Sunday, October 11, 2009

Monday Oct 5- We used the laptops with our partners to work on our children's books. Mrs. Turner also discussed The Upstate Teacher Cadet Confernce. She showed us what the shirts will look like and discussed what we were going to do through out the day.
Tuesday Oct 6- We continued using the laptops with our partners. Mrs. Turner gave us a sheet to sign up for the sessions during the UTCC. Mrs. Turner also assigned homework on the cognitive stages children go through.
Wednesday Oct 7- Mrs. Turner went over our homework about the different stages kids go through. We took notes on Piaget's Cognitive Stages: Sensorimotor (birth to about age 2), Preoperational (2-6), Concrete (7-11), and Formal Operations (12+).

Thursday Oct 8- We took a field trip to Walmart! Our assignment was to fill out a chart of how children play and what type of toys attract the different type of age groups.
Friday Oct 9 - Our class was cut short because of pep rally schedule. During our shortened class, we had different stations to play at: play dough, shaving cream, card games, finger paint, imaginary play (with dress up items and baby dolls), and coloring materials. We had two guests during the class period. Mrs. Wethington, a kingdergaden teacher at Mauldin Elementray, told us about the importance of each station and how it help build a childs ability to learn. Mrs. Quinn, our pen pal's teacher, was there to observe us and brought most of the toys for us to play with.

Friday, October 02, 2009

September 28 - October 2


Quentin and Joe reading The Acorn People

Monday September 28

We continued our disability unit and started reading The Acorn People. Some finished the book the weekend before but others finished in class and worked on their news articles or other things.




Tuesday September 29



Katherine and I with our acorn necklaces!

We talked about our special education observations for Wednesday and where we were going for the class period. We talked about the Acorn People and how the main characters where children with disabilites that were "thrown" into a camp for boy scouts. At the end of the book, the children and the counselor, Ron who was just looking for a way to make money for the summer, realized that they could actually accomplish things and have fun without being someone's "hidden secret" or "inconvience". The children and Ron made acorn necklaces and called themselves the "acorn people." Later in the class, we made our own acorn necklaces with the characters and their descriptions.


Victoria, Aliyah and Quentin and some of the students in Mrs. Smith's class.


Natalie, Chelsea S., Casey and I with some more students in Mrs. Smith's class.

Wednesday September 30

Everyone split up and went to their different sites for our special education observations. A few of us stayed at school and went to interact and have breakfast with Mrs. Smith's class, which was just a minute away down the hall. The teacher cadets and Mrs. Smith's class were both excited! We all talked about different things and realized that the class learned things that aren't usually taught, like cleaning, cooking and etc.


Thursday October 1
Mrs. Turner was absent so we had a substitute. We continued working on our acorn necklaces.


Quentin and Johnakin

Friday Ocober 2

Mrs. Turner read us a great story about how a math teacher had her students write positive things about each other and they all ended up saving them years later to remind themselves about what their classmates said about them. One of the main characters, who was disabled, kept his list all those years in his wallet even after dying in the Vietnam War. After the story, we all read our positive pot. I'm keeping mine! At the end of class we also choose our partners,topics and age groups for our barrier books. And it was Nisha's birthday!

Quote

"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure"
-Sven Goran Eriksson

"Do not fear the winds of adversity. Remeber: A kite rises against the wind rather than with it." -Unkown

I chose these quotes because they show that even if you're not like everyone else, you can still overcome your obstacles and make something of yourself.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

September 21 - September 25

Monday, 21st
We continued watching "Gridiron Gang."


Tuesday, 22nd
Today we finished watching the movie and did a label activity while we discussed the movie. The label activity included Mrs. Turner giving each student a label on their back and the student couldn't see it but all of the students classmates could. We had to show our classmates our label and they treated you accordingly to your label.

After the label activity we played a riddle game called "Annie is going on a picnic and is bringing an apple..." Each student was then asked what item they wanted to take on the picnic and if they brought the correct item then they could go with Annie to the picnic. To be able to go you had to say an item that started with the first letter of their name (ex: Annie taking an apple). The twister to the game was figuring out the what you needed to take. For many the activity was difficult and some didn't get it. We related this activity to the labels that student's have and live with everyday. After we learned about the barriers to education that students can have. (For example: Blindness, Dyslexia, and speech impediments.)


