Week 3 Field Experience

Yet another great week! Monday, I made my rounds through Mauldin Elementary School. I listened to the morning warm-up with Maddy's kindergarten class and watched her cut out spoons for their healthy food pots. Then, I sang "Rise and Shine" with Chloe's kindergarten class. She has an adorable class who clearly loves her. She also has a neat hidden office where found her working hard.

I found my way to the third grade hall where I discovered Cortney teaching (by herself). I was so proud of her! Her teacher had slipped out to the restroom, but Cortney didn't miss a beat. The class was fully engaged. I then ventured over to the second grade hall and found Alex helping out with morning work. - What a great way to spend the first day of the week. On Tuesday, I drove out to Bell's Crossing. Miriam's teacher was absent, so she took over the morning .... like a pro. She went over homework, and then watched a video with Bryan the Science Guy. Miss Berry looked more like the teacher than the sub! Most impressive! Wednesday was an adventure in high school land. I visted Surena at JL Mann and her class of Freshmen Global Studies. Interestingly, the boys sit on the left side of the room, and the girls on the right. Surena did a bell-ringer (tough one) with the class and then gave them directions for a one-page reflection essay. Thursday took me over to Hope Academy where I met Katie's class. She was working with a small group and introduced me to her class. I also met Michael, our hero from Spirit Week. We moved to the music class where I had wonderful flashbacks with Whadalee Atcha (however you spell that) and playground hand games - now called Tic Tac To. Such a GREAT morning! Friday - well - I'm off to Sue Cleveland! I found Jessica hiding in the reading corner bouncing on the seaty balls! ;-) I met several of her students - especially the sweet one with a crush on her. I then watched her lead a mini-lesson about the alligator chomping on "greater than" numbers....very sweet!

Week 2 Field Experience

What a great second week!!! We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with our Pen Pals from Mauldin Elementary and had a nice surprise Birthday Party for Miss Quinn. Allison and Meghan were busy teaching reading skills to their first grade friends.

Thursday, I went to see Ashlyn and Stephanie at Mauldin Middle. Ashlyn was busy checking homework and giving a quiz. (which she subsequently had to grade). She looks like a natural in the classroom. Meanwhile, Stephanie was going over homework with her class - working out math problems by request. GREAT JOB!

Friday, I spent the morning at Bethel. Kareen's kids were MAP testing, so she had the task of changing out the hall bulletin board. Leigh Anne's little ones were taking a quiz. I enjoyed visiting, watching her watch them! ;-)

Click below to read and share comments about BEST experiences!

Field Experience Begins!!!

Beginning March 7th, the cadets entered local schools to begin a six week field experience. They are working with children from the upstate at Mauldin, Bethel, Bells Crossing, Sara Collins and Sue Cleveland Elementary Schools; as well as Mauldin Middle and JL Mann High School. Click below on "comments" to read about their best experiences this week!

The Upstate Children's Museum

On Friday, February 25th, the cadets were given a private tour of the Upstate Children's Museum. We are working to develop a partnership with the museum for teaching opportunities and educational experiences for our cadets and the children of the community.

February 14-18

Monday
Happy Valentine's Day! We went to Mauldin Elementary to do Valentine's Day activities with our little buddies. They made the heart people that we cut out the pieces for last week, and we helped them write Mad-lib style letters. They were really cute and many of them told us about how excited they were to go on our Children's Museum field trip together. It was camo day and we all talked about how we felt silly being dressed up in the elementary school.


Tuesday
We planned to continue doing lesson presentations on this day, but due to technical difficulties Maddy had to reschedule. We had to improvise and decided to do our teacher of the month door signs a day early. We made them with a February/Valentine's Day theme in mind to let all the teachers know how much we love them!

Wednesday
Today we picked back up with lesson plans. First Alex taught us about food groups. It was a elementary level lesson focusing on classifying animals into herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. Even as seniors, some of us were suprised by the eating habits of certain animals, and we learned something new. Then Chelsea went really fast because we didn't have much time left. She had a great lesson about weather for young students and special ed classes. Her lesson was very interactive and easy to understand, and we wished that we could have played more Simon Says!

