Blog #4

End of the Semester
I am so in shock about how fast this semester has flown by! This semester I feel like I have been able to apply so much about what I have learned from my professors in what I do with my clinical hours. I truly feel like I have been able to take responsibility for my learning and make it happen in a REAL classroom. That feeling is so great and makes me gain so much confidence about my teaching. Being able to watch my classmates grow and mature over these past three years of education classes has been absolutely priceless. I cannot put into words how proud I am of them! We have all been together through some very highs and very lows and watching them persevere as well as myself has been an experience that I will carry with me forever. My biggest accomplishment this week has just been being supportive of my friends in this major and sending positive energy in their direction every chance I get. Not everyone is lucky enough to have experiences with such a small group of girls going through similar learning experiences and I think it has been an experience that will help us thrive so much in our future classrooms. We have amazing practice working with diverse personalities and ways of thinking, as well as clinical hours and in-school opportunities that not every Elementary Education major is blessed to experience. My main focus this week has been completing my unit. It has been a little bit grueling at times but I am so happy to say I am almost ready to turn it in! What a sigh of relief! I am so excited to implement all of the learning facilitation techniques and models I have learned about in this class and I am so excited to make my classroom a place where asking questions is encouraged and inquiry and curiosity are praised!




Outside Research:

https://classroom.synonym.com/importance-teaching-science-elementary-school-5810234.html

For my outside research, I read an article about why science is so important in Elementary school. 
Elem students are naturally curious which makes science perfectly coincide with this time in their lives. Science allows students to explore their curiosity in a safe and supervised environment. To establish a varied learning experience, science is great because it allows for so many hands-on activities, which is crucial for kinesthetic learners to achieve success. A strong and stable science foundation in elementary school is important for so many reasons. The article stated,
" Science teaches children necessary skills that they can use in other areas of their lives. Kidsource.com reports, "Early experiences in science help children develop problem-solving skills and motivate them toward a lifelong interest in the natural world."

This is so great because as the teacher if we can spark interest in our students and help them build a solid foundation in science, this will serve them so much in the future. 

Another excerpt from this article that I thought was great:

"Students who study science early on are better equipped to handle scientific issues facing our world in the future. The Geological Society of America states, "Prominent issues facing us include land use and development, availability of energy and mineral resources, water resources and quality, preservation of wetlands, erosion, waste management, pollution remediation, and geological hazards." Students who are familiar with these issues through science classes may be able to solve some of these problems as adults."

When students have a strong background and foundation from the start, harder sciences later on in life will be easier for them and less daunting. Success in high school starts with good teachers in elementary school! NCTCS Standard 3 says teachers know the content they teach. This means WE also have to have a strong foundation to best serve our students!



I love this quote below also found in the article:


"Young minds are creative, innovative and full of ideas. Science nurtures these aspects of the brain. According to Dr. Eric Albone, director of the Clifton Scientific Trust, "Science is an intensely human, intensely creative, enterprise. Science dominates our lives and presents society with tremendous opportunities and tremendous challenges." If we want our students to take those opportunities and meet those challenges, we must teach them science at the elementary level and continue to do so at the secondary level."


Tweets:

For my first tweet, I found a tweet from a local teacher who created a "wonder wall" where students could write down things they are interested in. I love this because it promotes inquiry and helps the teacher keep an eye out for specific things students want to study in the future. If students are interested in what they are studying, they are so much more likely to be engaged and want to participate. This is great for NCTCS 4 because as a teacher, we need to reflect on what our students need most and also want most.

For my second tweet, I thought back to how for our current events in my clinical placement, we have been discussing articles about the wildfires in Californa. The students in this local teacher's 3rd-grade class are seen discussing a text and breaking it into parts with small groups. Small group learning works so well for this type of assignment because the students can work together and feed off of each other without the pressure of talking in front of the entire class.

For my last tweet, I found a great app that I will be adding to my technology collection. I like this tool called BookCreatorApp because it integrates technology for students in a positive and safe way but still allows them to interact with others while using it and be social. This tweet shows kids using this app to label the different parts of a tree and then label their function. This is great because they integrated technology as well as literacy and science.

