Intern, Here We Come

Although I am still a block student, I am ready for intern! I have taken all the next steps to start my intern semester. I have registered for Praxis 2 (next month!), filled out my application for internship and enrolled in the professional semester. I am excited about this next step and I am looking forward to graduating! I have spent many years on my college education and many nights that seemed like this point would "take forever." I can remember when I finally pushed myself to enroll at EMCC to get my basics out of the way! This seems like such a long time ago; I was an adult when I registered but I have truly grown up on my college journey. I enrolled at EMCC for the 2nd time in 2011 and felt overwhelmed. Now, I am at the point of my college career that is bittersweet. I have almost fully completed all my pre-training and intern is the final test. My time at MUW has flown by and the great group of colleagues will forever hold a place in my heart! I have grown close to my tight knit group of block girls and I know we will remain friends the rest of our lives. I feel the staff at MUW have really prepared me for intern and my future career. When I started block, I second guessed my knowledge and abilities. But, as I have spent time preparing each required lesson and assignment, I realize how naturally this comes to me. I honestly feel God has planned out my career that perfectly my personality and I am so blessed that I get the opportunity to make this a reality. I know this career requires a life long dedication to learning and staying current and I am by no means the perfect teacher. But, I know with God right beside me, I can tackle anything that comes my way! If I can encourage anyone reading this it would be to never give up. Remember our motto for Senior Block: "Keep Calm and Pretend It's On the Lesson Plan!" Let's rock student teaching, ya'll!

                                                           Mrs. J

Virtual Field Trips PT. 2

The post for today is about virtual field trips. We are looking at the 7 Wonders of the World and the students are able to view natural wonders. Many students will never get the opportunity to travel the world and view all these amazing natural beauties. With the use of virtual field trips, our students can explore a multitude of natural surroundings from the comfort of the classroom. The benefits of virtual tours are great- little to no cost, explore the trip on any time frame and no worries about field trip accidents! I was drawn to this particular link because I have always dreamed of visiting the Northern Lights. In this virtual trip, I can view this spectacular light from anywhere in the world. The website that led me to this particular trip also gave me a great idea. We can create our own virtual field trip anytime we go to a place. An interesting idea would be to allow my students to create a virtual field trip using prior personal vacation pictures (scenery, no faces) or adventures from the classroom. We could tie this in to reading, by integrating ELA with "Oh the places you will go" by Dr. Seuss.

                                                                                        Mrs. J

Rats to the Rescue

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According to Scholastic News, HeroRats are being trained to sniff out TB in patients. The theory behind this new project is the fact that rats can smell up to 1 million scents. In certain African countries, TB infection rate and resources available to detect the disease are limited. By the time TB is diagnosed in patients, the disease can spread to countless others. HeroRats were previously used to detect landmines and have successfully detected 16,000 land mines in Africa. Many people give rats a bad rap; it is true that rats carry disease, but so do many other species of animals. These rats are helping diagnose TB cases at a faster rate than a human technician. The rats can process mucus samples at rapid rates. In a 10 minute time period the rats can process the same amount of samples it would take a human worker 2 days to process. The HeroRats team hope to see other diseases added to the list than rats can detect.

This is an interesting topic and one that would cross current events with medical innovation. I would love for my future students to read a news story like this and brainstorm medical inventions that would beneficial in the future. Students are never to early to imagine the next big idea and who knows,we may very well be educating the next medical breakthrough scientist.
                   
                                                                                    Mrs. J

Block Experience

Recently, we started the field experience portion of our Senior Block experience; this is by far the best part of this program! I have enjoyed being in a real classroom, interacting with students and other colleagues. I have been able to teach almost daily (prior lessons) and have learned classroom management skills that only come from on the job training. I feel a connection with my students and cannot wait to plan and implement my unit during my time here! Since my first day in the classroom, I have noticed the teacher's difficulty to get the students motivated to read. The school district took away AR testing, so the students are expected to read without any accountability. After talking with the mentor teacher, I sugges0ed Flashlight reading. She loved the idea and the students were extremely excited to hear about the idea. I explained the rules to the students: 1) If you are caught off-task (playing with the flashlight, talking) I will take the flashlight away. 2) I purchased the flashlights personally, so they belong to me (must leave in the classroom, do not destroy them). I agreed to a 1 minute play with the flashlights prior to starting the reading session. The students are allowed to get out of their desks and we turn off the lights for the reading session. The students were so excited, they decided this is their secret assignment and they voted to keep the strategy a secret from other students. After implementing the flashlight reading 2 days, it is a success! The students actually sit and read for 20 minutes without protesting! I'm sure once the novelty wears off the students will gradually get off task, but this is a fun strategy I would implement 1-2 times per weekin my classroom.

