First Week of School

Monday, August 16th
Today was the first day of school. We got our forms and learned about what we do in teacher cadets.

Tuesday, August 17th
We read the book The Dot today. We talked about how the teacher in the book inspired her student, who then inspired others.We then split up into groups to discuss ideas for our committees.

Wednesday, August 18th
Today we shared our ideas from the committees with the rest of the class. We also went to the library and learned how to use the die-cut and laminator.

Thursday, August 19th
We learned how to get on this blog and about how to use the teacher cadets website. We split up into groups and made CERRA posters. CERRA stands for Center for Educators Recruitment Retainment and Advancement. We also read The Crayon Box that Talked.


Friday, August 20th
Today we shared our CERRA posters with the class. We talked about the different methods that each group used to make thier posters. We read another book called The Wings of Change. The lesson learned was that sometimes change is for the better and so we need to accept it and step out of our comfort zones. We did an activity where we had to face a partner and memorize how they looked. Then we would turn around and change five things about ourselves and our partner would guess what they were. It was hard when we had to change five more things because we did not want to change the way that we were.

Field Experience - The Final Weeks

Hi Everyone!
I got soooo busy (and sick) - I forgot to maintain the blog! I'm soooo sorry! But anyway - over the last few weeks I saw the most amazing and wonderful things!!! Natalie taught a wonderful lesson on the Holocaust using the line game from the Freedom Writers' Diaries. Megan taught animals in Spanish to her kindergarten class. Nisha taught about money to her little ones, and she read the CUTEST story. Lorena and Shay were bombarded on the playground by a herd of first graders! Quentin and his Spanish 4 class shared a cultural breakfast at Barnes and Noble. Rachel gave a quiz and posed for a class picture while Victoria literally "Remembered the Titans" during mythology day in her seventh grade English class!

Field Experience Week 5

Hi Everybody -

I can't believe there are only 3 weeks left in this experience! I have LOVED visiting all of you. I look forward to more. Don't forget to report to Mauldin High tomorrow (April 12 and 13th) Final Exam papers for Anderson are due on Tuesday, April 13th.

This week, I visited Kirsten at Hillcrest Middle School. She taught a rock lab! We learned about various shapes of prisms and how they mimic minerals in the Earth

I also visited Kathryn at Hope Academy. She teaches a small - cute - cute - cute classroom of 6th grades. Her lesson revolved around measuring lines and pieces of lines.

Finally, I visited Kenzi here at MHS as she taught Elizabeth Barret Browning's Sonnet "How do I love thee....let me count the ways!

Field Experience Week 4

Hi Everyone!

It's spring break! Rest, and enjoy your time off, but don't forget to keep up with your journals and your portfolio for field experience. Also, don't forget to come back to MHS on April 12th. Your final paper for Anderson is due. I want to extend the due date to the 13th. I'll explain more in class.

Okay - this week, I went to Mauldin Middle, Oakview Elementary and Sara Collins Elementary. I am soooooo proud of the work you all are doing:



Tiffany taught a mini lesson on imagery using the senses. She gave her 7th grade students Hershey kisses and had them to write a few sensory sentences about them.



In Mrs Sanders' 7th grade social studies class, Natalie is working with small groups of students helping them to complete research on World War II.

Meanwhile, over at Oakview Elementary, Casey is working with a kindergarten class. I found her putting bags of jelly beans together for an Easter activity.

Down the hall, Katy is working with Mrs. Szymanska's first grade class. They were studying science, and sang a wonderful song for us. "The sun is a mass of incandescent gas......" Very impressive!!!! I saw Katy lead the kids through Calendar Math. Great job!

Aliyah is working with Mrs. Peay's class. She also has a student teacher. What a great opportunity for all.

Over on the third grade all, I found Miss Meghan and her precious class. We took a class picture, and played the "smile if you love Miss Meghan" game. These students absolutely adore her!

Later in the week, I traveled over to Sara Collins to watch Andrea teach Spanish to Mrs Wilkes class. WOW!!!! I am so impressed with what is going on in that classroom. KUDOS to all of you!

Click on "Comments" below and share your BEST and worst experiences this past week. Enjoy your break. I'll see you when you return! - Mrs T.

Field Experience Week 3

Hi Everyone!

We have now finished three weeks of field experience, and I'm seeing lots of WONDERFUL things! Don't forget to turn in your service hours and educational articles for the quarter. ALSO - you should be interviewing teachers for your final paper for Anderson University. Don't forget that it is due on April 12th - when you return from Spring Break! You will come to Mauldin High that day!!!

This week, I visited Bethel and Mauldin Elementary School!! Over at Bethel, Chelsea E works in the coolest room! She is in a first grade class with Ms McKee. Those kids adore her!

I also watched Kayla teach Mrs. Betsil's kindergarten class. She did a GREAT job with calendar math and the morning routine...a natural teacher!