Thursday
Miriam started the day with a lesson for elementary level students using tangrams. We listened to a story and then we got to make lots of different shapes with our tangrams, which was fun. Next, Maddy was able to "sub" and taught us her lesson. She taught us about cause and effect. Everyone liked her activating strategy of calling out Stephanie, and we also liked the Jack and the Beanstalk story. Mrs. Turner even showed it to her fourth period because she thought it was cute! We were glad that Maddy finally got to do her lesson.

Friday
Friday was the last day of Spirit Week, and the stress that some of our Teacher Cadets were experiencing because of it. Maddy had not quite finished her lesson on Thursday, so first she went and recapped her lesson from the day before and brought it to a close. Then it was Leigh Anne's turn to teach us about adjectives. Leigh Anne had a great activating strategy of asking us to draw monsters, and then comparing how the monsters all looked different because the drawing instructions didn't include enough adjectives. It was an engaging lesson and one that elementary aged students would probably really enjoy.

"I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think."
-Socrates

February 7th-11th

Monday:
We worked in the computer lab on the lessons that we have been creating.

Tuesday:
We continued working in the computer lab on the lessons that we have been creating.

Wednesday:
We began teaching the lessons that we made to the class. Kate taught us about the branches of government. Then Stephanie taught us how to tell time using big clocks on the Promethean board, and gave us a worksheet to do.

Thursday:
We continued teaching the lessons to the class. Katie taught us the colors in Spanish. Once we learned how to say the colors, we all said the colors together. Then we did a cookie activity, where she would say a color and we would have to tell her what color it was then we put that color icing on the cookies. Then Ashlyn taught us about Greek "city-states". The class was very engaged in this lesson.

Friday:
We cut out the "heart-men" for our buddies to put together on Valentine's Day, and we made them Valentines cards that we are going to give to them.

"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one"
-Malcolm Forbes

January 31- February 4

Monday- On Monday, we began the week by starting off in the library searching through educational websites to look for lesson plans we could use for our field experience and peer lessons we will be teaching to the class.

Tuesday- We began to learn about the promethean board activities in the computer lab. Mrs. Turner taught us how to use certain applications like the magic ink and how to take a picture of the something online and upload it straight to our slides.

Wednesday- A couple of the students were gone on a student council field trip, but the other cadets continued to learn and play around more with the promethean boards

Thursday-On Thursday, we went and visited our littles at Mauldin Elementary School! We were visiting because it was the 100th day of school. We split up into groups with our littles and helped each of them count 100 fruit loops to make a necklace to wear for the rest of the day. Some of the cadets made a necklace for themselves too!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth !!!!!

Friday- On Friday, we continued to work in the computer lab. Some of the cadets began creating their lessons they will have to teach to the class in a couple of weeks. We are using the different tools Mrs. Turner has taught us, so we might be able to use these lessons in our actual field experience.

Quote: "Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them."

-John Ruskin

January 24-January 28, 2011

Monday:
On Monday we took notes on Bloom's Taxonomy. This pyramid helps you ask questions on assesments by different levels. After learning all of the level we got in to small groups and picked children's book. We read them and made up questions for each stage of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Tuesday:
On Tuesday we read other groups children's books and answered the test questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy. We categorized words that our questions began with (who, what, when, how, etc.) into the different levels of the pyramid. We also received a lesson plan template and discussed some activites that we can do with our kids that related to Bloom's high levels of Taxonomy.

Wednesday:
On Wednesday we all met in Miss Quinn's room at Mauldin Elementary at 8:30. Miss Quinn and Mr. Parker went over classroom procedures and lesson plans for elementary school aged children. We talked about how class organization was key to having a successful classroom.

