My Brown Eyes

This video was heartbreaking.  It was so hard to see this little boy do what all children his age does, but not be able to communicate.  It was so easy to see he was competent and smart boy that just could not get his point across.  That is why he had to turn to physical violence.  That is why all young children turn to something like that.  We MUST remember to respect differences and that all children show their knowledge in different ways.  If a child cannot voice how he/she feels we cannot just assume things.  This poor little boy deserves so much more than what he got at school. 

Morning Meetings

Morning Meetings are my favorite!  I really think they are the best way to get the day going along with calendar.  I think they are important for social development because they get the students talking with each other.  It also teaches proper greetings! In addition, it gets them up and moving to let out a little energy.  They're also fun for the teacher because there are so many things you can do for a morning meeting.  Its so fun to get creative with them.  I love the one we did where we all wrote our favorite thing to do during the summer on a flower petal.  It was so pretty!  I also like when you can theme them for a holiday, like the one we did with easter eggs!  Morning meetings were always something to look forward too.

Leaving the Field

Oh my gosh, it was the saddest/happiest day ever!  I could not believe Alex and I cried like we did when we left, but the kids had such great things to say.  Over the semester we really got to know the kids, and that's going only one day a week!  I felt like I knew the students, even what kind of guidance and help that they needed.  Ms. Johnson, our co-op teacher, was so kind to us. We worked with students directly and always gave us great feedback after we taught.  Im going to miss her just as much as the students!

Tammy's Story

Tammy's story was for sure a sad one.  It's so hard to see a family living like that and compare it to life I have lived.  I couldn't believe she walked so many miles to work at McDonalds.  It was also hard to see her sons grow up in those conditions.  I understand how much her eldest son wanted to succeed and it hard for Tammy to see that her son did not want to end up leading her life -- raising kids on hardly any money.  It was also hard to see her doing everything without help from the government.  She was proud of who she was and was at least proud she was doing what she could.  For her son, he was embarrassed.  I feel for Tammy's family.

As teacher's we need to realize that everybody has different backgrounds, and sometimes we won't be able to see directly into their lives.  It is important to keep this in mind.  This is why it is so important to be open minding and caring to all.  

Final Reflection

This has been one hectic semester! Each class was very different yet they intertwined.  This was diffucult at first but became more natural as time went on.  Sometime I felt overwhelmed and like things were hard to balance, but I felt as though everything always came togehter in the end. From the very first lessons we taught, to finishing up the wiki's, to getting back our Social Studies unit plans, I feel like I have learned so very much.  After this semester I feel much more prepared to enter fall semester and student teaching.  Before this semester started I couldn't BELIEVE I was teaching in a year.  Now, I can believe it.  Here are some highlights from this semster:

-First lesson!

-Creating lesson plans

-Meeting new people

-Beech Hill/my first graders/my co-op teacher

-Blogs! 

LRP

When I first started the long range plan I thought it was a lot of work.  But as I kept working on it I understood just how helpful it was.  Having all that information in such an organized sequence would be very beneficial to a teacher.  You are able to see and compare so much information about individual students and the class as a whole.  It also useful because it breaks down different things.  You are able to plan when are teaching which specific indicators and align that to your objectives.  A LRP also lets you plan lessons on the class structure.  When the long range plan was finally all put together, I was able to see how useful it is. 

Here's what I like about where I'm headed with my LRP Part III

Im not really sure I did my LRP accurately, but I still feel good about it. I feel as though we have not had the adequite education to put time restrictionso on lesson plans! But none-the-less I think I did a good job guestimating. It's hard because with first grade ELA many aspects need to be brought up on a daily basis. Because of this, I set it up so that one to three topics would be taught 3 or 4 days a week for anywhere from 3-5 weeks. But I also included that these topic needs to be reviewed frequently throughout the semester. When it came to phonics and phonemic awareness -- these are things that need to be done daily throughout the entire year. Overall, part III was more exciting than I thought it would be! It helped me get a better sense of what it will be like to plan.