Wednesday, 23rd

Today we participate in "Day with a Disability." We went through several activities where we were effected by a different disabilities. Each disability station had a different disability and and a different task to do. Some of the activities included writing with Dyslexia, walking on a tap line with Blind goggles, wrapping a present with one arm, and talking with a speech impediment. Below is a video of Kirsten walking on a tape line with the blind goggles.

Disability Day Video

Thursday, 24th
Today we had a guest speaker. Mrs. Joann Timberlake from Overbrook Child Development Center came to talk about disabilities that children face with an emphasis on autism.


Friday, 25th

We discussed Mrs. Joann's visit and we were assigned a group project on Barrier Books. We were also given a book, The Acorn People, to read for homework.


Quotes of the Week:
"Education is the movement from darkness to light." -Allan Bloom
"Nine tenths of education is encouragement." –Anatole France

"Limitations only go so far." - Robert M. Hansel

(the picture from "Gridiron Gang" was borrowed from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4XLHLaYAgoNd_rUQFXtGg68McuQQyZ2SOyUruwa46Z3B5EIOcwqTdkCgkyqcDMLhJnhQBeGuczjaKnoQ-Fm78J8AcB5A_HUXxZZuQjLehDWwMs48Pf5KQ_MVopLOnVwFG5tRrcw/s1600/49.jpg )

Sunday, September 20, 2009

September 14-18

Monday, September 14

Today the class chose our buddies from Mrs. Quin's first grade class. They were all so adorable that everyone quickly scrambled to choose a child that they had bonded with. In the end, everyone was very happy with thier pen pal and we recieved our first animal: the elephant! We described to the children a little about ourselves, like our names, ages, favortie color, etc. We also included a cartoon drawing of ourselves!


Tuesday, September 15

In class we learned about the learning styles of children and ourselves. We shared memorable stories about how visual, audio, or kinsetic teaching methods had helped us. Also Mrs. Turner taught us about Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs and how they effect a child's learning ability.
We also began the Gridiron Gang! :)



Wedesay , September 16
Senior Pictures - continued to watch Gridiron Gang and take notes about Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs
Thursday. September 17
Continued watching the Gridiron Gang
Friday, September 18
Senior Meeting
Quote of the Week:
"The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn." - John Lobbock

Sunday, September 13, 2009

September 8th-11th

Tuesday, September 8th

In class, we continued to work on our puppet shows to present to Mrs. Quinn's first grade students.
Everyone worked very hard. :)



Wednesday, September 9th

We finalized our puppets and everyone practiced their presentation. We all were excited for Friday.








Chelsea!













Rachel, Andrea, Kim, Kathy, and Quentin





Also, it was Kirsten's Birthday!




Thursday, September 10th

Everyone presented their puppet shows for the class and Mrs. Turner. They were all a success!




Friday, September 11th
We all drove to Mauldin Elementary, checked in, and finally presented our puppets shows to Mrs. Quinn's first grade class! Woo! Woo! At the end of every show, each group gave out prizes that represented the moral from the stories.









Inspirational Quote:


A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others. ~Author Unknown

Monday, September 07, 2009

Teacher Cadet Blog
August 31st - September 04th


Monday

We wrote our names on a white slip and then decorated them


<---- Kenzi , Kirsten, and Phillip hard at work



















Joe decorating his name tag ---->

After that Mrs. Turner read Chrysanthemum to us



The theme behind the story was "self esteem"

We talked about how people can really make a positive or negative difference in your life.
We also discussed how someone's words or actions can also make a very big difference. We finalized our discussing by saying that everyone is special in his or her own way and that our names are just a glimpse of how special each of us really are.

Tuesday

Began class by going over our journals from the night before. Our assignment for the night before was to read the "Self Worth:The Pot Nobody Watches" article and the "Self Esteem Fraud" article.

We went over the differences between global and earned self esteem.
We talked about the strong influences that both parents and teachers have.
In the "Self Worth: The Pot Nobody Watches" article it talks about "pot" and whether you have your pot filled with positive or negative things.