Thursday:
On Thursday we did activites to learn about different cooperative learning techniques. For jigsaw we got into small groups determined by numbers we randomly picked and read articles. After we read them we all got into groups based on colors and we told our group members about the articles we just read, this way everyone in the class knew about every groups article. This was called numbered heads. Next was pairs check where we got into pairs and Mrs. Turner asked us questions and we wrote them on the white board and the number she called held up the board. For think, pair, share we took a partner test and then compared answers with the pairs next to us. If we both got the same answers we assumed they were right and if they were wrong we discussed why. For neighbors you can do many different things, you can turn to your partner and say one thing you learned today, your favorite thing you learned today, etc.

Friday:
On Friday Mrs. Mumford stopped by and observed our class. We got into groups and shared our ideas we made up for the different cooperative learning techniques. After that we did an activity called inner-outer circle. Some people got into a circle with their backs turned and then the rest of us surrounded them so that we were face to face. We told each other our names and where we were from, then we switched partners and we told each other different things to get to know each other. This activity was fun and it was nice to learn more things about people.

The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.
-B.B. King

January 3, 2011 - January 7, 2011

Monday:
Today we discussed our plans for the rest of the week, which included doing research for our midterm project and doing Teacher of the Month. Then Mrs. Turner described our midterm brochure project to us. After that, we all signed up for our topics for the brochure.

Tuesday:
Today we went to the library and started our research for our brochures.

Wednesday:
Today we chose our teachers for Teacher of the Month. Mrs. Turner wanted us to choose all new teachers.

Thursday:
Today we continued our research and started our brochures in the library. Some of us also delivered our Teacher of the Month posters.

Friday:
Today was the last day we worked on our brochures in the library. The rest of us delivered our Teacher of the Month posters.



The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.
-Robert Maynard Hutchins

Monday Dec 6

On Monday we broke into small groups of six or more and discussed our personal interviews with our grandparents and parents. It was very interesting to find out the different social changes over time, but education has for the most part remained the same, despite some differences in punishment and other aspects.

Tuesday Dec 7

On Tuesday we discussed debatable issues using activotes. A debatable issue would come on the screen, and we would vote if we agreed or disagreed with it. We were then allowed to voice our opinion if we felt like it and discuss different sides of debatable education related issues.

Wednesday Dec 8

On Wednesday we went over local issues. We completed a worksheet which helped us learn the jurisdictions of our local, state, and federal governments regarding school issues.

Thursday Dec 9

On Thursday we began the inspirational movie Freedom Writers, which tells the story of a young teacher who dedicates her life to changing the lives of her students in a gang-ridden community. We immediately fell in love with the move.

Friday Dec 10

On Friday we took our Teacher Cadet picture for the yearbook. We took one formal and one casual. Then we went back to the room and continued to watch Freedom Writers, which made many of us cry. On Monday we get to finish the movie, which everyone is excited to do.

"Great teachers empathize with kids, respect them,and believe that each one has something special that can be built upon."
-Ann Lieberman

Monday - Nov 22 and Tuesday, Nov 23 - Turkey Time - The cadets made 150 Turkey Cookies to deliver to the faculty and staff at Mauldin. "This little turkey is here to say, you are loved and appreciated in many ways. Have a wonderfully happy Thanksgiving Day!"

Monday- Nov 29

We had a very good discussion about the different aspects of a classroom and teachers. These included:
-Classroom arrangements
-How teachers collected work
-Disciplinary action
-How teachers help students know what their work is when they are absent.
We all went around and placed sticky notes in the 4 categories which were divided into best and worst examples of each.

Tuesday-Nov 30

Today we went on high school observations. Our goal was to see how many different examples we could find of the 4 categories of a classroom we talked about on Monday.


Wednesday- Dec 1

We all made super cute Teacher of the Month door signs. Wishing all of our teachers a very Merry Christmas! Of course we kept spreading the dots and filling buckets like we all oh so well! :)


Thursday- Dec 2

Today we talked a little bit about the history of education. Mrs Turner presented a PowerPoint about teachers from the 19th century compared to today. We were given an assignment to interview our grandparents and parents about social life, technology and school life from when they were in school.

Friday - Dec 3

Today we continued our discussion about teachers from way way back in the day and compared them to teachers today. It’s so crazy to see the huge change from the way teachers were then to how they are now.

