February 9th-February 13th!

Monday, February 9th

Today, me, Hannah Pullias, and Tamara gave our teaching presentation on how to conjugate Spanish "ar" verbs in the present tense!  This lesson was intended for an upper elementary/middle school Spanish 1 classroom, so we included engaging activities to make learning verbs more fun for that age level,  such as rolling "r"s for the activating strategy, using food to incorporate visual learning, and writing verbs out in shaving cream to incorporate kinesthetic learning.  I feel like the lesson went well,  but we probably should have used a little less shaving cream and checked over some grammatical errors.

Tuesday, February 10th

Today, I visited a 5th Grade classroom, Mrs. Zynol's class, at Oakview Elementary to see if I wanted to do my field experience there.  The kids were GREAT and did activities such as Core Bites (Common Core math practice-yuck), writing comparison charts for which is grosser- a cockroach or a spider, and reading a fiction novel out load about a gifted school.  I really enjoy this age level because the kids are mature enough to understand my jokes but young enough that they're not......I'm definitely going to do my field experience in this class!

Wednesday, February 11th

Today, Keira, Laura, and Becca did their peer lesson on the history and science of a snowflake. They did a FABULOUS job of incorporating visual learning through an intriguing and creative newscast, and also did a great job of teaching us about snowflake topics such as Wilson Bentley, one of the first people to photograph snowflakes, using auditory learning (reading us a story), or such as how every snowflake is unique by taking us through a lesson on how to make our own paper snowflake (kinesthetic learning) (which looked fabulous around Mrs. Turner's room).  The best part about the lesson, however, was at the end when each of us got to get up in front of the class and say something unique about ourselves, because it allowed us not only to learn more about snowflakes today, but also more about each other!

Thursday, February 12th

Today, we went to Mauldin Elementary to celebrate Valentine's Day with our little buddies!  Taylor and Hannah Trammell presented their peer lesson there, and they did an awesome job of teaching us and our buddies more about Valentine's Day through the use of the different types of learning styles.  They helped our buddies perfect their math skills (through the use of visual and kinesthetic learning) by having them categorize candy hearts by color and then counting the total,  they helped them perfect their estimation skills (through the use of visual learning) by having them guess how many candy hearts could fit in a large paper heart and how much candy is in a jar,  and they helped them perfect their listening skills (through the use of auditory learning) by reading a hilarious book about platonic love, "That Yucky Love Thing," to the children.  Their lesson was superb and I don't knowm if there could have been a better lesson for Valentine's Day!!! (I'm sorry I have no pictures because I left my phone in the car).

Friday, February 13th

Today, we had a super special guest speaker, South Carolina State Teacher of the Year Jennifer Ainsworth, and her crew come and speak to the class about her experience in special education, being teacher of the year, and her students' experiences.  The students she brought were named Savannah Thompson and Ezra Tribbly, both super outgoing, congenial Special Olympic Athletes with awesome, unique qualities.  One super cool thing about Savannah was that she won this huge community award and has a playground named after her in Myrtle Beach as a result.  One super cool thing about Ezra is that he can play almost any instrument without any formal lessons.  Ezra's mom, Mrs. Tribbly, also spoke and gave her inspiring advice on being a mom of a special education student and working in the school system.  The best part about today was the end, when Ezra and Savannah sang a duet of "I Believe I Can Fly."

February 2, 2015- February 6, 2015

This week was spirit week at MHS!!! Our organization this year was Family Connections, which is a nonprofit organization that supports parents and families of kids with special healthcare and disablitues. We raised $ 85,016.68 for the organization! Thank you so much to everyone who made this week possible! Tall made this week only memorable for the students but also to the families.

Monday
This was the first day of student lessons. In the student lessons, we each got a partner and then made a lesson from a topic of our choosing. In our lesson, we had to have a visual, auditory, kinesthetic and cooperative learning strategy to engage the students. This day also happened to be Groundhogs Day! Myself (Abby) and Ashlyn did a lesson on the background and celebration of Groundhog Day. We made a cute groundhog craft and sang a catchy tune to go go along with the lesson. We also predicted that there will be 6 more weeks of winter!

Tuesday
Class Buy Out!

Wednesday
Abby Wetzel and Lauren taught a lesson on the water cycle. They taught us about the cycle and then we made bracelets to represent each part of the cycle. One we were done making our craft, we could use a bracelet to answer questions on quiz on the water cycle.

Thursday 
Hannah Pringle and Jo taught a lesson on vertebrates. Each student got to begin the lesson by choosing a stuffed animal. The students then learned about the different types of vertebrates (mammals, amphibians, fish, reptiles, bird) through a PowerPoint and engaging songs on each type. After learning about the different types of animals, each student stood up and told the class what kind of animal their stuffed animal was and why.

Friday
Mallory and Meagan ended the week with a lesson on Color Gaurd. They taught about Color Gaurd and what it is and then showed a video on a  beutiful performance they gave at a competition a few weekends ago with their team. They then taught us how to spin the flag. We went into the hallway where we got to practice these skills (so much fun!!). Mrs. Turner then took videos of us where we watched later in the period in order to critique ourselves. Mallory and Meagan ended the class period with a quiz to see what we had learned from the class.

"A teacher affects eternity; hee can never tell where his influence stops."- Henry Adams

January 25 - January 30, 2015

Monday and Tuesday

Today we learned about cooperative learning. Cooperative learning is when groups of people learn together for benefit of the whole. We learned about five types:
1. Think/Pair/Share - Mrs. Turner read us a question, we thought about it individually, discussed it with  a       partner, then shared the answer with whole class.
2. Pairs Check - We took a quiz, then checked the answers with our partner.
3. Numbered Heads -  First, each person was numbered (1-5). We then split into 5 different groups.Then withing each group we were again numbered 1-5. Mrs. Turner would read us a question and then role a die. Which ever person's number was rolled would answer the question.
4. Jig Saw - We were divided into 5 groups and each group read an article. We were then renumbered so there was a different person from each original group in a new group. Each of us shared a summary of what we had read.
5. Inner/Outer Circle - 10 people formed an "inner circle" facing out and 10 people formed the "outer circle" facing in. Mrs. Turner would read aloud a question and we would discuss it with the person we were facing. We had to be done talking by the time Mrs. Turner walked around the circle twice. When we were finished the outer circle moved clockwise to the next person.

After this we wrote quick summaries about the pros and cons of each method.

Wednesday
Today began working on our Peer Lessons! We researched activities and information to use for when we teach the class. 

Thursday
This was our second day working on our projects. We continued planning out our lessons and working on the activities for next week when we teach the class.

Friday
Today was the 100th Day of School and we went to Mauldin Elementary to see our buddies (in America themed outfits). We had a lot of fun counting out 100 fruit loops and stringing them onto necklaces. Afterwards we read to our buddies. Sadly, we had to leave a little bit earlier than normal due to a pep rally!