We finished class by starting our positive pots.





Wednesday
We worked on our positive pots


Nisha, Kayla, and Lorena all working on their positive pots


Lorena and Kayla working together

Thursday

Mrs. Turner explained the puppet show performance that each group was going to preform for the Mauldin Elementary school kids.

We got into our groups and started working.

Shay, Kayla, and Nisha with their puppets



Victoria and Lisa with their puppets



Friday

We continued working on our puppet show



Everyone working on their puppet show performance


Inspirational Quote:
"Accept everything about yourself, I mean everything. You are you and that is the beginning and the end, no apologies, no regrets."
-Clark Moustakas




Sunday, August 30, 2009

A New Year, A New Start



Monday August 24, 2009

The profesor from Anderson University, Ray Kimbrell, came and introduced himself. Also, he gave us our assignments and also, the money was taken up for the college course.



Tuesday August 25, 2009

Our class filled out the applications for the college course and Cerra was explained. Mrs. Turner divided our classes into groups by numbering off. In our groups, we illistrated pictures to demostrate what Cerra means. Mrs. Turner presented each group poster to the class.Then, she read The Crayon Box that talked.Our homework assignment was to write in our journals.



Wednesday August 26, 2009

Mrs. Turner asked us to share our journals with others. The other students could comment on our journal entries as well we could also, share with the class if we wanted to. Also, we did an activity with a partner. To see how many things, we could change and what the person noticed that was different about us. Mrs. Turner read The Wings of Change to our class as well.



Thursday August 27, 2009

We had an arts and crafts day in Mrs. Turner's class. We made butterflies based on the book Wings of Change. The butterflies symbolized our values and beliefs.



Friday August 28, 2009

Our class went into the hallway,to share our butterflies that were on display. We all learned new things about one another that is important to us but also, we all have our similarities. We also, learned were and how to do the blogs.

Inspirational Quote
"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself has altered."
~Nelson Mandela~

This quote went along with our week because it was all about change in the world but starting with ourselves. I believe the quote is true because when you do change and then go back to old ways, its not the same. Therefore, once you change than other things around you will to.

Met Life Ambassadors in Education

We were awarded a $5000 grant from the Metlife Foundation for our efforts to promote connections with the community. We plan to use this money for an Upstate Teacher Cadet Conference in October. We also plan even more in-school and community service projects. Have fun 2009-2010 cadets!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Field Experience Week #4















Lauren dissects frogs in Mrs. Griner's seventh grade science lab!


Ashley teaches a "Rabbit Glyph" to the second and third graders in Mrs. Lyle's class.
















Mackenzie leads students on a virtual tour of concentration camps in Nazi Germany in Mrs. Sanders's seventh grade social studies class.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Field Experience Week #3











Brittany teaches a review lesson for her Chemistry students in Mrs. Collins's class.

Kelsie reads a book to her kindergarteners in Mrs. Dyar's class.

Brittney reads to a pre-schooler in Mrs. Anderson's class.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Field Experience Week #2


Caroline teaches calendar math in Mrs. West's K-5 class
Hannah teaches calendar math in Mrs. Luneau's K-5 class.








Karli does morning work in Mrs. Grant's room K-5 class.

Taylor tutors someone in Ms. Wright's first grade class!






Abbey teaches a lesson in Miss Quinn's first grade class!


Friday, March 13, 2009

Field Experience Week #1


The cadets have completed their first week in the field. Read and add comments about the best and worst experiences!!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

February 16-20, 2009 .Rachel Walt.



Monday (2.16)
PRESIDENT'S DAY
(no school)
p(^.^)q

Tuesday (2.17)
Presentations of practice lessons began.
Practice Lesson: Cadet teaches the class using lesson plan he or she created in order to prepare for our upcoming field experiences.

Courtney taught shapes using groups, movement, a story, and the hokey pokey while the rest of us acted as kindergarteners; some of us were a bit more immature =D *ahem* I mean, got more into the role.






Wednesday (2.18)
We floated with Caroline (~^.^)~
She set us up in groups in order to figure out and then draw what given objects sank or floated in a container of water. One student confused us all when she used a method to float a paper clip (which is supposed to sink).

