TT #8: Teaching With Technology Web-ography

• Primary Games
  
• www.primarygames.com
  
• K-2 grade: This is a great website for students to play games and learn at the same time. It is a great review of all subjects, not just Language Arts. Students will have fun playing the games and not even realize they are learning at the same time. The games really pick up on the important topics they need to know in order to be a productive citizen of their community.
  
• I would use this in my classroom all the time. Students could work on these games when I am working with other students. It is also great for me to see what direction I need to go with each student depending on how they do playing the games. It is a very kid-friendly website and I know I will be able to trust them when using the computers. If students want, they can even access it from home because you do not need a password to access the games.
• Children’s Story Writing
  
• http://www.midlandit.co.uk/education/index.htm
  
• 2-6 grade: I love this website because it gives students a chance to have their work published on the internet in a same place. Students complete a story and then copy and paste it from a Word document. Then they can decorate a cover and share it with the world.
  
• After students have gone through the steps of the writing process and their story looks how they want it to, I would have students type it on the computer and then publish it on the website. I would then have them go and look at other student’s work and comment on it.
• Articles Base
  
• http://www.articlesbase.com/article-marketing-articles/top-4-reasons-students-hate-paper-writing-431038.html
• 5-6 grade: This is a great website that has an article written that is written in such a way that any older elementary school student could understand. It hits almost every issue that goes on in a struggling writer’s head and conveys it in a way that students can relate. It is great to make real-world applications whenever possible and I believe this article in this website succeeds in making it memorable for everyone who reads it.
  
• I will read the article out loud to students and have them think about what the article is saying and what is going on in their brains. I will have them write down their thoughts in their journals for them to look back on at the end of the year and see if their attitudes have changed about writing or if they are still the same.
  
• Paragraph Sandwiches
• http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Mountain/9112/Parasandwich.html
• 2-3 grade: This is a great website that shows how students see the different aspects that go into writing a paragraph. Each part of the sandwich is a different aspect of a paragraph. This is fun for students because they will have an easy study guide for making sure they are making correct paragraphs in their writing.
  
• I will use this in my classroom at the beginning of a big writing unit in which I would like my students to write paragraphs when writing things to their audience. Students will then use it throughout the year as a guide to make sure they have made a paragraph in the correct manner.
  

What's My Origin?

I was born on August 8, 1986 so that makes me 22 years old. I am a quarter Swedish, a quarter Dutch, an eighth Irish and some other ethnicities that I’m not quite sure of. I have two older brothers, Matt and John. Matt is my oldest brother. We are six years apart and don’t really get along. It’s that big age gap; we just don’t get each other. Anyway, he has a ten-year-old son, Andrew, who is in the fifth grade this year. I can’t believe how old he is getting and tall. Last time I was home, he was almost taller than me and it scared me a little. My other brother, John, is two years older than me. We are a lot closer than Matt and I. Anyway, he recently moved to Mobile, Alabama and is having the time of his life building the biggest building I have ever heard of. I don’t remember what it is going to be used for but it is a government building so Heaven only knows what’s going on. I can’t wait for him to come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It has been almost 5 months since I have seen him and I really miss him.
Anyway, my origin continues with why I decided education as my career? The answer is simple: I love kids and I want to instill the values and intelligence needed to survive in this world. That is what my elementary school teachers did for me and it’s about time I returned the favor!!!!! I just hope I can be as good of a teacher as they were. People have often told me that I have a gift for teaching and I can’t wait to see if they are right because as of right now, I don’t believe it yet. Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching and I know that it is what I want to do with my life, I just can’t quite see it only being in the classroom a few times a week. I am starting to see it more and more each time but as of right now, I will just sit back and enjoy the ride...taking the driver’s seat whenever necessary though!!!

