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
Monday, March 23, 2015
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
Mrs. J
Rats to the Rescue
\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
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