Rant and rave 09/28/09

Ok so I know that you are expecting a rant and rave about everyone else and the program, but the person that I really want to rant at is myself. I know that I am responsible for my success, no one else is. the el ed program is good and I have been impressed with it, its not perfect, but hey what is? and its a lot better than BYU's :)
anyway, I feel really frustrated with myself, I feel like I am holding myself back from being the type of person that I want to be. first as a mom, I have an amazing child, its incredible and i just want to be the best for him. second as a wife, I tend to waste my time during the day doing things that are a waste of time, and the house gets messy, dinner is last minute and late, and that is not the wife that I can be for my husband. third is my school. I am going to make a confession, I have always wanted a 4.0, but have never been able to reach that goal. I take responsibility for that, but it kills me that this is my last chance, I find myself thinking 'you shouldn't hope for it, that way it won't be a disappointment, you have always had good grades, just accept that and don't try for more'. its terrible, and then I kick myself for thinking that, because that is probably the very reason that I have not accomplished, because if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you have always gotten. I have always been really good at being down on myself and not so good at telling myself what it is that I need to do to become better. anyway, that is probably more than you wanted to know, but that is what has been on my mind, I need to be a better person, and the only person that can make that happen is me with a lot of help from the Lord. well there is my rant, I know it was random thoughts and not very organized, but thanks for listening

09/21/09

I have a headache that is bordering on a migraine, so I apologize that this will be a shorter blog maybe I will do a really really long one next week to make up for it :), but I did do the reading and I was really impressed with a lot of the organizers. I didn't realize that there were so many cool graphic organizers that you could use to differentiate. I will just talk about three of them that I liked. the first was the learning menus. I liked this one because of the choice it gives the students choices, they have to do the main course, but that generally fits everyone. then in the side dishes I like that students can pick something that fits for them, and can choose to go above and beyond if they would like to in deserts. I like that this makes it seem like the students are picking what to learn, kids love to feel like they have a part in the learning process. the second one is the tiered. this was great, because you can have students on different levels doing the same basic activity, but at their own level of learning, but it comes back to the main group. I especially liked the alien example, it was fun. The third one I liked was the think dots, this is really creative, and it would almost seem like a game to the students, and the teacher can design it based on the students readiness levels. liked the chapters, excited to get started in the classroom!

chapter 7 reflection

I love in the beginning of the chapter the different qualities it lists about a good effective teacher. that the teacher really needs to connect to the students, care about them, be aware of their needs and learning styles. good teachers have a high expectation for students, they also have high standards for themselves, they have a wide variety of strategies, and accept responsibility for the outcome of the learning of the students. These are all amazing things that a lot of times get lost in the focus to cram all the information the students need into one school year, but these are things that are essential to have in the classroom. I loved the line in the book, " we honor learners by caring for them as they are and simultaneously expecting more of them. This is the type of classroom that I want to have, but it also intimidates me, because it feels like so much to try and do, so I also really appreciated the next section, then why is it so hard. this section about how there are a lot of elements that are going to make it really hard to have a classroom like this, but if we take the risk and keep trying the reward will be great. In the last section where it uses the two metaphors of the spaghetti, where it took a lot of work and love to make that 'gravy' and she probably did not make it that amazing the first hundred times she made it, and the man who really passionate about making bread, cultivating one loaf at a time were amazing teaching analogies that I can really connect with It will take that kind of passion and commitment to make my classroom the environment that I want it to be, and it will take time. the passage that stuck out to me the most is at the end, "we learned to ride a bike not by studying about it until we were confident, but by getting on, falling off, and climbing on again...We learn by beginning and by keeping on." this really is how I need to look at it, it is a lot less scary to me if I can realize I won't be perfect at first, but thats ok as long as I keep getting back on the bike.

late blog for last week-morning meetings

I know that I am most likely posting this to late to get credit for last week, but I still want to blog about how I felt about the morning meeting presentation we got. I thought morning meetings sounded neat before, but I was not sure I would have used them consistently the way that they are supposed to be used, but that presentation really inspired me to want to use them, and use them in the best way possible when I have a classroom. I did not realize how it can really create a community, a wonderful learning environment that really should be essential for the classroom. I love the idea of eliminating most of the disciplinary problems if morning meeting is done correctly, that you can really implement the core into it with a simple minute or two, like she did with literacy, and with math but made it fun. The thing that I love about it most is the community and safe environment it can create among the students. If the students can understand each other and learn more about each other, it can really eliminate a lot of hurt that happens in elementary schools, because students can be really mean without realizing it. I feel like if I had had a class that did morning meetings like she presented it would have made a huge difference with me, because I was really low on the totem pole socially and I got teased mercilessly. I want to be able to make a difference in students lives like that, that is the whole reason I wanted to become a teacher, to make a difference in young lives, and I can really see how morning meetings can make a difference. thanks Dr. P, ( I think your the only one who reads this particular blog, so I hope you don't mind me writing to you :) ) for bringing her in and letting us know about morning meetings.

Inventories

In the book I really liked the interest and profile survey's. I would get one of them to them before the school year started, the interest survey. I think this could help me get to know my students a little better and then after a week in school I would give them the profile survey. I think that if I compared them, and after watching them for a while I could get a lot better idea of things that I could do in different lessons that would really reach out to them. I think that with younger grades that the questions that are kind of generic like, what are some ways of learning that work for you?, are a little to general and would not get very good answers, but Im not sure how I would change them, maybe make them a little more specific to times that they remembered learning something. but what a good idea to get in the students head to find out from them what they are really like, and what they think would work to help them.
there are a few of these inventories that hold potential both in my st classroom and my future classroom. I really like the attitudes and interests one, I feel like it is really down to the kids level where they will think that they are really helping you, and they can really understand you, and give you the best idea of how they really do feel about reading and writing and why, much better than having them just tell you or write them down. I also think that the thinking about my reading is a much more easy way for kids to tell you about a book, so it is good for students who struggle with understanding, or telling about a book or story they just read, but I would make sure they had an opportunity to do a fun project along with it. I also liked the focus questions for Anecdotal notes on all the subjects as a guide before taking them, it really gives you a good idea for what to be watching for when you are observing different topics the children are doing, so that you can get an idea where each child is, and what you can do for them in that particular subject that would help them.
those were my favorite inventories and the ones that I felt could really help me teach differentiation

choices that apeal to me

what really appealed to me in the reading was the way that the teacher sees all the different students in the mock third grade classroom. I loved the choice to teach responsively ato all the parts, the who, what, where, and how we teach. she teaches different students of different cultures and backgrounds, and that each one has an individual need, that she needs to look beyond the state or district curriculum, and have each student make an improvement. The choice to make the classroom an environment of safety and learning. I know that these are the choices I would like to make in my classroom, but it also scares me. Im afraid that I will get into the classroom and be overwhelmed, and not be able to do all that, or that I won't recognize the needs of all the students. I know that it will probably be easy to just get in there and go by the book however, if I make these choices in advance I feel like I will have an easier time practicing differentiation in my classroom.

reflection 12/8

I thought that the four different moral responsibilities were very interesting. it is hard sometimes to be able define what moral responsibilities are to be taught in class. I believe that of the four different types that the most important is the nurturing, because it can encompase all of the other for moral responsibilities. If we teach the moral ideas in our lessons than we wont have to encroach on personal and religious beliefs.