                                                             Mrs. J

Interactive Online Simulations

While developing the digital portfolio, I found some wonderful Interactive Online Simulations from Mission US. This website has created various intense simulations to add in teaching social studies to students. The best part? It's completely free! This is an invaluable tool for educators. In today's digital age, our students prefer to be engaged in technology during learning. This would be a great center activity or even a reward for students wanting computer time. The missions are various topics but feature real and fictional characters! The real characters in the story stay true to historical facts so children are learning about real historic characters while playing a game. The fictional characters stay true to the time and situation and offer a realistic view into life during this time period. Students can engage with the material and never realize they are learning historical content. This simulation is based on decision making so it will develop thinking skills and decision making skills in our students. This website gets an A in my grade book!
                                                             Mrs. J

Resource: Smithsonian Education

Smithsonian

The link above is to the Smithsonian Education website. As we should know, the Smithsonian Institution is a network of museums and research centers. This website provides excellent resources for educators, parents and students. A quick peek at the educator sublink provides us with lesson plans and resources a mouse click away. The search feature allows you to search by standard, grade, subject or term- talk about lesson planning made easy! They have quality lesson plans in various categories- art & design, science & technology, history & culture, and language arts. The Institute also provides professional development in the form of workshops, seminars, classes & events and even online resources. The best feature about this website is the IdeaLabs for students (still under the educator tab). Students have the opportunity to explore a range of topics- in a completely interactive format. The IdeaLabs feature videos, pictures and timelines and all are primary sources! The part of the site for parents is titled Families and features some enrichment resources. The bulk of this section is focused around visiting the museum, but does feature some resource reading links which is helpful for families. The section for kids is completely aimed at the student. The main page grabs the attention with a section about "fun, fast, cool scary..." happenings at the museum. Their is also a link for the IdeaLabs on this section of the website, so technology in the classroom would allow the children to explore these! Overall, I think this is a great resource website for educators when incorporating primary sources and starter ideas for lessons! Until next time....

                                             Jennifer

Robo Clerk?

Reference Website: Robo Clerk?


In this search for reliable, kid friendly current events websites I came across the Scholastic website. This website includes current events that are kid friendly. After reviewing CNN students and Fox News, I still found the material to gritty for some elementary students. I think our students should have an understanding of current events, but hot button topics that are trending in our news (gay marriage, war, ISIS) should be left to the parents discretion of when and how to introduce those topics. I browsed this website and the first news story is the Robo Clerk link posted above. This news article talks about the use of human like Androids being used in Japan. In this hotel in Japan, human workers are replaced by robots or Androids. "Guests to Henn-na can check in to the hotel, have their luggage carried to their rooms, get room service, and have their rooms cleaned—all with the help of androids. Androids are robots that are designed to look similar to real people. The hotel’s developers hope that they will be able to run the hotel at a much lower cost by staffing it with robots along with some humans." I think students would really respond to a news article of this sort. This brings in fantasy elements (robots) and technology that is really being developed in today's world. This article could be used as a jumping piece to an ELA journal. There are multiple ways to integrate Social Studies, and current events, across the curriculum. I could allow my students to mold, draw or graphic design (online) a similar project to meet art standards. The article talks about using this type of technology as cost cutting methods; I could allow my students to estimate the cost of this technology and compare it to any potential savings. We could calculate the cost of building this technology and analyze the costs with a decrease of human staffing savings and write a reflective piece. I think the possibilities are endless and this website and use of current events are a great starting point for integrated curriculum.

Simulations- Bring History to Life!

I was very impressed with learning about the simulation teaching strategy. I found this idea very engaging and think students would learn so much with this strategy! I found the example shared in class a great way to bring taxation without representation a more concrete idea for the students! Our students can learn about the unfair taxation placed on the colonists by simulating the situation with pretend resources and everyday items. I think this idea can be expanded to include many other historical events to bring a fresh understanding to the information. I would love to do a simulation representing the democratic system. I think students could gain an understanding of how the voting process works in America and how laws are passed through simulation activities. This would be a great beginning of the year activity. I would allow the students to represent the House & Senate and I would be the President. The students could understand the checks and balance system and the journey laws have to travel before being officially approved.This would be a great strategy to implement in all other areas of content- ELA, math and science. Students could simulate the writing process in ELA. With more time and real curriculum to observe, we could think of endless possibilities for this teaching strategy. This is one strategy that gets an A in my gradebook. Until next week....  
                                                                                      

                                                                            Jennifer (Mrs. J)

Social Studies Resource Website

Kid World Citizen

The website listed above, Kid World Citizen, is a great resource for helping our students become global citizens without leaving the classroom. Many times in our classroom, we have limited opportunity for field trips, much less a world-wide field trip. I think it is essential for our students to broaden their horizons and experience what our world has to offer. Using virtual field trips is a great way to allow our students to experience world landmarks from the comfort of our classroom. This website gives great links to popular sites that offer virtual experiences. Our students can visit the Louvre and view the art, use the Eiffel Tower to experience Paris from a bird's eye view or the Google Art Project to visit many famous museums around the world. Although this is not mentioned on this webpage, the Sistine Chapel has virtual tours for a 360 degree view of this beautiful and historic building. After clicking around on the website, there are many crafts and ideas on this website that include great resources for teachers. This website breaks the website down into different continent categories and country based sub-categories. This is a great resource website for implementing geography and culture into your classroom!

Hello to all! Welcome to my blog, An Apple for Mrs. J. My name is Jennifer Garrard. Currently, I am a senior block elementary education student at MUW in Columbus, Ms. I am married with one daughter. I anticipate graduating December 2015 with a bachelors degree in elementary education and certifications in history and science. After graduation, I want to continue my education and become certified in english, health and possibly special/gifted education. My dream classroom would be early elementary, Pre-K to 1st grade!
I really believe I have found my calling in life and God has crafted me to become a successful teacher. I have a strong foundation in my faith and am a Christian. I believe in hands-on, constructivist style learning. I want to instill in my students that learning is fun and they can achieve any goal with hard work and confidence! I am beyond thrilled to chase my dream and cannot wait to get my own classroom!