Next, we graduated from kindergarten and became 1st graders. Abbey taught us about fact families, a group of equations with the same numbers. We were able to learn about fact families through movable flash cards with numbers, addition signs, subtraction signs, and equal signs. She also gave us a worksheet for practice.


Thursday (2.19)
We, still as 1st graders, got a new math teacher D= But we all love Taylor. She taught us how to count by 5s and 10s using a colorful chart on the promethean board. We were also able to count off one by one, a student saying 5 and the next 10 and so on.

Then, we somehow zoomed past 2nd grade and ended up in Kelsie's 3rd grade math class. We learned about probability using M&Ms. If there were 3 greens in a bag of 20, we had a 3 in 20 (3/20) chance of taking out a green.


...We then ate the M&Ms... although some people couldn't wait... ¬.¬
So thank you Kelsie =3


Friday (2.20)
We got a new math teacher again!! WHY DO THEY ALWAYS LEAVE US?! Wow... there are a lot of cadets who want to teach math. Ashley taught us the multiples of 8. She connected the fact that 8x2 is the same as 8+8. There were even cute stories that were used to remind us our 8 multiplication table (Skate x chicks = Fort E Cake -8x6=48- in which chicks who loved Fort E baked a cake and tried to eat it while on skates).

w00t Middle School (where'd our childhood go??)
Lauren taught us about the Digestive System in our 7th grade science class. She had a cool interactive flash slideshow as well as a poster for us to label in order to keep the class engaged.


~~~~~~~~~~

All in all, it was a successful first week of practice exams. All cadets did very well and can easily become teachers in the future.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
-W.B. Yeats

I chose this quote because I completely agree. Educated people aren't those who just spew out information, but are those who can use their knowledge to solve problems big and small.

On a less serious side (because I really do love this quote and we can all relate):
"Education costs money, but then so does ignorance." -Alice Duer Miller

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

February 9-13, 2009 (Mackenzie)

Monday, February 9
Today, Mrs. Turner explained different levels of learning, otherwise known as Bloom's Taxonomy. We read a story called The Dot and then made a quiz based on the different levels in Bloom's Taxonomy. We learned how to apply those levels in our future classrooms and challenge our students with higher levels of thinking. After the quiz, we started "High-tech Teaching" and learned about technology in the classroom. We browsed different educational websites that would be helpful when making lesson plans and providing different, creative ways of teaching.

Tuesday, February 10
Today was all about lesson plans. Mrs. Turner explained how we should begin, and gave us helpful tips for creating our lessons. The rest of the class was used for working on our lesson plans.

Wednesday, February 11
Today was a workday for lesson plans.

Thursday, February 12
Today we wrote our letters to our pen pals at Mauldin Elementary School and prepared for our visit on Friday. The rest of the class was used for working on lesson plans.

Friday, February 13
We went to Mauldin Elementary to visit our pen pals before Valentine's Day. We helped them with an activity, making "Valentine people," and we exchanged cards. We gave them a letter and a small bag of candy and they gave us little cards with their pictures that they decorated.

"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows."
-Sydney Harris

I chose this quote because I believe that teaching is not just about giving information to students and expecting them to learn it. It is about giving students opportunities and letting them be creative and expressing themselves.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Ashley Teague: February 2-6, 2009

Monday, February 2
Today Tyler reviewed last weeks experiences and we watched some of the extras on the Freedom Writers DVD. We saw how the video affected the different actors with the parts they played and got to hear some of their own personal stories. We also received lesson plan books that Mrs. Turner put together for us over the weekend. They have the grade that we plan to teach and a subject for that grade with the state standards.

Tuesday, February 3
Today we went around the school and interviewed different teachers and learned how they feel the best way is to set up their classrooms and handle class procedures. We also asked them about how they feel the best way to handle discipline is.

Wednesday, February 4
Today we played games like Jigsaw, where we got into groups and were assigned categories, like snacks, ice cream, chocolate, or candy, and had to come up with as much of that category as we could. We had to give the names of the candies or ice creams and the brands and the packages they came in. We then numbered off, in Numbered Heads, in each individual group and moved to different groups according to our numbers and shared what we talked about in our first group. We then played a game where Mrs. Turner asked our groups different questions dealing with the original categories. Once we finished, we got back into our very first groups that we were in with Jigsaw, and played a game called Round Table. We took turns writings answers to questions on a piece of paper and passed it around the room. When we received our original questions we shared the most popular answers with the class.

