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.

Reflection 10/26

I thought the topic of the atricles, violence, and how we can prevent it in the school was a good topic. I think that there is a lot that we can do to prevent violence, but I think the problem with some of the articles that we read, is that they give and unrealistic view of what we can do, rather than a few really helpful points that we as individual teachers can do. I believe that, no we should not just expel students when they have done something bad, but that we should support them in getting into programs that will help them, even if it is an after school or saturday program. I believe that we can't wait for everything to change, or for the school to get funding to do anything in the classroom. We have to do what we can in our own classroom, becasue if everyone waits for everyone else to change, then nothing will get done.

Reflection 10/18

I thought that the idea of reforming the ideas from education to make it better from the Resnick article were very good ideas, but for most of the ideas that were mentioned that it would take a long time to be able to implement them into the schools and have it be the recognized regular.
My favorite of her ideas were that we should recognize the idea that effort created ability, and clear expectations. I think it is the main idea of school that the effort the students give is helping them gain more ability in whatever they are working towards. I also like the idea that students need to be able to know what they are working towards, they need to know the expectations so that they can focus what they are doing and accomplish more.
Her Idea that time and results in school need to be reversed is a good one, but I don't think it would be logical to implement it the way she is suggesting, but given more thought it could do a lot of good.

Reflection #6

This week I thought the readings were interesting. I think that the OCW's would be useful to really help those who either don't have the means to get and education, and also to those who are already in the field of work, but want to get a little more information on one subject or another. I had a hard time at first thinking of how this would really be useful to me as an elementary school teacher, but really I have realized that I have to be the expert on everything, so it will be a good resource to me, and through me to my studendts, instead of directly to my students.
I also think that distance education is really important because we never know with technology going the way its going, when we as teachers are going to be responsible for doing a distance education course for students.

Reflection #3

I liked the two readings for class this week. I found it interesting that even though both were not written recently, they both had really good points about teaching. I really liked how Rousseau talks about how a child needs to be a child, and we should not try to reason with them. A child can't reason like and adult can, and we are not teaching them if we are doing that, because they will not be able to understand. I also really liked that at the end he says that his 'Emile' may not be great at one thing, but he will be better at another. I believe that it is important to focus on the strengths students have, so they know that they are good at something, and we could use their strengths to improve their weaknesses. The thing I liked the most about St Augustine was the way he said to teach. if you notice a student is bored or already knows the subject just touch on it, or do something to make them interested. I also like that he talked about how if we don't teach in the same peaceful environment that we learn in, we really can't expect the students to pick it up as easily.

Reflection 9/28

I learned a lot more this week after having the discussion in class. Archetypes are really important to have for examples for the boys especially, but also for the girls. Reading about the different types was really a good learning experience, but when we had to actually decide which archetype the picture book we were looking at, it was a bit harder. That made me think and I believe teachers should be careful to make sure that they really look into a book and that it is the archetype that they are looking to introduce to the child, and that the child won't get something different out of it. It would also be really helpful to have discussions with the child after reading the book.

Reflection 09/13/08

I really liked the first article I read, which was the one about helping boys enjoy literature by reading them picture books and regular books with Archetypes. I think that if we find boys or girls that we notice are having a problem in a certain area, especially reading we can really find an archetype that would help this student, and read and discuss the book with them. If we are helping them implement the characteristics that the books give in more situations throughout the day then it can help them even more. I loved that she tied the importance of visual literacy into the article, because I had to read another article for a different class talking about the importance of visual literacy. I think it will be interesting to hear the views and interpretations people have about the two different articles that were read

Week three

I can't believe the three weeks are already over, it makes me so sad! our class was so well behaved and so much fun! this week was fun, we got to actually teach social studies for the teacher that does the social studies in the rotations, it was fun. we did the civil war. we really only had two lessons to cover it in, the third one was an extra for just our class and not the whole rotation. it was neat, because I felt like the kids were really taking in what we were teaching them, it made me really excited to be a teacher. Our technology lesson was supposed to be a web quest but when the kids downloaded it from our uen page, the Provo School District took the hyperlink off the the buttons, so it turned into a similar research project, looking at the tasks we gave them, and the sites we gave them, and any other they could find. It didn't go at all the way we had planned, but I think the students still got a lot out of it.

