I left comments at Lisa Parisi Grade 5 classroom blog, in New York. One of the students, named Gina, read the same book I did during my elementary days, Tuck Everlasting. My messages to her would basically state things like
“You are an excellent writer. Your comments on the book would make anyone want to read it. I, personally have read Tuck Everlasting a few years ago. I completely enjoyed it. What did you think about the ending?”
Unfortunately I never receive any comments back and I regret not picking a different class. Overall my experience with classroom mentorship was not as successful as I had hoped. I heard about other peoples experiences who really became connected with the students they spoke with and was disappointed it did not happen to me.
Beside my personal experience I think the idea of teachers creating classroom blogs is wonderful. I was blown away at the young age groups making these blogs. I definitely plan on creating my own classroom blog and establishing a network of other teachers with the same mindset.
My EPS 100 field work has come to a close. After making great connections with the students it broke my heart to leave. The children made Mr. Rask(yes, Kyle from this class) and me handmade thank-you cards. My heart just melted at the adorable messages and pictures the kids left us. Here are some of things I learned from the students while working with Grade 2 Students in Arcola Community School.
1. Walk means run, run means go crazy.
2. My monthly mood swings are peanuts compared to a child’s. Children of young ages have a hard time expressing and understanding their feelings. Generally they are happy or angry.
3. Hugs replace hellos and goodbyes.
4.”Race issue” mean arguing about who ran the fastest.
5. Sitting still equals impossible
6. You can never underestimate a child.
After my experience I realized that I had forgotten what it was like to be a child. I can’t remember not having stress or a busy schedule. When they say teaching keeps you young, I finally see why.
In my rhythmics and dance class I wrote essay on the life of Katherine Dunham. She was a modern dancer, born in 1909, who brought new techniques and dance styles to North America. Not only did she create the first African American ballet school and had her own dance company that performed in over 57 countries. Aside from Hollywood films and other projects, Katherine was also a political activist. Through dance she fought for African American rights. It is safe to say that any African American dancer has been influenced by Katherine Dunham’s technique, unless that person is studying purely classical ballet. Here’s a great You tube video that presents Katherine Dunham’s life story.
Hey everyone. Check out my project I created for my Aesthetic class. It was my first time working with clay. To make things more comfortable I combined sculpting with painting. Here are four steps of the creation process. If any one has ideas on how I can improve it I’d love to hear them.
At first I was unsure about what I wanted to speak about. After some careful thinking I decided to talk about my most favourite thing – Food. Click on the link to listen to this amazing guacamole recipe. It’s all raw, healthy foods and can be whipped up in less than 15 minutes. Click here to listen.
The idea of pod casting is such a great tool and can easily be used in the classroom. As a teacher’s resource I can record all of my classes and then post them for the students convenience. As I was browsing through iTunes podcasts I came across some very cool ideas. Under the education tab I found Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. This provides neat sessions on how to improve your writing. If you love to cook, but are just starting out, I would recommend Start Cooking under the arts/food section. Beginner questions are answered and new menu ideas are introduced. I thought another great pod cast was Ford Models Yoga. I love to do yoga and always want to vary my yoga workouts. This pod cast shows numerous ways of how to keep your work outs exciting. I’m happy to have learned about all of these excellent pod casts.
Sorry, I tried everything to get this voice thread right onto my post but it just didn’t want to work. Anway, check out the link to my middle child experience!
After one of my students referred to me as “teacher” I couldn’t help but smile. The way children ask for my help or give out free hugs gives me butterflies. Today during my field work for my EPS 100 class, Kyle Rask and I taught our first lesson to the children.
We were placed in Arcola Community School in a grade 2 classroom. The teacher we are working with, Mr. Bob Phillips, is absolutely great and encourages us to get involved where ever possible. He allowed us to spend a whole afternoon teaching the student.
At first I was nervous. What if the kids didn’t like our lesson idea? What if we had a hard time managing the class? Kyle and I decided to be as prepared as possible and just hope for the best. Mr. Philips suggested that we incorporate our artistic ability into the project because that is not his strong point. Kyle and I decided to combine a visual arts project with their on going novel study. The class is currently study books from the Dragon Slayers Academy series (kind of like Harry Potter but for younger children). In the books evil dragons are defeated by unexpected methods. For example, bad jokes killed one of the dragons. I really recommend these books for children because they keep them interested and excited. Anyways, Kyle and I had the students create their own dragons and then attach the dragon’s name and what it’s weakness was. Kyle’s dragon was called the Boogie dragon and it lived under children’s bed. The Boogie dragon’s weakness is stinky socks.
The project had a great response from all the children and it went over fantastically. The bulletin board looks great! With that being said Kyle and I felt great about our first teaching experience.
Kind of what our dragon craft looked like: Much more fancy though!
Much more fancy though!