Tragedy Hits Close to home

I am at a loss for words right now.  It is scary to think how in a community that we view as being so safe, in a place that we view as being a safe haven for children to learn and grow something so horrific can happen.  Please keep Sandy Hook Elementary School in your thoughts and prayers.

For my Delicate Balance project I tried to make a difference in student’s lives by demonstrating the importance of being an active citizen. Two other education students and I taught two civic education lessons to the entire sixth grade class at Poultney Elementary school. The lesson taught the basics of the United States voting process and the importance of voting. These lessons used an active teaching method.  In the first lesson students learned the Electoral College and created Frayer models of the stances of both the 2012 presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.  During this lesson we discussed the importance of voting and how everyone’s vote does count. The second lesson involved holding a mock election where the students made IDs, filled out Vermont registration forms at a pretend county clerk’s office, and then filled out a ballet to vote and concluded by having a ‘right to vote’ party. During this lesson we discussed respecting everyone’s opinions, and to appreciate the right to vote.

I was looking websites to use for teaching social studies. I found one that gives links to live video safe webcams around the world. There are over 15,000 webcams on this website from airports to national parks. Being able to view a different part of the of the world is important to teaching social studies since the student are able to see firsthand different cultures then their own without leaving the classroom. Many students may have the means to travel to different parts of the world, so by connecting the students to video will make the students realize that they belong to something much bigger than just their home state or country and this will help then become global citizens. 

                The teacher can use this website when teaching about geography and cultures. The teacher can play the webcam of a location that they are learning about for the students. The teacher can also play the webcam when the class has free time, this will make them feel that they have a connection with the whole world.

http://www.leonardsworlds.com/camera.html

I am currentry writing a paper on the importance of civic eduction in schools for my delicate balence class. Here is a section of it.
Civic Education is important because it encourages responsibility, active citizen involvement and, informed decision making. One way these skills are used is in the voting process. Being an informed citizen means that he or she knows the civic content and can contribute to society by making informed decisions. In the article Informed Voting is a Citizens Civic Duty journalist Don Powers explains that “voting in our republic is both a duty and a right. The right is that of participation in the republic, and the duty is to be an informed elector and citizen who actually votes” (Powers). It is the citizen’s duty to vote to preserve democracy.    According to the National Alliance for Civic Education’s article The Importance of Civic Education a study was performed on 90000 fourteen year olds and showed that the major predictor of intentions of voting was civic knowledge (National Alliance for Civic Education). Another study was preformed that yielded results adults that showed adults who had more knowledge of politics no matter their interest level were more likely to vote than non-educated adults (National Alliance for Civic Education). It can be seen that being informed is a key predictor to voting.

Learning the history of voting can greatly help students realize how as American citizens we have an amazing right to vote that many had to fight for.

I have always been known for always praising students good work, but after reading the article "Five Reasons to Stop Saying Good Job" by Alfie Koln I realized that there could be some dangers of overly praising students. Koln explains that praising can create a dependency for praise and students with this dependency will grow up to need other peoples acceptance. Koln's theory reminds me of the of the the famous quote, "How would you live your life if no one was watching?"  I feel that educators need to make certain that there students are becoming dependent of the teachers decisions on what is good and bad. The students need figure this out on there own and do what is good with out the teachers constant praise, so when there is no one around watching the students they will still keep doing what is right.

The Albany Free School

“Trust children and they will learn” this is the motto of the Albany Free School. The Albany Free School is the oldest alternative school that is still in existence today. At this school students are free to choose how they want to spend their day. There are no grades or mandated curriculum, teachers’ asses each student’s strengths and weakness individually. The students use a council meeting system to resolve problems this lets the student be an active participant within the school. The Albany Free school website states, “Truth be told, we are a community far more than a school – a safe, nurturing, open space where every day about sixty kids ages three through fourteen, eight full-time teachers, a cook, a steady stream of interns, volunteers and visitors work, play, learn and eat together.” In today’s society we put a lot of emphasis on what grades a student received, but I believe more emphasis should be put on what did the student learn, and what skills and knowledge did the student gain. I belive the Albany Free School address that in educating their students.

Don't forget about education

The elections will be coming around the corner. Even though students will not be eligible to vote because of their age it is important to get students involved as much as possible. This will get students enthusiastic about the voting process and their duties as citizens. It is essential that teachers are well informed on how the U.S government works when teaching students about the election process so they will not misinform the students. Also it is imperative that teachers respect all parties in the election when instruction their lessons, this will insure that all students values feel respected in the classroom.

What is School For?

Today in my teachers as decision maker class we were asked to answer the question, what is school for? Here are some of the answers the class gave: school is for educating students to be well informed citizens of the country, to improve the quality of life, to foster individuality and freedom of expression, expanding minds of its students, and give students the skills to prepare students for life. There are many different answers for this one question depending on what values you think a student should obtain from school, so I’m going to ask you what do you think school is for?

 

I just found this, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher!

 

Rock Hill Resident Camp

Here is a section of the new camp video

One last week of summer vacation! I once again have spent my summers days and nights at Girl Scout camp. Something about sleeping under the stars, building camp fires, and singing silly songs creates a magical experience with memories that will last a life time. I am a strong advocate for summer camps since a camp can provide a place for a child to be themselves away from the pressures and stress of society. This being my sixth summer working at camp I have seen many of my campers grow into to independent and responsible young adults from their time at camp.

Show Business is Nothing Compared to Science

 

Wow it has been a busy semester, though I cannot believe how fast it has gone by. I had a wonderful time teaching literacy and science in three different elementary schools in the area. For my language and literacy class we taught my vocabulary lesson plan on tier two words to third graders using the book Miss Spiders Wedding. The third graders definitely enjoyed learning new words like penetrate, glee, and eternal and could not stop creating sentences with these words. I believe that it is exceedingly important to teach students vocabulary and comprehension skills since these skills will help students with their reading fluency and their articulation of their thoughts and ideas.  I feel confident that I can effectively teach language and literacy to students and providing my student with the necessary skills they need to succeed in life.

CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE

Dorothy Law Nolte

If a child lives with criticism,
he learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility,
he learns to fight.

If a child lives with fear,
he learns to be apprehensive.

If a child lives with pity,
he learns to feel sorry for himself.

If a child lives with ridicule,
he learns to be shy.

If a child lives with jealousy,
he learns what envy is.

If a child lives with shame,
he learns to feel guilty.

If a child lives with encouragement,
he learns to be confident.

If a child lives with tolerance,
he learns to be patient.

If a child lives with praise,
he learns to be appreciative.

If a child lives with acceptance,
he learns to love.

If a child lives with approval,
he learns to like himself.

If a child lives with recognition,
he learns that it is good to have a goal.

If a child lives with sharing,
he learns about generosity.

If a child lives with honesty and fairness,
he learns what truth and justice are.

If a child lives with security,
he learns to have faith in himself and in those about him.

If a child lives with friendliness,
he learns that the world is a nice place in which to live.

If you live with serenity,
your child will live with peace of mind.

With what is your child living?

I am currently working on creating a fun hands-on learning center for my science methods class on camouflage. I can’t wait to show it my class and then teach the activity to elementary school students!

Last Thursday my Language and Literacy class went into a local combined first and second grade class. My classmates and I teamed taught a Foundations lesson on closed syllables. The first and second grades were rocking with closed syllables by the end of the lesson.  It was a great experience to go into an elementary school class and help teach!

Check out this inspirational speech!

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