Blog Post 3

The month of October absolutely flew by, especially concerning Science Methods. We have been going strong for two and a half months now, and we are rapidly approaching the final stretch of the semester. I am very proud of my group and successfully completing our science experiment. We had to work super hard together on our project because our first project failed. The thing I am most proud about this week was how my group and I worked together, communicated into late hours of the night, and supported and encouraged each other. Team environments are going to go far with us into our teaching careers. Whether we work with the teachers in our grade, teachers who teach the same subjects as us, or just an administrative staff, we will have to work with others to establish a safe and diverse learning environment, as well as facilitating learning with other teachers. This relates directly back to NCTCS Standards 1, 2 &4.  I have found a pattern in this class that every time we do an assignment or a class activity, we relate back to multiple NCTCS Teaching Standards. This is awesome because we get to practice little things for our future classroom every single day! Every class I have been in for Science Methods so far, I have learned something that I will take with me into my future classroom and apply in the future. The thing I have struggled with most this month has been spending the proper time to work on my Unit Plan. I have to admit that I have let it fall to the back burner a little because I have had so many other things to work in for this class. I will really be working in these coming weeks to go hardcore on this unit plan and finish it out fully because its due date will be here before I know it. That will be my main action plan for the month of November, as well as finalizing the science lesson that I will be teaching in my clinical placement.

• I completed a lot of outside research this week, as well as more research about some issues I am passionate about. One of these issues is called Screen Addiction or Internet Addiction. There have been many studies done lately about this topic and the information I found out really shocked me. Internet addiction is starting in children as young as toddlers (1-4 years old.) Research from the American Psychiatric Association has proposed a new diagnosis called "Internet Gaming Disorder," or "IGD." Symptoms of this can be:  signs of addictive behavior, attachment to electronic devices, spending more than 4 hours a day on a device, inability to put a time limit in use, or loss of interest in other activities. 
• Participants in this study were parents of adolescent children and they were asked a series of questions. Some of these questions were: "What age did your child get his/her first mobile device?" & "How often do you worry about your child's screen media use/ what kind do they use the most?"
• The parents then completed a questionnaire examining their child's psychosocial functioning. The results from this study concluded that children who had high scores on the questions asked (regarding lots of screen time) correlated strongly with psychological and social problems with children such as hyperactivity, social problems with other children, aggression, and defiance. 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/media-spotlight/201711/does-your-child-have-digital-addiction


My Future Classroom:
I was glad to have done this research because for me it helped me get a picture of the amount of technology integration I will be incorporating into my future classroom.  I hope to find the healthiest balance possible in order to best serve my future students as well as fully adhering to the standards of the state I end up teaching in.


Top Tweets of the Week:





This first tweet if from DASH BC. They shared a great video about some students in the community taking action steps to better their health, get active, exercise, and get physical activity more important in the school systems. They are starting an action plan and are already taking steps toward their goal!






This tweet from MysCool Server related back to my outside research about technology. This article takes the devils to advocate perspective and talks about how when technology is used the right way, it benefits kids more than hurting them.



My last tweet is again from DASH BC and it is about 10 things parents or guardians can do to promote emotional health and well-being in their child's life. In the world we live in today, kindness and compassion are more important than ever. Those who are in roles of authority in student life are the ones who can assist them the most and make the most impact for them. This short article is about 10 easy ways that parents can do that!

Blog Post 2

Hello my fellow peers!

These past few weeks in Science Methods have been interesting and filled with so many learning experiences. My eco-column has really began to blossom and we are adding our goldfish any day now! This experiment has been really fun and interactive, and I love watering and taking care of my little ecosystem. This experiment is something I will take with me into my future classroom when integrating science. As far as my science project is going, my group is pretty bummed out. We did an elaborate experiment on how different composts affect the atmosphere and their gas output. For various reasons, this project failed and Dr.Parker suggested that we start over. So my group is currently working on that. We practiced putting the Cl-E-Vr Model into action in class. We constructed a hypothesis, made a claim, and tested out whether our claim was true or false. This tied directly into our beginning study of natural Phenomena.