Life-Changing Personal Experience

Preface: I know that this is not the most life-changing experience I have gone through but it’s the biggest lately!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I was at my sixth month dental appointment. My dentist informed me that I would have to get my wisdom teeth pulled as soon as possible. I almost started crying because for the past two years, he has said that I would not have to get them pulled. Luckily, I only have three to get pulled but it still sucks because now my winter break is pretty much ruined. Not only that, I am planning on student teaching next semester and I do not want to go into student teaching with puffy cheeks and a bad attitude. I say that I will have a bad attitude because I do not tolerate pain very well and it sometimes comes across in my actions how much I do not like being in pain. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas on how to cope with the pain and help get over it as quickly and smoothly as possible, I would greatly appreciate it!!! My surgery will be on December 27.

Reflection of Teaching Thus Far

I can’t believe my college life is almost done. It has been a great three and a half years so far and I am so excited to student teach next semester!!!! I am a little scared though at the same time. When I think about having 20-30 kids to take care of and make sure they are learning what I am teaching them, that makes my blood pressure rise a little bit. I can’t let the pressure get to me though because it’s not about me, it’s about the kids and making sure they get the best education they possibly can. That is by far the biggest lesson I have learned while being at K-State. I have definitely gone through my fair share of struggles to get where I am at and I am still trying to get through some of them but I know deep down in my heart that I was put on this earth by God to be a teacher. I am not going to let anyone or anything stop me from fulfilling my dreams and having a class of my own in August. WOW that’s coming up quick!!!!

Even though I have struggled in college, I know that I am supposed to be a teacher like I said before. The reason I know this is because no matter what I am going through when I am in a classroom, I am happy and have the most joy in my heart. Even when I’m not at a school I have compassion and a yearning to make sure all kids are safe and healthy. When I see kids out in public, my heart just rejoices when I see them with a smile on their faces. The worst sound in the world in my opinion is a child crying. My heart aches whenever I hear that happen. I know at times I can get too emotionally involved and I need to learn to not let my emotions get the best of me but sometimes that fire and that passion is what drives me to continue on in my education. There have been several times that I have just wanted to quit and give up but then I see my nephew and that gives me the hope and encouragement I need to get through my hard times.

Teaching is one of the toughest professions ever and I look forward to see where it goes. I know that most teachers complain that we do not get paid enough or we don’t get enough benefits but I believe the biggest payment or benefit is watching a student succeed after struggling for so long. My 5th grade teacher told me how wonderful she felt after I had improved on my reading the few years after I was a 5th grader. It is moments like that that I will cherish for the rest of my life. People say that teaching is not a career, it’s a lifestyle. I am ready to live that lifestyle and cannot wait to make a difference in children’s lives. It is going to be awesome!!!!!!

What’s Going on in the classroom

When I return from Thanksgiving Break, I will have the opportunity to teach the second graders Maps and Globes. I am really nervous because I have no idea how to teach that to kids in a fun way. This is a very rambunctious group I am working with and they need to move every once in a while to release some energy. The first day I will be going over the basics of maps and all the different characteristics that make maps the same and different from each other. Then I will teach globes and how they are just the same as maps but show a more real-world application because they are shaped like the earth is. I hope they will be able to grasp the concept that the earth is not flat but we will never fall off the earth. This seems like a concept that is too hard for them at this age so I might not go into that much detail about that because it is not going to be the base of my lesson. I will have to look on the internet and see what there is for ideas. I have some ideas on what I want to do but it is hard because I sometimes get too many ideas and then my lessons are too shallow and not really covering what is going on. I have a tendency to lose focus on what I need to be teaching but that is okay because I have gotten into some great discussion with students on things. It was really great when I did my lesson on Wants because I made it memorable for them. They had to come up with their own store and create a product out of Play Dough. They absolutely loved it and didn’t want to stop. But I guarantee if you walked into that classroom 80% of the class could tell you the difference between wanting something and needing it and they could tell you which one is more important.
The second graders are very active doing various activities. They are in the process of learning about data in math and so I thought it would be cool to incorporate what they have done in math into social studies so I had them collect data on choosing items and making a decision on which one they wanted to “buy” and give up. I then had them make a bar graph of their data. That was difficult because they had not made a bar graph from scratch before so we had to take a little more time than expected out of the afternoon. I felt bad that day because I took up most of the afternoon and my cooperating teacher did not have as much time to complete her stuff. She said it was okay but I still felt bad.
Anyway, I am going to miss teaching second grade so much when we are done in a couple of weeks. Second grade is what I want to teach and I have had so much fun getting to know the students and seeing their smiling faces three days a week.

