December 14th-19th

Twas the week before Christmas break,

and all through the school,

the teacher cadets were working hard

so that on Friday they wouldn't look a fool.

On Monday, the teacher cadets had our silent auction in the conference room. We had a bunch of hand made items like paintings by Reed, hand warmers by Tamara, a scarf by Jo, and pencil holders by Hannah. We also had a huge table full of sweet and salty treats for the teachers.
We ended up making $110 from the silent auction!

 

 

Tuesday, we started on our work for Reading Around the Christmas Tree. Seven kindergarten classes would be coming to Mauldin High School. Teacher cadets in pairs picked a Christmas book that they would read to the kindergarteners, and then they decorated a tree to coordinate with their book. All the decorations were hand made, so we had a lot of work to do before Friday.

 

Wednesday and Thursday were also work days for our trees. We spent the entire class periods working and making sure everything was going to be ready for Friday.

 

Friday finally came, and it was time for reading around the Christmas tree. We all got there early in our teacher cadet shirts and pajama pants to set things up. Everything looked beautiful! The trees were set up in the media center, then in the cafeteria there were snacks a red carpet leading to Santa Mav, who was wonderfully played by Daijah, and Elsa and Anna played by Taylor and Hannah.

 

The readings went really well, and the kids had a blast listening to Christmas stories, eating snacks, and getting a present from Santa Mav. It was a great last day before Christmas break!     

 

"I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well." -Alexander the Great



December 8 - December 12

This week was a very stressful week but an enjoyable one too!

Monday was our planning day and we spoke about our wonderful experiences at the middle schools we observed. We also signed up for treats we are going to bring for the Silent Auction next Monday. And finally we signed up for what books we are going to read for Reading Around the Christmas Tree.


Tuesday, we had a special guest speaker, the one and only, Mr. Rhymer! He had a lot to say, which is not very surprising. He had a great story. He spoke to us about how he became a principal. The most important part of his speech was about how foolish we can be with social media. He was saying how posting unnecessary things on social media can actually cost you in the future. Employers don't only know your social media information but they can also get access to your messages!

Wednesday, we had Breakfast Table Talks which is when we went to the media center and met up with all the teachers who have 1st period planning. We set up a beautiful breakfast for them and we got to sit around and ask them any questions we had. We had questions like, have you ever had the urge to hit a student, to is there a certain way you arrange your desks in your classroom. It was very interesting to hear what the teachers had to say.

Thursday, we had our "Family" picture. Love my TC fam! Friday, we had our high school observations and fortunately it was at our very own Mauldin High School. We had to advise any teacher we wanted to observe ahead of time. It's always great to actually pay attention to how our very own teachers do what they do.

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." - Albert Einstein

December 1st- December 5th

This week was an exciting and very fascinating week: all about Middle School! :)

Monday was a day to go over our upcoming schedule, and also to do an interesting activity about the Middle School books we read over Thanksgiving break! Over the break, we all had to pick our favorite book from our Middle School years and re read them from a different, older perspective. Once we did this, Mrs. Turner made us write the title of our book down on a sticky note and post in on the Promethian board. We then compared books and saw which books were the same and which were not (which were most of them). After comparing, we partnered up with someone who read the same or most similar book to our own. With our partner, we then wrote a lesson plan explaining how we would teach the book to a middle school class. This was a great way to make a transition from Elementary School to Middle School.



Tuesday, we had the privilege to listen to a guest speaker from Hillcrest Middle School, Janet Kirby. This lady was an amazing speaker. She probably made everyone second guess themselves when thinking of teaching something other than Middle School. She talked about her story, including her transition from teaching Elementary school to Middle School. She described how Middle School was her calling, and how rewarding it is to teach students who are at that particular age. She discussed how much you can influence a child at this confusing, unknown part of their life. It was a privilege hearing from Janet Kirby.

Wednesday, we got to listen to another speaker- Kelly Weeks from Langston Charter School. This was very interesting, mostly because most of our class hadn't experienced a Charter School and knew nothing about it. Mrs. Weeks discussed the policy of the dress code, and how that allows one to judge a person's character based on what's in the inside, not what's on the outside. She also explained why the classes are single gender- it allows the kids to focus on more important things, rather than getting distracted by the opposite gender. She also explained how the school is very personal, and focuses it's attention on the individual and their needs. The school is free, and gathers most of their funding from parent donations. She was very interesting to hear from.

Thursday and Friday we had our Middle School observations. It's always great to be able to observe and be able to experience the classroom setting on our own. We got to understand the teaching adaptations based on the age and development of the child, versus how children in elementary were taught. We got to choose from many schools, including Hillcrest Middle, Mauldin Middle, and Langston Charter School.

"A good teacher is like a candle- it consumes itself to light the way for others." - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk