Week of Sept 19-23, 2011

Monday: Monday morning we were lucky enough to get a visit from Mauldin's own Mrs. Eckland who helped explain the differences between Resource and Self-Contained classroom settings. She also explained the differences between Accomodations (found mostly in Rescource classes) and Modifications (seen more in Self-Contained classes) for those classroom settings. During her visit we did a very stressful activity where she gave us a sheet with the numbers 1-100 on it. The first time we tried her activity, she just told us to look for the numbers in order as she stressed us out even more by counting down the seconds!! Aaaaahh!! But the second attempt of this sheet she gave us even more direct instruction by telling us to fold our papers into fours and where to look for each number. This activity helped us realize the importance of resource classes for some students.

Tuesday: Unfortunately, Tuesday we were not in class for too long because we had our senior picture! Once we returned to class after the picture, Mrs. Turner gave us sheets with important dates on it. She also gave us permission forms to go see Junie B. Jones on October 12th with our first grade froggy friends!!

Wednesday: We were introduced to the Autism Spectrum by watching a very informative video about different types of Autism. We learned that Autism is a physical and mental disability that affects one in every 110 girls and one in 70 boys. Although there is no determined cause or treatment for Autism, students with this condition know they can always feel welcome at Hope Academy! :) On Wednesday we also signed up for sights we are going to visit on the 26th and 27th of next week to observe classroom settings.

Thursday: On Thursday we were visited by one of the co-founders of Project Hope, the lovely Susan Sachs! Mrs. Sachs' son, Michael, who we were introduced to in Wednesday's video, is unfortunately affected by Autism which is one of the main reasons why she was inspired to open Hope Academy. She explained to us how a typical classroom is setup at her school, and how Hope Academy doesn't only benefit students with Autism, but it is a great school for students without it as well. She gave us more information about the condition that the video left out, as some really sad stories to go along with it. :( Also she told us about a volunteer oportunity on November 19th!

Friday: Friday morning we discussed some of the Barriers of Education that we read about in our articles. We were grouped up depending on which article other people read. After given a few minutes to talk about the article, we stood up in front of the classroom in pairs to give out main points that we learned. Some of the barriers we learned about included bullying, abuse & neglect, eating disorders, teen pregnancies, drug and alcohol abuse, being a lach-key kid, and many more. After everyone was done presenting we went up to the library to check out the book A Child Called 'It'. This book is an auto-biography by Dave Pelzer about the barrier "Abuse and Neglect" and it illustrates the horrors he went through as a child when he was abused. If you have not started reading this book yet, just a warning: it will make you very angry.

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September 12-16

Monday: We started watching the Gridiron Gang. This movie illustrated how a group of teenagers in prision, who were involved in gangs and violence, begin to turn their life around. The probation officer in the movie wanted to start a football team in hopes of teaching discipline and to these kids so they would hopefully get off the streets and make positive choices in their lives. The movie ends with most of the football players winning the last game (to the team they played first at the beginning of the season). After getting out of the detention center, most of the players went to college, got jobs, or finished high school. This movie shows how one person, who wanted to make a difference in someone's life, changed the outcome of a group of teenagers for the positve.


Tuesday: We continued watching the Gridiron Gang.




Wednesday: We finished watching the Gridiron Gang. Reminder to complete your journal about the GridIron Gang and how it relates to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Thursday: Miss Quinn came to our class! She showed us all of her little second graders. She told us a little about each student so we could choose who would be the best match as our second grade penpal. During the year, we will write to our little froggy friends and they will write back to us. We will get to visit them throughout the year too!





Friday: We got to choose our second grade froggy friend! (I was absent)

We introduced Barriers to Education. Each cadet chose an article about common barriers to learning. They are to summarize the articles and write up bullet points for our bulletin board. On Wednesday, we will exchange articles.

Sep 6 - Sep 9

Tuesday: Today we practiced our puppet shows and presented them to the class to make sure that they were good. Every0ne did a great job and all had different ideas.

Wednesday: Today was the opening day of Mrs. Turner's Puppet Shows in Miss Quinn's class. I must say the audience adored all of them. We started off with Mr. Frog and his hunt for his bucket, followed with The wise old Pooh Bear and the Rainbow Duckling, The Fruits and the Dinosaur, and ending with the four kids who lost their self esteen. All the kids were entranced by the shows as well as us. The kids liked all the puppets and tried to immitate the shows.

Thursday: Mrs. Kelsey came in today to talk about scholarships for Teacher Cadets. There were quite a few with a lot of money that came with them. Luckily, Mrs. Turner is a judge for one of them, so we have a edge up on the competition. These scholarships will be offered to the whole shcool soon, so make sure to get your application in!

Here is the link for Teaching Fellows!!!

Friday: Friday scared all of us as the SRO officers and Officer Beeco talked to us about gangs in the area as well as their own experiences in gangs. It was amazing that the gangs that you just hear about are at our school. After learning the history as well as the signs of a gang, it makes us look at people differently trying to figure out if someone is in a gang

Monday August 29: This day in class we read an article addressing the importance of self esteem called the three "s" pot. The story was odd, but made good points. We were to read a second article that day but it was postponed to be read the following day. Instead we read a book that illustrated the possibility of global esteem turning into useful traits called "Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon."

Tuesday August 30: We read a story on the smartboard called "Have You Filled A Bucket Today?" We later started to decorate our own buckets to post on the wall so that we might all be able to submit our own bucket filling comments to each of our classmates. It then became our mission for that day and the days following to try to purposely fill a friend's or stranger's bucket.

Wednesday August 30: A class discussion was had regarding the arguments made in The Self- Esteem Fraud. The general consensus of the class from what I gathered from those who spoke, was that it's too difficult to label global self esteem as wholly good or bad, or even valid. There were too many variables when considering its use inc

luding the individual student, the age group, the situation, among other things. We then had cupcakes and juice thanks to Mr. Bufis, and were briefed on our first project of the nine weeks.

Thursday Sept 1: This was our first day to work with our groups toward the puppet shows to be presented to our soon to be first grade pals the following week. Our show was to highlight the importance of self esteem and to be inclus

ive of the members of the audience.

Friday Sept 2:Our final day to fine tune and

organize our stories and hands, not much else happened aside from the appearance of the mysterious tab sheet on the corkboard outside the room. Its origin is still unknown even after my diligent efforts to identify its source.

I wasn't sure if my quote was supposed to go on here or not, but to cover my hiney I'll put it up here anyway. It's not so much a quote as it is a very short story from a man I really admire, in a movie/book that was truly life-changing. the significance of it to what we've been discussing these past weeks was too great to not remark.

"Once upon a time there was a crooked tree and

a straight tree. And they grew next to each other. And every day the straight tree would look at the crooked tree and he would say, "You're crooked. You've always been crooked and you'll continue to be crooked. But look at me! Look at me!" said the straight tree. He said, "I'm tall and I'm straight." And then one day the lumberjacks came into the forest and looked around, and the manager in charge said, "Cut all the straight trees." And that crooked tree is still there to this day, growing strong and growing strange." Tom Waits in "Wristcutters"