January 20th-23rd, 2015

Tuesday, January 20th, 2015
Today, we discussed our plans for the upcoming weeks, and talked about how amazing the conference was on Friday! Hannah Trammell presented her blog, as well as her midterm project, sharing about ADD and ADHD. She told us of her personal experience with it, and shared statistics & other information on the topic. Then, we learned a little about ActivExpression technology, and used them to answer yes/no questions about debatable issues in education (giving birth control at school, sex education required from elementary to high school, grouping of classes according to academic abilities). We had a good time sharing our opinions on these topics!

Wednesday, January 21st, 2015
Today, we presented our timelines about social, technological, and education changes from the 1960s to now. The timelines had many unique backgrounds, such as lunch containers, televisions, and devices used to play music. The projects were used to sum up the infromation we collected in our interviews over Christmas break. Then, Mrs. Turner introduced the peer lesson project, and explained a little about what that would entail.

Thursday, January 22nd, 2015
Today, we discussed our peer lesson assignments, and clarified some important points on those. Then we talked through our homework from the night before. We shared our learning style results and discussed how to cater to those needs. On the multiple intelligences test, we shared  what surprised us about our results. We also discussed Bloom's Taxonomy (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create) and its use in class! Mrs Turner read "The Dot" to us, and we used the story for example questions and tasks as we went through our Bloom's Taxonomy handouts! We were then told to come up with a question from each level of Bloom's Taxonomy for a book we read as our homework.

Friday, January 23rd, 2015
Today, we recognized our Teaching Fellows finalists (who are AMAZING). Then, we all chose a book to read and took the test that another student created for it, using Bloom's Taxonomy! We returned the test to the creator, and they graded it. After we had finished, Mrs Turner told us about different lesson plans for our field experience. We also signed up for our peer lesson dates.

Amber, Abby, Hannah, Tamara, Hannah, Ashlyn

"The giving of love is an education in itself." -Eleanor Roosevelt

Looking back into the past in education December 5-9

Monday January 5,2015
Today we talked about the calender for the month, we went over the project and all the things that is due over the next couple of months. It was our first day back and we had a lot to cover, we got to choose our topic for the midterm project.

Tuesday January 6,2015
We discussed the changes in education over the past century with technology, music, and entertainment and how it has changed drastically. We had a chart to fill out over the Christmas holiday, from the 1930-50's to the 2000's. It was very interesting to talk to my grandparents about their childhood in school and how different things used to be. My mother and father is even leaps and bonds different then the way i have experienced school. We got into groups and discussed what we thought was the most interesting thing we learned from our interviews. I loved how many things have changed, my grandmothers entertainment was listening to the radio and my mothers was to go to a drive in or go to a concert. everyone had different stories and it was fun to hear the other stories from people who lived on farms, or the city and how school and growing up was different.

Wednesday January 7,2015
We had a class discussion about the day before when we were in our groups and how times have changed. Mrs. Turner showed us the rules of teachers in the 1930's and how a teacher could get fired by the simplest things but that's how things were back then. They could get fired because of the length of her dress or being seen in town by herself at a certain time at night. We learned the old rules and the new rules of teaching and how someone can get fired. We also learned the differences in technology and how my grandmothers generation had chalkboards, then my mom had chalk boards and then didn't get a computer till she was in medical school. Now we as students have our on hand held iphones (mini computers) that we can use in school. Most schools are even giving kids their own laptops to use for school purposes. Technology has changed the most in education and is going to continue to change and we have to know how to keep up with it in the future as teachers.

Thursday January 8,2015
SNOW DAY

Friday January 9,2015
We started working on our project and reviewed over what we learned from the week going back in the future of how things have changed in education. One day we will be teachers and to know how things will change is very interesting and I cant wait to keep up with technology and be able to look back to how i have been raised and to see how things change.

December 14th-19th

Twas the week before Christmas break,

and all through the school,

the teacher cadets were working hard

so that on Friday they wouldn't look a fool.

On Monday, the teacher cadets had our silent auction in the conference room. We had a bunch of hand made items like paintings by Reed, hand warmers by Tamara, a scarf by Jo, and pencil holders by Hannah. We also had a huge table full of sweet and salty treats for the teachers.
We ended up making $110 from the silent auction!

 

 

Tuesday, we started on our work for Reading Around the Christmas Tree. Seven kindergarten classes would be coming to Mauldin High School. Teacher cadets in pairs picked a Christmas book that they would read to the kindergarteners, and then they decorated a tree to coordinate with their book. All the decorations were hand made, so we had a lot of work to do before Friday.

 

Wednesday and Thursday were also work days for our trees. We spent the entire class periods working and making sure everything was going to be ready for Friday.

 

Friday finally came, and it was time for reading around the Christmas tree. We all got there early in our teacher cadet shirts and pajama pants to set things up. Everything looked beautiful! The trees were set up in the media center, then in the cafeteria there were snacks a red carpet leading to Santa Mav, who was wonderfully played by Daijah, and Elsa and Anna played by Taylor and Hannah.

 

The readings went really well, and the kids had a blast listening to Christmas stories, eating snacks, and getting a present from Santa Mav. It was a great last day before Christmas break!     

