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!!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

November 10-21 :: Hannah Mahaffey

Monday 11/10 - This was our "regrouping day" to catch up on everything we'd be doing. We went over what we'd be working on during the week and got into our groups for our presentations at Beck Middle School. Each group worked on their play or story that they'd be presenting and came up with an activity to do with the class.

Tuesday 11/11 - We visited Mauldin Middle School and got to listen to Mrs. Gardner, the principal, speak about teaching middle schoolers. She told us about what she expected from her students and what kind of teacher it took to be able to handle middle schoolers. Before we went on our tour, she gave us a booklet for parents of middle schoolers, which we got to take home and read. Then we took a tour of the middle school from a teacher's point of view. It seemed a lot different now that we didn't actually go there. The school seemed a lot smaller and the students even crazier. After our tour was over, we headed back to the school.


My class at the daycare I work at.

Wednesday 11/12 - We worked on our presentations for Beck and put all the final touches on our activities for the kids.

Thursday 11/13 - On Thursday, we went to Beck to present a play and a story for a class of extremely physically and mentally challenged students. The other group read a story to a group of emotionally challenged students a did an activity with them also. Our group read a story to the kids then did an activity in which each child got to color their own penguin from the story to create a family of penguins that was made up of all different kinds of penguins. We emphasized how we could all be different from each other but still make a big family or group of friends. I really enjoyed being with the students at Beck. Their smiles and laughs were very contagious and they just absolutely loved being around us and having us spend time with them. It was very rewarding to spend time with these kids and have fun with them.

Friday 11/14 - On Friday we had our individual observations at Mauldin Middle School. We each chose a teacher, grade level, or subject that we wanted to observe and got to spend time watching the teachers with their classes. This was a good way to see what teaching middle school is like and what kind of teacher it takes to teach these kids.

Monday 11/17 - Monday we had our special breakfast with the Teacher of the Year, Jenna Hallman and got to ask her questions and hear all about her experiences as a teacher.

Tuesday 11/18 - Tuesday was another catch-up day since we hadn't been in the classroom together since Wednesday. We chose service projects for the month of December and signed up for the ones we wanted to help with.

Wednesday 11/19 - We talked about the teacher, Ron Clark and what an amazing career he has had. After we talked briefly about who he was, we watched a movie based on his story. The movie was called The Ron Clark Story and told all about his class at Lower Harlem Elementary School.



Me and one of my kids, Connor.

Thursday 11/20 - We continued to watch the amazing story of Ron Clark and the challenges he faced in his class in New York City. He is an amazing teacher and the movie was extremely inspirational.

Friday 11/21 - We finished watching The Ron Clark Story and talked about his school in Atlanta called the Ron Clark Academy. The movie showed what a truly amazing teacher he is and how he has impacted so many children.

Quote of the Week - "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."

-William Arthur Ward

I think this quote really sums up what being a great teacher is all about. Anyone can be an alright teacher but it takes an amazing person to be able to inspire their students to want to learn and do more than just take in information. A great teacher will inspire students to go beyond the classroom to learn other things and become a better person. I think that is what every teacher should strive to be like.







My kids from work playing with shaving cream.

October 27 - November 7:: Kimberly Klas

Monday October 27:: Today we met at Java Jolt for class and shared our Barrier Books with each other. It was a lot of fun and a great way to engage the class into these books.

Tuesday October 28:: Today we discussed our pre-school observations. We shared the room decorations, the interaction between the kids or the kids and the teacher, and the different play areas that we each observed in our pre-school class. We also discussed barriers to education and the reason for play. We also talked about different types of play and gave examples of each that we participated in OUR pre-school.

Wednesday October 29:: Today we discussed Piaget's Cognitive Development.

Thursday October 30:: Today we discussed Kholberg's Theory of Moral Development

Friday October 31:: Today we went on a field trip to Anderson University. We got to tour the school and learn more about their Education Program.

Monday November 3:: Today we voted for the teacher's of the month for the month of November.

Tuesday November 4:: ELECTION DAY!!

Wednesday November 5:: Today was Mrs. Turner's birthday so we had a little surprise party for her in the classroom!

Thursday November 6:: Today we had two guest speakers from Five Oaks Montessori School come and talk to us about their school and the way they teach there. They provide a high-quality educational experience for children of ages three to twelve. The Montessori Program goal is to help each child promote the development of social skills, emotional growth, physical coordination, and cognitive preparation to their full potential.

Friday November 7:: Today we got to visit Five Oaks Montessori School. We observed three different types of classes. One class was for ages 3-5, another class was for ages 6-9, and the last class was for ages 10-12. It was a lot of fun and very interesting to see how different their teaching style is.