A big struggle I have had in these past few weeks has been getting my head wrapped around everything that is required of me for Ed-Tpa. There are so many things that can easily go wrong if I am the least bit careless. Something as small as an incorrect margin size can leave me with an unscoreable report. That scares me a lot. I just have to keep trying my best and doing the best practice I can because practice makes perfect! I am proud of my work to stay alert and engaged in class. In previous semesters, I let myself get really overwhelmed with my education classes and almost develop "paralysis by analysis." By that, I mean that I would have so much to do, I would become paralyzed and not do anything and then end up so stressed at the last minute. I am working way ahead on all my big assignments. This has helped a lot! I think I helped to contribute to class discussion when we talked about some fine details of our EDTPA learning segments. Some of us were getting confused on the video editing portion and I think after we further discussed it, the regulations for that portion became much more clear. My 4th grade CE seems so nice already just through my introductory email and I am so excited to meet her! I tied in that we are talking about in SAAC about Hurricane Florence, with our conversations with Parker about Phenomena. We are setting up a a drive for all the athletic teams to donate as much as possible for victims and reconstruction after the hurricane. This inspired my outside research about how to teach children about natural disasters without scaring them.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/collections/teaching-content/helping-kids-cope-natural-disasters/

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/julie-ballew/17-18/rebuilding-our-classroom-community-after-hurricane-harvey/

In the above article, a teacher talks about her experience and her classrooms experience after hurricane Harvey. I really teared up reading this because it exemplified the reason I want to be a teacher so badly. This teacher and her students came together in love and unity after the hurricane and this teacher was a constant and a huge support to her children in the time of rehabilitation after the storm.

In order to have a successful EDTPA learning segment I will have to demonstrate the NCTCS teacher standards in a proficient way. I will absolutely have to know the content I teach and I will have to heavily reflect on my practice.





This first tweet I found on Mackenzie's page and I liked it because I love to see how other people use the 5E model and how they incorporate into different subjects.




This second tweet included an astonishing picture from an arial view of the water pollution from Hurricane Florence. I thought this was totally crazy and a Natural Phenomena that I had never seen a picture of before.





For my last tweet, I found another tweet about Hurricane Florence. This one is a CNN article about the murky waters loaded with bacteria and viruses that have killed people and continue to contaminate rivers and homes. While completing Science Through My Lense, seeing pictures like this really have had an impact on me.

Blog Post 1

I am so excited to be starting this new, Fall 2018 semester! I am so excited to learn as much as I can from Science methods. I have only positive experiences from my science teachers in grade school and I am excited to be able to bring science to life in my future classroom. The first day of class, we began by talking a little bit about what the course was going to look like. Shortly after, Dr.Parker brought the classroom some serious excitement with a series of minute to win it games. Right away I connected this to NCTCS Standard 4. Learning was facilitated for us right off the bat! We dove right in and played these games which incorporated various scientific aspects and standards. I thought this was such a fun and interactive way to make learning scientific principles fun. With our partner, we looked through NC science standards and connected each of our games to a standard. This was so beneficial and I loved that I got to learn how easily standards can be made exciting and come to life.
Secondly we learned about the Next Generation Science Standards. The acronym for this is called NGSS. This was my first time learning about this so its going to be important for me to really learn these standards. It was scary for me because I had never heard of the NGSS, or terms like cross-cutting. I was intimidated because I have never really been strong in science or math so these are subject areas that I have had to devote much more time to, ever since I was little. On the other hand, intimidating topics are a great thing for future teachers because if we challenge ourselves, we will continue to grow, and we will be able to bring vitality to our classroom and challenge our students. My favorite part of the week was the eco column. I am very, very scared of bugs, spiders, and snakes. I was glad that I only was going to have to see crickets and some fish. Going outside into the sunshine was awesome, and constructing the column was fun and new. As 21st century teachers, the amount of technological integration we have to partake in is epic and very massive. Being able to take it back a few steps and use raw and real materials was super awesome and fun for me. As we made these, we made mental notes to reflect on later. In this way, we were reflecting on our practice.