Quote of the weeks: "I teach you, and you teach me, and together we will learn to love to learn! - Ron Clark

November 15-19, 2010!

Monday:

Last week we began watching the Ron Clark Story movie. Today we got to finish this inspirational movie of how Ron Clark became the Teacher of the Year. After finishing the movie, we began to watch interviews and documentaries of Ron Clark's new school in Atlanta, Georgia. He explained how the school would operate and how it would differ from the normal school experience so many kids are use to in that type of area. Our class was very receptive to all that this teacher was doing and how much he lived for bettering the lives of all of his students.

Tuesday:

Today each teacher cadet was given five sticky notes and five topics: Classroom Management, teaching styles/methods, teacher/student relationships, Classroom Control, and Miscellaneous. We were then given the opportunity to make up questions in regard to each question that we would be able to ask at our teacher/student breakfast. We split up into groups and began choosing and compiling a list of our favorite questions for each topic. These questions were taken and typed up by Mrs. Turner, so we could use them to reference to when talking to the teachers at our breakfast on Wednesday. We came up with some pretty intense questions!

Wednesday:

Today we had one of the most amazing breakfasts ever! All the teacher cadets and teachers who had first period planning came together and ate breakfast while learning about each other and their experiences as a teacher. This was very eye opening as a student, and being able to see that even the "good teachers" have problems while teaching. They gave each student great advice and tips to help us be more successful in the Spring when we begin our field experiences or even when we become actual teachers. Everyone seemed to benefit from this event and we thank Mrs. Turner for allowing us to do it and all the teachers who came to speak with us!

Thursday:

Today we had a follow up from our Teacher Cadet Breakfast we had with the teachers on Wednesday. We discussed the responses we got from teachers on each question. We shared interesting stories some of them gave us we thought the other teacher cadets would like to hear. Overall we all seemed to benefit in a great way from the interaction we had with these teachers on a one on one basis.

Friday:

We read the book "Courage" by Bernard Walker and discussed various people and actions that portray courage. Ultimately, teaching is one of the most courageous professions. We did an activity where we got into a circle and passed the "red ball of courage" (an apple). Each person listed something that takes courage, or someone that displays courage for each letter of the alphabet. This was a meaningful activity. “Teach the children so that it will not be necessary to teach the adults.” ... Abraham Lincoln

Surena Mitchell's Post November 8th-12th

Monday:

Today we talked about our expirience in the elementary classrooms. It was very interesting to hear about the different things everybody saw especially hearing Jessica tell us about the teacher Elizabeth went to who sung everything. We also briefly learned about the social and moral developments of different age groups. The class ended with Mrs. Turner telling us about her lovely birthday weekend with her husband which was very cute:)





Tuesday:

Today we had an amazing guest speaker named Kelly Nally who was the SC state teacher of the year. She was a very entertaining speaker that spoke with us about the joys and the downs of teaching. She kept everybody alert by starting her speach with an activity of what happened during betweeen the years of 1992 and 1993. She then shared with us many pictures of her as a teacher cadet,students that inspired her and quotes from a book called Courage. Another part of the speach i found entertaining was listening to some of her journal entries from her first years of teaching at Donaldson.

Wednesday:

We started the movie The Ron Clark Story about a man from North Carolina who moved to New York to teach in a low budget school to unpriveleged kids who werent exactly the easiest to get along with, but with his different types of teaching methods he helped the children to cooperate and learn the material they needed to learn to pass required tests.

Thursday:

We continued The Ron Clark Story, but didnt get to catch the ending due to the class ending and we were left wanting to know what happens next!

Friday:

We had middle school observations where some students went to Mauldin Middle and other to Hillcrest. It was a very fun and interesting expirience and it was very nice to go back to schools where we once attended and see the classroom from a different point of view.

Courage is being a Teacher -Kelley Nally

Meghan M.

Monday: Nov 1

Monday was the day after Halloween. Many of us were dressed up for country day/redneck day because it was Rival Week. We had a good class discussion on pre-schools and montessori schools.