Thursday, February 5
Today we began talking about how we could relate the games that we played yesterday to teaching in a classroom. We got into groups according to which grade level we planned on teaching or which subject we were teaching and discussed different games we could use for that level or subject. We then discussed them as a class and helped each other to come up with new ideas.

Friday, February 6
Today we finished our discussions on the games and began discussing different ideas for classroom procedures and disciplines. We discussed our own experiences with different teachers and then talked about ways we could improve their methods or use theirs to come up with our own. we discussed good and bad ways to discipline a classroom and how to deal and not to deal with certain behaviors depending on their age and grade levels. We also discussed ideas on classroom procedures and shared ideas.

Quote:
"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel." -Anonymous
I chose this quote because as a teacher it is not only important to teach them, the students, the knowledge they need to know, but you need to be able to connect with them. Students aren't always going to remember every piece of information that a teacher may teach them, but if you are able to connect with them they will never forget you. I personally have had great teachers who teach what they are supposed to, but they never connect on a personal level so I tend to forget about that class. I have also had great teachers who teach what they're supposed to and connect on a personal level. Though I may forget everything they tried to teach, it was these teachers who inspired me to become a teacher myself.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

January 26th-30th (Tyler)

Monday-
We began class by going over the schedule for the week. As a class, we defined each of the seven gifts of teachers and gave examples of teachers in Mauldin who have them. Mrs. Turner explained the letter we were supposed to write to teachers who possessed the seven gifts. Last we exchanged our journals of the paper airplane activity.

Tuesday-
Today we started by making our boxes and delivering our gifts to teachers around the school. Next we started Freedom Writers. During the movie, we were supposed to look for examples of the seven gifts that Mrs. G showed.

Wednesday-
Continued watching Freedom Writers.

Thursday-
Continued watching Freedom Writers.

Friday-
Today we met our pen-pals for the first time! We helped them celebrate the 100th day of school by counting out 100 Fruit Loops and making a necklace out of them. Then we helped them draw a picture of what they think they will look like when they are 100 years old.

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

I like this quote because when I read it, it makes me think of how the teachers I have had in the past have influenced me to become a teacher. They passed their knowledge on to me and in return I will pass it on to others.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Jan 5-9 & 12-16, 2009 :: Kristen Smith :-)


Monday, Jan. 5, 2009~ It was a pretty exciting day as seniors because we all started talking about graduation. Today in class, we discussed the project/exam. We chose the topics that we wanted to create a brochure and presentation about. Mrs. Turner passed out some of our papers from the past couple of weeks for us to put in our folders. As always, we discussed the schedule for the week so that everyone knew what was going on.

Tuesday, Jan. 6~ Today we started our unit on high school. We discussed our reactions to articles we picked out to read. The articles had to tie into the curriculum on high school.

Wednesday, Jan. 7~ We started working on our projects. The computer lab is Mrs. Ward's room was open for our use.

Thursday, Jan. 8~ We reported to the auditorium to retake our teacher cadet picture. Then, we headed back to class to work on our projects.

Friday, Jan. 9~ We continued working on our projects.


Monday, Jan. 12~ Today was our last day to finish our projects and add all of our final touches. Some cadets also ran apples to the Teachers of the Month.


Tuesday, Jan. 13~ EXAM day! Our professor from Anderson University came to our class. We presented all of our brochures in about a 3 hour time frame!


***The rest of the week we had exams for our other classes. All stress was relieved when the week was over!***
*****Quote: "In order
for the brain to comprehend the heart must first listen." David
Perkins*****
~I think this quote is very applicible to education. Students have to want to learn. They have to have that desire to absorb new information. As teachers, we need to help establish that desire by our passion for teaching, learning, and our subject. We want to have a passion that ignites the passions in others.