Next week, I am going to make steps towards furthering my science fair project with my group. We are trying to figure out what needs to be altered in our project because we just found out compost takes 2-4 weeks to break down. We want to be done before that so we are working on it. This week I tried to be as present as I could and to really hone in on science methods for the time that I was there. When we brainstormed about phenomena I tried to contribute my best to the class discussion and help my group brainstorm about the 4As and how we could put them into action. I hope I can help my class next week by keeping up positive energy, encouraging my classmates that will be student teaching next semester, and being fully present every class period.





tweets:

These are my tweets for the week. For my first tweet, It was from @teachers2teachers. This tweet was encouraging because it basically was just saying how everyone is overwhelmed when school first starts! For new teachers especially, everyone is in the same boat. That is a nice reminder.

For my second tweet, I read an article about how North Carolina's math scores have slowly declined over the past few years. This was interesting because their ELA scores have increased as well as pretty much stayed the same. As a hopeful future teacher, possibly in this state, is is interesting to note and study these statistics.

For my last tweet, I really liked the teachers2teachers tweet about the student who felt inspired by her teachers conversing about that could work better for the next time they taught the lesson. Reflecting on practice is so important!

Outside Research:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/future-will-people-have-enough-water-live

Since we have been on the topic of ecosystems, I read an article about how the lack of clean drinking water has been exponentially expanding throughout the world. Right now, 2 billion people lack safe drinking water daily. That number is only growing. It is hard for me to fathom how ungrateful I can be about very small things, when some people wake up every day and cannot even find safe water to drink. As a future teacher, being aware of worldly issues is important if  am going to correctly implement NCTCS Standard 2, which is to establish a diverse and respectful learning environment.

Blog Post 4 Social Studies

As this semester closes, it has been rewarding to look back on the positive experiences I have been able to have through the Education Department at Gardner-Webb. Being able to have time in the classroom in both a kindergarten and first grade environment and experience hands-on learning in both of these settings is something that sets Gardner-Webb's program apart from other Education programs. Many elementary education students do not get an extended amount of time in a classroom until they are student teaching. That would be so scary to think about! The experience I have gained from being able to teach full lessons as well as re-teach a lesson has greatly prepared me for the challenges I will conquer in student teaching that are yet to come. Overall I learned the most from the teacher I observed at WES. My teacher demonstrated classroom management skills that blew me away, especially when she was dealing with kids that had behavior management issues, or her blocks where behavioral issues were very, very prevalent. Something I noticed that this teacher put into practice in her classroom was the "Rewards based on a specific performance standard" technique of classroom management. This technique was originally studied by Wiersma in1992. I think this kind of classroom management works better on older grades (3-5). I noticed that when the 5th graders were presented with a goal, for example, having chips as a midday snack, they were motivated to work together to do well as a class on their STARS exam which is a reading exam. They got told they would have 10 minutes extra at recess if everyone completed their morning work on time and every student turned it in to the turn in box. When rewards are presented in a way that does not "bribe" the student, but shows that if they work their hardest, they can be rewarded, instills in them the mindset that hard work equals success. This is easier to explain to older kids because younger kids can get conditioned to the idea that every time they do something correctly, they should earn a "prize." The goal of this research based technique is to increase the amount of intrinsic motivation in a student. 

For this technique to work the best that it can, recognition of students individual success must be highlighted. It is also vital to remind students of the REAL goal, not just earning a reward. I watched this teacher provide concrete, non linguistic reinforcement and recognition for student's effort and successes.






Reflecting on learning about this technique, and observing it firsthand, I will surely be incorporating aspects into my future classroom. In my future classroom, I will be applying this teaching technique to help best motivate and give my students that "push" they sometimes need to get excited to work. 
Regarding NCTCS, I can relate my observations to the standards easily. 

The standards that I think most apply to my WES observations are:
 

1a. Teachers lead in their classroom 

3b. Teachers know the content appropriate to their teaching specialty

4c. Teachers use a variety of instruction methods

My clinical teacher was a strong and highly respected leader in her classroom and her school. She set her expectations and standards very high for her 5th graders. She constantly was finding new ways to differentiate learning, keep her students motivated and positive, while also challenging them to the best of their abilities.














