October 12-15, October 19-23

Monday October 12th:
We reflected in our journals about our toy trip to Wal-Mart, and our play day on Friday. In our journals, we talked about our favorite toy, the toy that was hardest to find, and other experiences from our field trip. We then swapped journals and made comments about other experiences, and had a class discussion about what we found most interesting. We also talked about the play day on Friday in relation to our lesson on the purpose of children's play in relation to cognitive development as well as the centers that cater to different types of learning and their effectiveness of teaching what they were intended to.





Tuesday October 13th:
We discussed the psychiatrist Vgyotsky and his theory of the importance of language in relation to social interaction. Which in simple terms, stated that language and social interaction encourage learning. We experienced this, by experiencing learning with out language through a Leggo activity. We were each assigned different jobs to complete a Lego model in which our speech was limited or who we could talk to was limited. It was incredibly hard and frustrating, and made us appreciate our ability to convey our thoughts verbally without many restrictions.

Wednesday October 14th:
This was our field trip to Overbrook Child Development Center. We met at the school at 8:30, and divided into cars and all followed Mrs. Turner to Overbrook. When we got there, we were greeted by a large parrot and a friendly staff member. We all piled into the cafeteria and heard all about Overbrook and their funding and how they are unique from other development centers like them. Then, we divided into groups of three or four and spent about 5-7 minutes in each classroom. While there, we all had very interesting experiences: like Rachel's hair being brushed with a broom and braided, being fed fake food, being climbed like a mountain, etc. We all interacted and connected with the children so much, and we were very upset to have to leave. We headed out and met at I-HOP for a after field trip reflection, in which we wrote in our journals and shared our interesting and adorable experiences.

Thursday October 15th:
Our day started early for the Upstate Teacher Cadet Conference, we all moved to the auditorium at nine o'clock. In the auditorium, we had a speaker from CERRA tell us about how important we our to the future and the program. We then had Ann Marie Taylor come up and do a fun activity that involved singing and dancing to represent how she runs her classroom. From 9:15- 10:20, we attended our first workshop. From 10:25- 11:10, we attended our second workshop. Between 11:15 and 12:40, we either had lunch and time to look around at the booths or an informational session on Teaching Fellows and other scholarship opportunities. 12:45- 1:30 was the last workshop. At the end of that workshop we all made our way back to the auditorium where Jason Fulmer discussed his classroom and read excerpts from Thank You, Mr. Falker. Then, final announcements were made and door prizes were handed out.




The week of October 19-23 was spent working on our Barrier Books to be turned in on Monday.

'Do not go where the path may lead; go where there is no path and leave a trail.' Ralph Waldo Emerson

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.

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.

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 )

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

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

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

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!

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.

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.

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!

Field Experience Week #1

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