 

"I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well." -Alexander the Great



December 8 - December 12

This week was a very stressful week but an enjoyable one too!

Monday was our planning day and we spoke about our wonderful experiences at the middle schools we observed. We also signed up for treats we are going to bring for the Silent Auction next Monday. And finally we signed up for what books we are going to read for Reading Around the Christmas Tree.


Tuesday, we had a special guest speaker, the one and only, Mr. Rhymer! He had a lot to say, which is not very surprising. He had a great story. He spoke to us about how he became a principal. The most important part of his speech was about how foolish we can be with social media. He was saying how posting unnecessary things on social media can actually cost you in the future. Employers don't only know your social media information but they can also get access to your messages!

Wednesday, we had Breakfast Table Talks which is when we went to the media center and met up with all the teachers who have 1st period planning. We set up a beautiful breakfast for them and we got to sit around and ask them any questions we had. We had questions like, have you ever had the urge to hit a student, to is there a certain way you arrange your desks in your classroom. It was very interesting to hear what the teachers had to say.

Thursday, we had our "Family" picture. Love my TC fam! Friday, we had our high school observations and fortunately it was at our very own Mauldin High School. We had to advise any teacher we wanted to observe ahead of time. It's always great to actually pay attention to how our very own teachers do what they do.

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." - Albert Einstein

December 1st- December 5th

This week was an exciting and very fascinating week: all about Middle School! :)

Monday was a day to go over our upcoming schedule, and also to do an interesting activity about the Middle School books we read over Thanksgiving break! Over the break, we all had to pick our favorite book from our Middle School years and re read them from a different, older perspective. Once we did this, Mrs. Turner made us write the title of our book down on a sticky note and post in on the Promethian board. We then compared books and saw which books were the same and which were not (which were most of them). After comparing, we partnered up with someone who read the same or most similar book to our own. With our partner, we then wrote a lesson plan explaining how we would teach the book to a middle school class. This was a great way to make a transition from Elementary School to Middle School.



Tuesday, we had the privilege to listen to a guest speaker from Hillcrest Middle School, Janet Kirby. This lady was an amazing speaker. She probably made everyone second guess themselves when thinking of teaching something other than Middle School. She talked about her story, including her transition from teaching Elementary school to Middle School. She described how Middle School was her calling, and how rewarding it is to teach students who are at that particular age. She discussed how much you can influence a child at this confusing, unknown part of their life. It was a privilege hearing from Janet Kirby.

Wednesday, we got to listen to another speaker- Kelly Weeks from Langston Charter School. This was very interesting, mostly because most of our class hadn't experienced a Charter School and knew nothing about it. Mrs. Weeks discussed the policy of the dress code, and how that allows one to judge a person's character based on what's in the inside, not what's on the outside. She also explained why the classes are single gender- it allows the kids to focus on more important things, rather than getting distracted by the opposite gender. She also explained how the school is very personal, and focuses it's attention on the individual and their needs. The school is free, and gathers most of their funding from parent donations. She was very interesting to hear from.

Thursday and Friday we had our Middle School observations. It's always great to be able to observe and be able to experience the classroom setting on our own. We got to understand the teaching adaptations based on the age and development of the child, versus how children in elementary were taught. We got to choose from many schools, including Hillcrest Middle, Mauldin Middle, and Langston Charter School.

"A good teacher is like a candle- it consumes itself to light the way for others." - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

November 24th-28th

This week was a two day week due to Thanksgiving break, but that by no means implies that it was an uneventful week!

Monday was our You Matter Teacher Appreciation Day, so we made treats for the teachers, which we delivered with a thank-you note. Each cadet made a Pilgrim hat for each of their adopted teachers by overturning a Reese's cup onto a fudge stripe cookie, gluing it together with icing, and then adding a tic-tac as a buckle. The Pilgrim hats were then put into Ziplock bags with funny Thanksgiving jokes stapled to them. (What happened to the Pilgrim who was shot at by an Indian? He had an arrow escape.) At the end of class, we took the treats to the teachers and put a Post-it note on their You Matter posters thanking them for all of their hard work.

Tuesday we went to Mauldin Elementary School to visit our little buddies. Together, we made Ashlyn's scarecrow glyph to describe the kids. At home, we had cut out the pieces for the scarecrow, so all the kids had to do was color the pieces according to the glyph key. It was a great way to get to know more about our buddies and it was a fun craft to put together with them! Once the scarecrow was finished, if there was time leftover, we read to the kids.

Tuesday night, our entries for the Teacher's Talk Newsletter were due to Anderson University. We had to write a short article or poem relating to educational issues. Before the end of the school year, up to two papers from each school may be published in the Newsletter.

And then we had the rest of the week off because of Thanksgiving! On that note, I am so thankful to be a part of this class, it is a wonderful experience. I am thankful for Mrs. Turner, who makes every day something exciting and magical. I am thankful for every one of you, because you inspire me to be a better person and motivate me to do my best. THANK YOU!

Our best teachers do more than impart facts and figures - they inspire and encourage students and instill a true desire to learn. That's a fine art in itself. ~Sonny Perdue