I found most of my outside research about the above technique at https://www.education.com/reference/article/methods-teaching-classroom/

also

http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/psy501/intrinsic.pdf

Blog Post 3 Social Studies

Classroom Experiences:

These past few weeks have been very beneficial to me in both my clinical placement and the class i help with at Washington Elementary. I feel luck that my experiences get to be pretty varied because I get to spend time in both a 1st grade classroom and also a 5th grade classroom. I get to really see both ends of the spectrum and I am very thankful for these opportunities! Teaching in the first grade classroom has been a little bit harder for me than in the 5th grade. I think for me personally, it is harder to create a lesson with dialogue that is appropriate for 1st graders that they will truly learn from and understand than it is for a 5th grade classroom. I have been with the 5th graders in their ELA classroom for a while and I think the strategies to teach 5th graders just make more sense to me. I am still really passionate about the younger grades, I just think for me, teaching and assessing them is harder. Over the course of these clinical experiences. I have picked up on teaching techniques and strategies that I have found very interesting and beneficial. One technique I observed int he first grade classroom, was whenever the teacher assigned any type of work, whether it was a packet, morning work, or even homework, she always either checked or graded it. I think this is important because it helps the students to think of all of their work as relevant and important to do their best with. When work is assigned and then forgotten about, not collected, or not even checked, kids are going to not take it as seriously and put less effort into their work. 

Outside Research:

I saw worksheets being used in the 5th grade classroom from https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/5th-grade-reading-worksheets/ .
This website has some really awesome worksheets that encourage higher order thinking and can be integrated into ELA lessons that align with NC Standard Core. For my outside research, I read a book that was given to me as a gift by my grandma. It's called "Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56." This book was written by Rafe Esquith and is about a teacher in a 5th grade classroom that is populated of primarily first-generation immigrants. Rafe really stresses the importance of reading and writing. He presses how reading should be enjoyable; not a dreaded assignment & writing should allow the children to express themselves. He addresses that students aren’t defined by their standardized testing scores. This book says there are 4 main steps for academic success. 

1.    Replace Fear with Trust

2.     Teachers should be dependable

3.    Disciplinary actions must be logical

4.    Teacher is the role model

 I think this book is really just such a breath of fresh air to experience. Even if you don't read it, I suggest looking it up and reading about the author and a summary about the book. This book perfectly lines up with the NCTCS because it highlights core ways to facilitate learning, hold a role of responsibility as a teacher, and most importantly, create a safe and academically thriving diverse environment. NCTCS Standard 2 "Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students. Standard 2c specifically says teachers treat students as individuals. This means that every student is important regardless of the fact that they may come from poverty. This book has a large portion of it that talks about how it is very important to take what children are learning in their classroom and transfer it to the outside world. This is exactly why field trips are such a great learning experience!!!



  I so enjoyed hearing from my professors and colleagues about the trip they took to Washington D.C. I was born and raised in the District and was so blessed to be able to take countless field trips all through grade school to the city and learn about everything that the nation's capital has to offer. Being surrounded by an area with such rich history makes it hard to imagine that some people have never seen the White House or the US Capitol Building. SSED 307 is the first class I have ever had where I have learned about virtual museums. I think it is such a great tool because today more than ever, we have so many technologies that have amazing potential to create inter-connectedness. Virtual museums can provide an experience to a child or a class where they can truly feel like they visit a location or museum without the expense of traveling or leaving the classroom. The virtual museum I am creating is not as beautiful as some I have seen on the internet, but with things like Google Cardboard, regular people can create learning experiences that might not have otherwise be possible to achieve. I think stuff like this is such an amazing advantage and privilege of being a teacher in the constantly blooming Digital Age. I will be be a big advocate for field trips and virtual field trips in my future classroom. Taking students out into the world so increases the connections they make with classroom experiences and I want to create the most well-rounded classroom I can! 

Blog 2 Social Studies

Hey friends! This is my second blog of the semester for SS307. It is SO wild to me that midterms are upon us, and the end of the semester is so near in sight. The month of February was very busy for me. I started the month by finishing up my swim season at our Conference meet in Athens, GA. Now that I am in off-season, I am excited to solely focus on all things education and putting my heart into my passion, which is teaching.