Tuesday: Nov 2

We had no school on Election Day! YAY!



Wednesday: Nov 3

It was college day, so we were all sporting our teams' colors. We made our teacher of the month signs and delivered them to the designated teachers. Many of the teacher were very excited to know that they were appreciated. We also began responding to our pen pals with the cute turkey letters.



Thursday: Nov 4

Thursday was class color day, so we were all wearing YELLOW. We discussed element children and the hurried child. Alot of us agreed that some kids grow up way too fast.



Friday: Nov 5

Mrs. Turner was absent, so we went to observe elementary classrooms. Some students went to Oakview Elementary, whereas some went to Mauldin Elementary or other schools. It was really neat to see many of the teachers who taught us in elementary school. This was another chance for us to decide what age group we might be interested in teaching. However, we were on pep rally schedule, so we had to hurry back to school to check in with attendance.

"Good teachers teach from the HEART, not from the book." -Author Unknown

October 25-29

Monday - oct 25
Today we split into groups and went out to observe preschools in our local area. Some of us went to Mauldin Methodist, some went to a day care, and some went to Simpsonville First Baptist. It was really cool to get to see how different the preschool was from like a kindergarten or upper level class. The kids were all really cute!

Tuesday - oct 26
We had our senior meetings about cap and gowns.

Wednesday - oct 27

Mrs. Turner talked to us about Montessori education and gave us notes on how it was different from a normal school. She showed us pictures of different learning tools they used at these schools and talked about an article that we read.

Thursday - oct 28

We all met Mrs. Turner at Five Oaks Academy at 8:15 and took a tour of the Montessori school. We split into two groups and walked into the classes and around the school. It was really different to see the kids getting to do the things on their own instead of a teacher teaching it to them. It was a cool experience to see but was very different from how many of us had gone threw school. Some of us decided that we would want our kids to go to a school like that but wouldn't like to teach at a school like that.

Friday -oct 29

On Friday, we went to see our pen-pals. We made candy corn with their name on them so they could wear it. It was fun being able to spend time with them and get to know them better.

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire" -William Butler Yeats

October 18-22, 2010

Monday


Today Mrs. Turner was out sick, so we had a sub. We read an article from the laptops about Jean Piaget and the stages of cognitive development. Since several of us had already taken or are currently taking psychology, we knew much of this information.

Tuesday

Mrs. Turner was out sick again today, so we read another article. This one was about different types of play that children participate in. Some of these are solitary play, group play, parallel play, symbolic play, and play involving construction.

Wednesday

With Mrs. Turner back today, we went over the articles we had read the days before. We talked about our assignment for Thursday-- shopping!! We created "shopping lists" and "cheat sheets" to use when we went shopping for toys for our students.

Thursday

Today was shopping day! Our class met in the toy section of Walmart to shop for toys that would be useful in different stages of cognitive development and different types of play. It was confusing at first because we didn't really know what we were doing, but once we figured out what to do, it wasn't too difficult to find the toys. The hardest toys to find were the toys made for black and ethnic children.

Friday

Today we were on Pep Rally schedule so we had a shortened class period. So, we wrote in our journals and reflected on our shopping day at Walmart.

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

October 11th- October 13th

Monday

On Monday, Katie presented last weeks blog! Then we hung our teacher of the month dots. When we were done hanging our dots, we used the binding machine to put the finishing touches on our books. With the time that we had left, some of the groups were able to present their books to the class. Everyone loved to hear the stories and gave constructive criticism when needed.

Tuesday

On Tuesday the rest of the groups presented their books. All of them were so cute!!!! Everyone was very excited to go to the elementary school and present them to their groups and do their activities! Mrs. Turner offered to bring anything we would need. She is very helpful!!!! We all love her soooooooooooooo much!!!