Over at Mauldin Elementary, I saw Miss Nisha working with Mrs. Rainey's students and Lisa was hard at work cutting out materials for Mrs. Puckett's kindergarten class.

Megan is teaching away in Mrs. Lichoulas's room while Shay and Lorena are hard at work in Miss Quinn's class.

Click on comments below to read about each others' best and worst experiences!

Field Experience Week 2

Hi Everybody

I hope you are still enjoying working with your classes and your cooperating teachers. I have really LOVED watching you all teach. I am so proud of the things you are doing. This week, I got to see Kirsten teach the "opening activity" for Ms. Goldsmith's science class. We learned about earthquakes and an old chinese urn that people historically used to determine the size and location of an earthquake. Apparently, the urn had little balls all around the outside. They would determine the direction and seriousness of the earthquake by which ball fell - and how far. Hmmmmm! ;-)

Then, I visited Kim. She has the cutest little first grade class. They were in a reading group working with their teacher, so Kim got to file papers and organize all of her studnets' folders. - Yes, it's a part of teaching too! ;-)


Back at the high school, Kenzi was also hard at work in her English class grading papers!













Finally, I closed out the week visiting Senor Jose and Ms. Larrain's Spanish 4 Honors class. He taught them a wonderful song by Aventura called Un Segundo Mas. Be sure to leave your comments about YOUR best and worst thing that happened this week. Don't forget we will visit our pen pals next Friday March 19th!

Service Hour Opportunities & Articles to Read

· Buckets of Hope – Lists are located on the bulletin board – Due FRI –Mar 12th

· Teacher Appreciation Gifts (ask businesses or donate $5 gift cards)

· Saturday, March 27 – Extreme School Make-over School for the Deaf and Blind 9am.

· March Teacher of the Month ShamrocksIf you still need to read educational articles this quarter, check out the links on the right column for Edutopia, THE Journal and Teaching Tolerance. Also, I have included links to some on-line articles that I found interesting. Have fun!
Mean Chics and Ugly Cliques
Half a Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Building a New Business Model

Field Experience Week 1

Hi Everyone! All of the cadets are out in their first week of Field Experience. I had the privilege of seeing Johnakin teach .....hmmm....math stuff. Since I haven't seen tangent, cotangent, secent and cosecent in 20 years, I was, well, a little rusty in class. It was a review! - BINGO!!! I had a BLAST! I only got 4 questions right, but hey - that's pretty good for missing the actual teaching part! Excellent work!



So, I also visited Chelsea S. She was grading a HUGE amount of papers, and Mrs. Shea said she is a great worker! I popped my head in on Kenzi and Philip. Their classes were watching movies, so I moved along. I'm looking forward to seeing more next week! Keep up the good work!
Click on "Comments" below and leave your BEST and WORST experience from the week. Be sure to write your name next to your entry. Click on "Anonymous" before publishing! Have fun reading about each other's experiences! Miss you much!

- Mrs. Turner

February 22 - February 26 - Lisa should have posted the weekly blog here

February 15 - February 19

Tuesday- Quentin and Joseph presented, Joseph being able to change his day so that we still had two presentations. Quentin started by teaching us about French History, showing us the castle which has quick sand surrounding it. Joseph taught us how and when to use “por” and “para” in Spanish. He used a song for por, which he got the students to try and sing.

Wednesday- Katy and Natalie presented, Katy being a scientist with her lab coats. She taught us what floated, which the results for some were surprising, and she also showed us why a banana floats with the peel on and sinks when it’s off. Natalie taught us how the French Revolution was a huge part of history.

Thursday- Rachael and Tiffany presented, Rachael telling us that the English Reformation was not about the language but the religion. Tiffany taught us about Irony and the three different types, which we found and identified examples of.

Friday- Chelsea S. and Victoria presented, both involving English. Chelsea started by teaching us about the major literary movements and the authors within each time. We were quizzed on which philosophies clashed and which authors were from which movement. Victoria taught us about the different common grammar mistakes, like compliment and complement, and how to use each correctly.

“Teachers teach more by what they are than by what they say.” -Unknown

“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.” –Chinese Proverb

“To learn and never be filled, is wisdom; to teach and never be weary, is love.” -Unknown

Monday:
This week we experienced several early childhood education lesson plans. As a class we all took the mindset of this age group, and with this mentality we listened and reacted to what we were taught.
Today we enjoyed learning from Miss Aliyah about the different continents. We learned that there are seven different continents and are named Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. In order to remember the continent’s names we learned a song. We also learned that there are several different characteristics about each continent and certain animals that live there. Like how Antarctica does not have a permanent human population, but houses penguins. We watched a ‘brain pop,’ a short movie which that described the continents, and even got to draw a map to the destination that matched a description.

*It was also spirit week and our day to dress today was Kindergarten day and Nerd day





Tuesday we made our cards for our pen palls. The animal for this card was a frog, and the images popped out of the card when it was opened. We made the card pop out by cutting slits in an already folded piece of paper. The slits were then unbent out, in the opposite way of the fold. The image of the frog or heart could be pasted on the card. They were adorable and will be a great surprise for Valentines Day.