week 2

my second week in the field was neat as well, it feels like I know the students better, I know how the classroom works, and we have had another opportunity to teach. our second lesson was on mountain building and I felt that it went really well, that the students had a lot of fun, and that we were able to get across what we needed to. we taught about the three different ways mountains are formed, we showed an overheaed of the process of each, talked aobut how it worked, then gave them a physcial example. for folded mountains we showed them a paper with pressure on both sides representing the crust and plates pushing and showed how it would buckle, fold, and form mountain ranges. For Fault-block we used 2 boxes one with dirt in it to represent a fault and how a mountain would form when one side of the fault goes up and dirt falls. for volcanic mountains we showed them a picture of a volcano, and for a dome mountain we blew up a balloon to show how the magma would shape the crust, but not break through it. then we had the students write a short explanation for how each type of mountain formation worked. for the formal assessment, we had the students push the desks aside, and we did 2 movement activties for a folded and dome mountains, then split them into groups and had them show us a movement activity that represented either volcanic or fault-block, assigning one or the other to different groups. it was a fun lesson. The time is going by fast and I am loving it

I have loved the first week of being in the 5th grade classroom! for the first couple of days we just watched and helped the kids when they were doing work, and just kind of figuring out how our teacher handles the classroom. he does a money system for rewards and for punishment, he also has a system set up where every student has a job, and it keeps the whole class in working order so I was really impressed with that.
We got the opportunity to teach on Thursday. For Social studies, science, and Language arts, so we actually taught science. Our lesson was on earthquakes, first we showed them a digital story that Bryant made and had them fill out a short worksheet during the video, then we did a seismograph activity where I had made one (a table with a chair on top of it and a string tied the the bottom of the chair and a marker at the other end of the string and paper on the table under the chair that the marker was touching) and showed them how scientist measure the intensity of an earthquake. then the students either made a visual art project on a paper showing one of the types of faults, or built a structure with Popsicle sticks and put it on a "fault" (two Kleenex boxes side by side) to show what the motion of the fault looked like. then each group presented their project with 2 facts about earthquakes.
since they do rotations we taught the lesson three times, the first time it was really crazy and we had to make some adjustments for the next two lessons, we went over the instructions for the projects step by step and had the students tell us after what the steps were, so the next two lessons went a lot smother. anyway, it was really fun and harder than I expected.

Moon Festival

This is my digital story about the chinese legend of the lady in the moon!

Digital Story Reflection

Doing this assignment I learned a lot more about the legend of the moon festival that I had heard bits and pieces of while I was in china, it was fun to put together the pieces I had heard with the many versions I read of the legend to make my story. Most of the technical skills I already knew how to do, but there were a few things I learned, for exaple; how to use Audacity to cut music up to fit the story, how to put the pieces together to make up a digital story, and how to test and make a mic sound better. I learned that to make a digital story you have to have a story first, then find pictures, and finally music to fit both of those, and if you do those in the wrong order then your story won't turn out as good. all in all this was a fun activity that I would definitaly use in the classroom with my future students.

Digital story Script

1. In china there is an autumn festival when the moon is the most beautiful and full, some say there is a lady who lives in the moon.

2. Let’s travel back in time to find the story of why.

3. They say at this time there were ten suns that took turns warming the earth. One day all ten came out and started scorching the earth.

4. The emperor of china commanded Houyi, a great archer, to shoot down all but one of the suns.

5. When he did, as a reward the emperor gave Houyi a pill that gave eternal life, but told him to prepare one year before taking it.

6. Houyi put it in a box and went away for awhile; his beautiful wife Chang’e was curious and looked in the box, when Houyi came back she accidentally swallowed it because she was scared.

7. The pill made her really light and started to float all the way up to the moon.

8. Houyi was so sad he made himself a palace on the moon until he could find a way to get her down.

9. They say that the moon festival is the only time of year that Chang’e gets to see her husband Houyi so that is why the moon is so big and beautiful on that night.

10. Now we travel back to the present, we see that this night when the moon is the biggest each year families get together eat a big meal and watch the moon together.

Welcome to my Blog

Welcome to Annalynne Thomas's Blog page, it will be exciting to get to know everyone! here is a little about me. I grew up in bountiful, I had seven brothers and no sisters. I went to college in St. George and in Provo, and I met my husband while I was in St George. I don't have any children yet, but I do have a hampster. I love children and have always wanted to be a teacher. I love everything I have learned and look foreward to being a teacher.