Educational Quote:: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use TO CHANGE THE WORLD!" -Nelson Mandela
This quote means to me that teachers deserve a lot more credibility than they get. They do more than teach, they change people's lives by getting emotionally involved with their students. Also, in order to make a difference, you need an education.

october 6- october 16

Hello all! This blog is for the dates October 6 through October 16. Enjoy :)

Monday October 6:: We are working on an in class group project to make "Barrier Books." In these books we write a story the a certain audience, such as first grade or maybe seventh grade, showing how one type of barrier can affect a child's learning. Today was a workday for this book.

Tuesday October 7::
Today was another workday for the barrier books. Also, today we received our pot from our mailboxes. We wrote a reflection on how the comments from our peers made us feel.

Wednesday October 8- Friday October 10::
These three days were barrier book workdays.

Monday October 13::
Today was also a barrier book workday.

Tuesday October 14::
Today, we acted like preschoolers all day. Mrs. Turner set up different stations and we went to each one. But there was a catch. Mrs. Turner put labels on each one to limit how many kids could play there at once. And of course the fun station, finger painting, was only allowed to have two people there at once. Some other stations were the reading station, the games station, play dough station, and playing with toys such as fake foods or army men station. This day was a lot of fun because we got to play all day!

Wednesday October 15::
Today, we got to go out into the field and observe preschoolers. We had a three hour class because of testing so it gave students the opportunity to stay in the classroom longer, and most took advantage of that. It was a lot of fun.

Thursday October 16::
Today was yet another barrier book workday. These books are due Tuesday.

That is the past two weeks in Teacher Cadets!!!

Educational Quote::
"In order to be irreplaceable, one must be different."
~Coco Chanel
This quote says that for someone to be so important that they are irreplaceable, one has to stand out and be different from everyone else. This can be shown by all the teacher that have ever taught. For them to make a difference in their student's lives, they must be different from the rest, and I think each and every teacher is a little different from the next, therefore they are irreplaceable.

These are my closest friends,
I consider them irreplaceable.

September 22- October 3: Karli Keels

On Monday, we finished watching Grid Iron Gang. We discussed Maslow's five hierarchy of needs. We also discussed barriers to education and played the game, "What If You Just Don't Get It?". This was where Cathy was driving her car to Disney World and who wanted to come along. You had to say your name and something you were bringing that started with the first letter of your first name. Some of us found this very frustrating because we didn't know how to play and we just "didn't get it!"

On Tuesday, we did an activity where there were five stations of barriers to education. One of the stations was visual impairment, where you had to put on glasses that partially blinded you and tried to find something in the toy box. Another station was the hearing impairment, where someone read a book and two other people put tissues in their ears and one hummed and they tried to hear the story, which was in Spanish, which was another barrier. The third station was the speech impairment station, and you had to put marshmallows in your mouth and try and communicate with the people in your group. The fourth station, was the other visual impairment station, one person read a paragraph through a mirror, while one person copied it through the mirror, and another group member copied it with a blind-fold. The last station was the physical impairment station, we had to either tape our arm to our side, put our arm in a sling, or tape our three middle fingers together and wrap a present. Another activity was called "Hand in Life", this was where you were dealt five cards, which meant different characteristics of your new life. All of these activities were very frustrating because we didn't know how to deal with these impairments, and we just wanted to get out of them. Unlike people who actually have these impairments, we could just "get rid of them", while these children and adults have to live with them their whole lives. I really enjoyed these activities and realizing how lucky I am to not have any of these impairments, but I liked learning from a different perspective.

On Wednesday, we discussed the special needs classes we were going to the following Wednesday. We also exchanged our journals from our feedback on the activities the day before. On Thursday, we had a wonderful speaker, Joann Timberlake. She is the Teacher of the Year, who is also a special needs teacher. I really enjoyed hearing about the children in her class and I would love to go visit them.

On Friday, our class discussed Mrs. Timberlake and talked about ideas about things we could do for her class. We also voted for teacher of the month and started reading The Acorn People.

On Monday, we discussed The Acorn People and starting working on the actual characters in the book. We split into groups and each got a character from the book to make a model of.

On Tuesday, we continued to work on our 'acorn people.'

On Wednesday, we all went to different special needs classes and observed them for an hour. This was very interesting for me, and I'm sure for everyone else to see how these children worked and functioned in the classroom. I really enjoyed this activity because my little brother from Big Brother, Big Sister was in the classroom I observed.
On Thursday, we finished up our 'acorn people'.

On Friday, we had a work day. I hung up the 'acorn people' in the hallway and took down the butterfly display. The 'acorn people' all turned out to be awesome. They are all so creative and look wonderful in the hallway.

My educational quote for the two weeks is:
'Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it is better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.' -Marilyn Monroe

This quote means to me that being wrong and messy is fine and it shows your style. Also, being ridiculous is a lot more exciting and shows your character than being boring. Leave comments!!!!