13th and 14th week as Teacher Cadets!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Today we heard from 2011 South Carolina Teacher of the Year, Kelly Nalley. Catherine and I had a wonderful time sitting at the green apple table and chatting with Mrs. Nalley. Amy's pumpkin muffins were also spectacular! Mrs. Nalley gave a wonderful presentation on her beginning teacher years with photos of her and her prior students. She has taught Montessori, Elementary and 6th grade and now teaches Spanish at the Elementary Level at Fork Shoals Elementary.

She was so full of joy when she spoke to us, too!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

We went to our separate observation sites. I was at Five Oaks Academy with Catherine. We started in Lower Elementary with Mrs. Karalee. The children were having their classic book day for the week. A teacher dressed up as Cinderella and read them the book! Mrs. Karalee showed us some activities around the classroom, showed us the coat and portfolio room along with their state of the art computer lab. Their portfolio has everything they need to learn for all three years they are in their class. When the teachers sees that they have completed the work to a satisfactory point, the work is checked off and the student can choose to preserve it in their portfolio. We then moved to be with Upper Elementary to see the kids in action. We were able to ask the kids what they were learning and go to different 'centers' of learning. I learned what a gerund was from a fifth grader. It was a truly humbling experience.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, November 14-16, 2012

We watched The Ron Clark Story about the genius mind of Ron Clark. He leaves his safe and warm teaching job in North Carolina and finds a position at Lower Harlem Elementary teaching 7th grade. He learns to teach through rap and dance. He hurts himself for their benefit and encourages his kids to reach beyond their expectations and to find their potential.

Monday, November 19, 2012

We went to Mauldin Elementary to spend quality time with Mrs. Vaugn's class. Olivia read us two Thanksgiving books and then we made Turkey Table Toppers. The eyes and feet were super hard to keep together but in the end they looked, fabulous and the kids loved them! When we were done we did phonetic spelling with our buddies. The word, 'turkey' would most likely be spelled, 'trke'. I can't wait to see how they grow!

Olivia read The Night Before Thanksgiving

Alex and her buddy's little turkey

Frannie and her two friends

Mrs Vaughn's Kindergarten Class

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

We had our Pilgrim Hat inservice today. We certainly cranked out just enough for every teacher and staff member. It was a great way to kick off Thanksgiving break!

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."         -Oscar Wilde 

November 5-11, 2012

November 5:
Today we got our articles about elementary school.  One was about good parenting skills and the other one was about children growing up too fast.  Then we talked about what we liked and disliked about the Montessori school we visited last week.  Then we got the supplies for our balloon letters to our kindergarten buddies.  Don't forget those are due next Monday! :)

 - Dream Big!  Soar Higher!

November 6:
NO SCHOOL!  Go vote!


November 7:
Today we talked about the articles we read Monday.  We got into small groups and discussed the top 5 things that parents shoud do with elementary aged children and the worst 2 things a parent could do with an elementary aged child.  Then we signed up for which classroom we would go to Thursday at Mauldin Elementary School.


November 8:
We all went to Mauldin Elementary School and split up.  I was with Mrs. Hutto in K5.  It was great to observe another class.

November 9:
Today we went to Anderson University in our super spiffy t-shirts.  It was a really informative trip and the pizza was really good.  The day ended with a panel of students and...TEACHING FELLOWS! Hey! Yeah, you!  The application for Teaching Fellows is due DEC. 1st!

Our lovely group at Anderson University!

"Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open."
-Anonymous

October 29 to November 2, 2012 :)

October 29
      Today, we talked about our day with preschoolers.  We all shared our thoughts on the schools; we said what we liked about the school and what we didn't.  After that, we made witch hat treats for the staff at Maudlin   We started off with a chocolaty stripped cookie.  Then, we put a dot of orange icing in the center of the cookie.  We added a unwrapped Hersey Kiss in the middle of the orange dot.  It made the perfect witch hat cookie!

October 30
      Today, Mrs. Vaughn came into class to tell us about her kinder-gardeners.  She started off telling us about herself, and we got to see pictures of her beautiful wedding.  Then, she went through each one of her "kids" and told us about their personalities and what they needed help with. We had to think about which child would fit our personality and would get along with us best.  We got to chose our buddy for the rest of the year.  Some people wanted the same child, so, we had to talk it out and figure out who would be best with the child.  All the kids are cute and seem really sweet.

October 31
       Today is Halloween!  We got to visit Mrs. Vaughn's class today.  When we got to the class, the kids were working on a classwork.  After they finished, we got to make spider bags with them.  We had to use two halves of a black paper plate, eight pipe cleaners, two eyes, a mouth, and a string.  First, we had to staple the two halves of the black paper plate together.  The kids got to chose where they wanted the legs (pipe cleaners) to go, and we had to staple them in.  The kids then got to glue down the eyes and stick the mouth on the front of the spider.  After the kids did that, we took the hole punched the two ends and put string through it to make it a bag.  When we finished making the spiders the kids went trick or treating around the classroom.  They got to fill their bags with all different types of candy!

"Trick or Treat"

                                                         

November 1
        Today, we started off by making the teacher crayon boxes for their doors.  While we were doing that Alex presented her blog from last week.  After that we got to look a the t-shirt design.  Everyone loved the back of the shirt, but we decided to change the front to make it more detailed.  Then, we had to finish picking our buddies for the rest of the year.  Everyone got to pick a buddy, and everyone seemed happy with who they got.  The last thing we did was watch a video about Montessori education.  Montessori education is when you learn how to do things through hands on activities and learn how to be independent.  Montessori education has five different sections: science practical life, sensory, culture, mathematics  and language.  They learn all of these sections through several different activities.  Each child gets to chose what they want to do each day, and they work on it until they are finished.

                                                

November 2
       Today, we went to Five Oaks Academy and got a tour of the school.  We got to go into a couple of the classrooms to see how they were set up and how the kids acted.  We learned that they use activities to learn something.  If they don't get it the first time, they are able to try to learn in through a different activity.  Whenever two people get into a fight, an adult takes them to a separate area to talk out their problems.  This school works with kids to help them work with others and to be calm about things.  The school was really pretty and calm

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 “The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence.” 
- Maria Montessori