We have started volunteering at Washington Elementary school this month! This is something we are doing as a class and we each go to a different classroom to observe/help and do a little bit of teaching. This has been such a fun way for me to get my feet wet with some observation hours that are consistent and very beneficial. I am placed with a fifth grade teacher which has been a blessing so far. Originally, I was not so pleased with being placed in a 5th grade classroom. They remind me of my younger siblings and usually I just get annoyed with that age group way faster than K-2 students..They are a lot sassier and have developed lots of their own opinions!! This can just be a little intimidating for me to deal with. Experiencing this specific 5th grade classroom and beginning to build relationships with them has been such an awesome experience. It has completely changed my opinion on older grades and I honestly would totally be happy if I got a job in a 3-5 position. Even though the younger students are my favorite and I love them so much, I think having more content to teach honestly makes lesson planning a little bit easier. The teacher I observe only teaches English Language Arts for the whole 5th grade. I think that would be something I could be really good at. I think it is easier to convey concepts and content to 5th graders than it is to the younger kids. There is so much more content and it seems like even though there is TON of stuff incorporated into the 5th grade standards, I really do think that they are a special age and very fun to be around. The teacher I am placed with is a recent Gardner-Webb graduate and has been able to share so many great tips and important advice with me. I feel so lucky that I got placed with her! The thing that I have most been involved in has been helping the students in reading groups. The reading has mostly consisted of passages with questions that are similar to the ones they will receive on a standardized test. The short stories have been in test packets & have been really cool and the kids seem really interested in them. I have been going through the questions with them and making "I know because" statements where the students specify where in the text they found their answer so that they can justify whether it is wrong or right. I thought this was a really cool way to help students with persuasive writing while at the same time, helping them to take time to go back and double check their answers, and identify careless mistakes.
For my outside research I looked at a study done by Carolyn Denton, Ph.D. The study was about selecting and implementing Evidence Based Reading Strategies. The article said that students do not outgrow reading difficulties, they need quality intervention to do well and get past difficulties. Kids that are lower on the reading efficiency scale need more practice, more practice, and efficient instruction. Because of their learning gap, they need extra attention or the gap is only going to get bigger. Something I really like about the fifth grade classroom I am observing in is that my teacher does give extra help to those who struggle with reading, and they do not get left in the dust or forgotten about.

https://nysrti.org/files/statewide_trainings/2012/new_york_rti_11-2-12_part_1_handouts.pdf


Ed-TPA

edTPA has been a huge part of our class discussion the past couple of weeks. EdTPA is a "performance-based, subject-specific assessment and support system used by more than 600 teacher preparation programs in some 40 states to emphasize, measure and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need from Day 1 in the classroom." This assessment is very detailed and is an excellent way for us to prepare for student-teaching. The discussions we have had in class have helped me further my knowledge so much and have answered soooo many questions that I have had about this assessment. In order to score well on this assessment there are so many small details that need to be addressed and proven from my lesson plan and I think it has helped me understand how to completely better my lesson plan. Overall, I think the discussions we have had on edTPA have made me much more aware of WHY I need to plan my assessment first and also just how important differentiation is. In my future classroom, I want to cater to each student to the absolute best of their ability in order to help each one of them succeed. Throughout my high school and college experience, I have struggled significantly with attention-span difficulties. Having teachers and adults who were willing to work with me and help me be confident in my ability to succeed has made so much of a difference than if it were an issue that was just completely ignored. Reading in edTPA how I need to specifically make plans for how I am going to help children with learning challenges is going to help me make my classroom a place where learning is facilitated in the best way possible. This directly correlates with NCTCS Standard 2, which says that teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students. "Diverse" refers to special needs,learning challenges, family life, and culture. It is a teachers job to make their classroom a safe and welcoming so that all learners feel accepted and like it is more than possible for them to succeed. The classroom I am in at Washington displays this standard to me in real life and gives me such a good example of what a diverse and learning facilitating classroom looks like. In my future classroom I want students to feel like differences make them special and differences should be respected and appreciated! I am going to do this by continuing my PDP research, ed-TPA guidelines, and also keeping my students well-being at my top priority over things like standardized testing scores. At the end of the day, all of it is temporary, but feeling loved is something that can change a students life.


Websites:

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/effectiveness-model/ncees/standards/prof-teach-standards.pdf

 https://nysrti.org/files/statewide_trainings/2012/new_york_rti_11-2-12_part_1_handouts.pdf