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we all had such a great time! We got to Mauldin Elementary at 8:15 to get our groups to read our books. The kids all loved them! After we read the books, we got to do our planned activities with the kids. There were constant smiles all over! Before we left the Mauldin Elementary we made sure to get the letters from our pen pals. J And lets not forget the romantic story from Ms. Quinn! After leaving the Elementary school, the teacher cadets had our first…. “faculty meeting” at IHOP!!!!!! Meanwhile, Caitlan and Miriam represented us at the District Fall Teacher Forum speaking before all of the District Teachers of the Year. After our “meeting” we all went to Overbrook Childhood Development Center and received a tour. Overall, it was an amazing day!

Thursday- Friday

NO SCHOOL!!!

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." -- Benjamin Franklin

October 4th- October 8th :)

Monday 10/4
On Monday we got to choose our "Pen Pals" from Ms. Quinn's Class! Mrs. Turner put all of the names up on the board and each of us got to pick which student we wanted. Some of the girls in our class picked a child from Mrs. Rainey's class and one from Ms. Quinn's class. Each month were doing a different animal for our letters, so this month it was different cats. Our "Kitty Cat" pen pal letters turned out so cute! There was a variety of cats such as lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards, etc. On top of the letter we got to draw the face of the animal. Then we cut on the bold line and it formed an adorable folded letter!
Tuesday 10/5
On Tuesday, we all came in and finished up our pen pal letters from Monday. They were introductory letters so we could get to know our pen pal. After we finished those, we met with our childrens book groups and continued to work on our stories. Mrs. Turner gave us a lot of work days to work on these, so we were all very productive in the time given.
Wednesday 10/6
Wednesday morning, we came in a little earlier than usual because it was the first Wednesday of the month, which means Teacher of the Month Dots! All the girls chose a teacher and got to decorate a thank you sign for their doors. The theme is polka dots so we continued to use our creativity with all the different materials Mrs. Turner has in her cubbard full of items. Some of us took all period to make these, and those who finished continued to work on their childrens book.
Thursday 10/7
On Thursday, everyone came in ready to work. As you looked around the room, childrens books were beginning to come together, and everyone was focused. My group used a piece of cardboard that Mrs. Turner had to form the outside cover. We glued everything together and were very pleased with the product. Everyone's childrens books were looking so cute, and I could not wait to see all the finished books.
Friday 10/8
Friday finally rolled around which meant the last workday before our childrens books were going to be due. I was on a field trip so I was not in class, but I know that everyone finished up their books and tied the final strings. Monday we are presenting to the class and I absolutely cannot wait!

"The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think."
-James Beattie

Week of 9/27-10/1

Monday

Katie introduced us to her dad, Dr. Kelly, who is a developmental pediatrician. From him we continued to learn about barriers to education. He talked a lot about how our brain receives, processes, stores, and sends out information. We also learned about ADHD and Autism and the various types and degree of severity of those. Mrs. Turner was very excited to learn new things!

Tuesday

We started our day by reading My Brother Sammy. It was a really cute book about the range of emotions that the siblings of children who have special conditions can go through. Next, Mrs. Turner explained that we would be creating our own barrier books in pairs to read to the children at Mauldin Elementary. She showed us some examples of past books and the mini projects that went along with them. We read some of them and started picking out the topic for our own books.

Wednesday

Mrs. Turner was gone at a CERRA, Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement, meeting. While she was away we had a work day. Many of us started planning out the stories for our books, and some of us took the opportunity to get our pot messages done.

Thursday

Mrs. Turner was back from her meeting and told us about some of the things that she had done and heard there. It was interesting to hear the creative ideas teachers from other schools have come up with, so that we can maybe implement similar things into our own school. After catching up, we went back to working on our barrier books. People are writing their books about everything from sleep deprivation, to divorce, to language barriers.

Friday

The last day of the week was another work day for our books. Some pairs are already starting to do illustrations and covers, so it was great to see what people are coming up with. Mrs. Turner checked over any completed stories to provide suggestions as we prepare to present them to each other and the elementary school students. Mrs. Quin, from MES, came to tell us about the children in her class who will become our pen pals. Everyone is excited to have a little buddy at MES!

"Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity." - Aristotle