Sunday, April 23, 2017

My Experience to get into Student Teaching

I am a junior in college at Mount Saint Mary College, I am majoring in Math, and hope to become an elementary teacher in the future. I was thinking of Student Teaching in the Spring of next year, but as I was enrolling into classes I couldn't get into the math classes I needed. I emailed my professors and they told me I could only take the math classes during the Spring and that math education undergraduate have to student teach in the Fall. However, everything was already due for Fall student teaching. I emailed the head of student teaching, and told her my problem. She said I had to do everything by tomorrow and email it to her. I was so flustered, but got right to work. I wrote my application, resume, and essay that night in order for me to student teach. I then had to fill out another application and essay to my student teaching schools to let them know who I was. I am now proud and excited to say I will be student teaching next semester in the Fall at Cornwall 2nd grade, and Marlboro 5th grade. I just want everyone who is reading this that, there is work always, but it pays off and open a brighter future. There is always a rainbow on the other side, and life will always be a roller-coaster having its ups and downs.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Protista

In Science Methods we did an assignment on the six Kingdoms of Life Science. We split up into groups and each group had a different kingdom. My group was the Protista Kingdom, which are unicellular organisms. The groups had to come up with a presentation and then present to the remaining students in the class. I created the number of cells slide and the cell wall slide. We presented to our class and quizzed them on what they learned using a kahoot. I loved this activity because my group mates and I had so much fun decorating and making our presentation exciting and engaging. We use many gifs and funny pictures to intrigue our audience, and I hope you can take a look at it.
Here is the link to my presentation

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Students in the Stages of Grief

Teachers will come across students that are dealing with Loss. This can be: Death, Moving Away, Loss of a Friend, Divorce, Changing Illness, or a Disability. Teachers should first understand the Stages of Grief: Shock, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Testing, and Acceptance. Teachers should look to see if students are showing signs of the Stages of Grief so they can help the student get through their harsh time. If teachers do see a student going through the Stages of Grief, then there are things they should not do. Never say, "Things will get better," loss never goes away, pain is only resolved. Also never say, "I Understand," this is the worse thing you can say to a student going through loss, it is actually an insult to the student. No one has the same experiences/same relationship that the student has/had. Things for teachers to do is to be empathetic and say things like, "Sorry to hear that,"teachers should acknowledge what they are saying/addressing, or else the student will close up.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Digital Tools


Teachers need to know that everything they used to know about school is a lot different now. The world is changing and so is technology. Teachers must keep up with new technology and insert it into their teaching to actively engage and produce an easier way of children to acquire knowledge. Having digital tools promotes personalization. When students use digital tools they put their ideas and things about themselves in them causing a personal attachment. Using digital tools also has easy accessibility. Being able to share files and use pictures and videos are great way to teach students quicker. Digital tools also cuts efficiency. Using online tools effectively cuts costs, maximizes resources, and heightens reach. Studies have shown that students using technology as an education tool become more engaged in the process and more interested in growing their knowledge base. In some cases they don't even realize they're actively learning. Some examples of digital tools to use are: Animoto, WordClouds, glogster, blogger, and GoAnimate.

Example of an Animoto: link