Wednesday, Miss Megan taught us about the names of animals in Spanish. One of the ways she got the students involved was to initially have them draw a picture of their favorite animals. We learned that a dog is a perro in Spanish, cat is a gato, and other Spanish animal names. We also had to pare up animals with similar characteristics, like farm animals or mammals. We even learned that in other countries the sounds that an animal makes is said in other ways. We practiced making animal sounds in Spanish.
Miss Kim taught us about shapes. We learned all about what each shaped looked like, the characteristics of it, and its name. Also, we listened to a rhyme or song that told us how to draw each shape. She had us use the shapes to make pictures and also allowed us to practice drawing them on the board and on paper.


Thursday, Miss Casey taught us about firemen. We learned what to do if there was a fire in our school and she showed us practical steps to keep us safe at home. She told us to make a plan of escape form our home and to change the batteries in our fire alarms. Firemen use oxygen tanks and masks, that might look scary, but are used to keep the firemen sage as they try to save others. We also learned how to dial 9-l-1 in case of a fire.
Miss Meghan taught us about part of speech. We learned how to identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The characteristics of each helped us to understand how to write sentences. Nouns are subjects, verbs are actions, adjectives describe nouns, and adverbs add to the verbs. We were able to write a sentence and find the parts of speech by the end of class. We even wrote our own sentence with all of the parts of speech and then had to draw a picture that would use all the parts of speech.

Friday
We went to the elementary school to be with our pen palls. When we were there we helped them make a valentines-man out of hearts. They had to cut and paste the hearts and according arms together to make the man. It was great to see the creativity of first graders as they drew on the face. Everyone was excited to see the finished product and to then draw, talk, and play with their pen palls. Afterwards we gave our cards to them. It was cute to see their reactions upon opening the card and seeing the images pop out. We also received valentines that they had made for us earlier. Due to the pep rally schedule we had to leave early.

In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.-- Eric Hoffer

Febuary 1-Febuary 5

Monday- Snow Day!!!

Tuesday-We started teaching our lesson plans that we had been working on now for a couple of weeks. The first to go was Kayla who taught us how to see patterns in shapes and tell the different kinds of shapes. Then Andrea taught us her lesson about colors in Spanish. Both had lesson plans for kindergarden so we got to play fun games like "I spy something....", and being able to create our own patterens out of different shapes.

Wednesday-We kept going with our lesson plans and we were taught first by Kristen who taught us how to count money. We were able to play an activity which allowed us to move money pieces on the board into a piggy bank until we made one dollar. We were then taught by Chelsea Elliot who helped us learn how to count to a hundred by using three different methods, one of them was by using a chart that counted one to a hundred and having the children put small circles on the numbers as they counted so they could see how much was a hundred.

Thursday-We were taught by Marshee who taught us how to see the different placements of numbers in math. We were able to play with different types of blocks that showed how much each place of a number was worth. We were then taught by Shay who showed us how to multiply by using a counting board. She showed us how mutliplication is easier to figure out an answer than just adding all the numbers up.

Friday-Friday was the start of spirit week which meant that all the classes were cut short for the pep rally we were going to have later on that day. Lorena was the only one to teach that day and she taught the names of the months in spanish. Her activity involved us drawing a picture of a month that we love and then as we learned about the months in Spanish we could write down what our month was on our paper.

~Quote(s)~ "A teacher affects eternity. He can never tell where his influence stops." -Ibrid-

"Come to the edge.We might fall.Come to the edge.It's too high!COME TO THE EDGE!And they came and he pushed and they flew..." -Christopher Logue-

Blog By:Chelsea Slessman

Monday, January 25 - Friday, January 29, 2010

Monday, January 25th

Mrs. Turner reviewed how to make a lesson plan by referring to the handout provided the week before. She talked about the requirements we are to follow when giving our presentation to the Teacher Cadets later this month (i.e. we will have 20 minutes). We then decided what grade level we wanted to teach our lesson to and began working in class with books and on computers.

Tuesday, January 26th

Although we had a shortened period, we continued to work on our lesson plans and sign up for our field experiences.

Wednesday, January 27th

This was our final in-class work day on our lesson plans.

Thursday, January 28th

Mrs. Turner taught us how to make monkey puppets for our penpals using brown paper bags and construction paper cut-outs. Many students got creative with their letters.

Friday, January 29th

We spent first period at Mauldin Elementary School in Ms. Quinn's class. To celebrate the 100th day of school, we helped our penpals string 100 Fruit Loops onto a necklace. They showed us their projects, and we talked while sharing those delicious doughnuts! Some of us even challenged the first grader Tishone to a "count off," seeing who could count to 100 the fastest. He won. No matter what. :O

Tell me, and I'll forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I'll understand.

-- Chinese Proverb

:) Victoria Ralph