunt, and I knew that I would have fun in this course, no matter how much work is required. There may be times where I am super stressed, but I know that it will all be worth it in the end.
A little bit about me, my name is Amber Townsend and I am 20 years old, a junior here at Gardner-Webb, and also a cheerleader. I live in Spruce Pine, NC, way up in the mountains where it is always cold. I have a loving mom and dad and younger sister, and I am truly blessed to have them all. I found Gardner-Webb through a cheer camp at my high school, and prayed about if I should go here or not, because this place is ridiculously expensive. I did not think that I would be able to pay for, but I kept praying about it, and decided to apply and tryout for cheerleading. I made the team which gave me a scholarship, and I also received tons of scholarships. I was so amazed at God's amazing power! Coming to Gardner-Webb was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life, and I know it will lead me to greatness.
Teaching is my passion, and there is nothing in this entire world, that I would rather do. When I was younger I would always play "school" with my younger sister, and I would teach her random stuff that I learned at school that day. All of my teachers all throughout my school career were pretty amazing and influential. My favorite teacher in the entire world, was my elementary school teacher, who happened to be moved up to high school music when I was in high school. My music teacher had so much on his plate, all the time. At one point he was the vice principal of my high school, the drama teacher, the music teacher and the band teacher. However, my music teacher always kept a smile on my face and his. The way the children and students looked up to him, made me want to be a teacher like him some day. He would stay after for hours upon hours to help a student with whatever task they asked him. My music teacher genuinely cared for each student he had, and that is the great example I want to follow. I love children so much, and I would love to help them in every way possible. I am so excited to be a teacher one day soon!
Now onto the research, I was looking at different articles pertaining to some problems in the North Carolina education system, and naturally a ton of articles came up. However, I read one article from the Charlotte Observer that was talking about a lawsuit that was against North Carolina schools in 2014, because the students were not receiving adequate teaching. Most of the problems were coming from the low-income schools, and some schools had received record low test scores. The court has filed that as many as 483,000 students were not proficient in reading and math and therefore, they were not getting their basic education. Now this is based completely on test scores, but that number is staggering, and is expected to keep climbing, unless the generation of new teachers step up and help out. I know that test scores do mean that the student does not completely understand, because I am also a terrible test taker myself, and I hate when my final grade is based on test at the end when I have performed well the whole semester.
However, I do hope that us as the new generation of teachers will be able to decrease this number of students who are not proficient in reading and math. I know that with the help of our teachers, we can be the best we can be. I will make sure that when I am a teacher I will have structured plans and fun things to do to engage the students in math and reading, because those are very important aspects of education. I will do whatever I can to see my students achieve.
If you would like to read the full article, the link is http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/article9120011.html
A little bit about me, my name is Amber Townsend and I am 20 years old, a junior here at Gardner-Webb, and also a cheerleader. I live in Spruce Pine, NC, way up in the mountains where it is always cold. I have a loving mom and dad and younger sister, and I am truly blessed to have them all. I found Gardner-Webb through a cheer camp at my high school, and prayed about if I should go here or not, because this place is ridiculously expensive. I did not think that I would be able to pay for, but I kept praying about it, and decided to apply and tryout for cheerleading. I made the team which gave me a scholarship, and I also received tons of scholarships. I was so amazed at God's amazing power! Coming to Gardner-Webb was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life, and I know it will lead me to greatness.
Teaching is my passion, and there is nothing in this entire world, that I would rather do. When I was younger I would always play "school" with my younger sister, and I would teach her random stuff that I learned at school that day. All of my teachers all throughout my school career were pretty amazing and influential. My favorite teacher in the entire world, was my elementary school teacher, who happened to be moved up to high school music when I was in high school. My music teacher had so much on his plate, all the time. At one point he was the vice principal of my high school, the drama teacher, the music teacher and the band teacher. However, my music teacher always kept a smile on my face and his. The way the children and students looked up to him, made me want to be a teacher like him some day. He would stay after for hours upon hours to help a student with whatever task they asked him. My music teacher genuinely cared for each student he had, and that is the great example I want to follow. I love children so much, and I would love to help them in every way possible. I am so excited to be a teacher one day soon!
Now onto the research, I was looking at different articles pertaining to some problems in the North Carolina education system, and naturally a ton of articles came up. However, I read one article from the Charlotte Observer that was talking about a lawsuit that was against North Carolina schools in 2014, because the students were not receiving adequate teaching. Most of the problems were coming from the low-income schools, and some schools had received record low test scores. The court has filed that as many as 483,000 students were not proficient in reading and math and therefore, they were not getting their basic education. Now this is based completely on test scores, but that number is staggering, and is expected to keep climbing, unless the generation of new teachers step up and help out. I know that test scores do mean that the student does not completely understand, because I am also a terrible test taker myself, and I hate when my final grade is based on test at the end when I have performed well the whole semester.
However, I do hope that us as the new generation of teachers will be able to decrease this number of students who are not proficient in reading and math. I know that with the help of our teachers, we can be the best we can be. I will make sure that when I am a teacher I will have structured plans and fun things to do to engage the students in math and reading, because those are very important aspects of education. I will do whatever I can to see my students achieve.
If you would like to read the full article, the link is http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/article9120011.html
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