Reading Strategies being used in Kansas Schools

The past couple of summers, I have had the opportunity to work at Smoky Hill Education Service Center (SHESC) in Salina, Kansas. While working there I have been introduced to two different Reading programs that have become very popular around Kansas and the United States. One program is called Fast ForWord. It is a computer simulation that retrains the brain how to read and comprehend what has been read. I can say first-hand that this program works. During my time working at SHESC, I spent time coaching students of different ages and learning styles. My most successful story was an Autistic boy that was going into 7th grade when I first started working with him. When starting, he could not comprehend information that he read to save his life. After working with him on this program for the past three summers, he is now reading at his grade level and comprehends what he read with great detail. Not only have I seen an indescribable change in him but I have seen one in myself as well. I was “diagnosed” with a reading comprehension problem in the 5th grade and did not know what to do. My parents tried every strategy they could to get me to read better and comprehend faster. Nothing seemed to work, until my father found out about Fast ForWord and made me go through it. I was not successful at first but then when I got the job at SHESC and was forced to become familiar with the program, I was blown away at how well it works. In order to get the full picture, you must go to the website and check it out. It is sweeping the nation and I am sure you will be in a school someday that will have it (at least that is my dad’s goal). Anyway, the website is:

www.scilearn.com

I encourage everyone to look at what this program can do for your students and urge your school to get it implemented into the school. It is not only successful for special education students but gifted and in-between as well. If you would like even more information about it, reply to my blog and I will give you as much information as I can. If I can’t answer your questions, then I will connect you with someone who can.

Another program I have gotten the opportunity to work with at SHESC is Achieve 3000. I am not as familiar with this program as I am with Fast ForWord but I know it works. Students will be successful readers and will want to read for fun after going through this program. Their newfound love for reading will take them far in life. To get more information about Achieve 3000 go to:

www.achieve3000.com

Take some time to look around and get familiar with the program because this is a fast growing thing that is spreading the nation and is one of the best things to come to education. That is a blessing in this day in age when education is set on the backburner. I hope you enjoy looking at these websites and if you have any questions/comments/concerns just let me know and I will do my best to get you the information you want.

Read with an empty stomach

A Vignette:
The Championship

It was November 13, 2001. I was a freshman in high school and a member of the school’s marching band. On a trip to the State 5A Championship football game, my life changed dramatically.
The football team had just won the game and had the perfect season, 12-0. Fans were going insane and celebration was in store for the long trip back home to Salina from Pittsburg. That was at least my thought the moment before I turned to put my band uniform away and my kneecap dislocated and did not go back. There I was, in the aisle of the charter bus with my kneecap on the side of my knee. I screamed for help and no one moved. I think they were all in shock and did not know what to do.
Finally, my band director came with my dad and said the ambulance that had just left the stadium was on its way back. As I was waiting the fifteen minutes for the ambulance to return, my kneecap twisted all the way around my knee and was now on the back of my leg.
Once the ambulance came, it was now time to figure out how to get me out of the bus and into the ambulance. All of a sudden, some senior football players, still dirty and in uniform, came onto the bus, picked me up, and carried me off the bus and onto the stretcher.
When I got to the hospital, the doctors took several x-rays before putting my kneecap back in place. When it was time to “return my knee to proper position” as the doctor said, the nurses put me to sleep and pushed it back in place. The next thing I remember is waking up with my leg lying straight on the bed. I left the hospital in a leg-long brace and a new perspective on life.

Picture of me doing what I do best!!

Here is a picture of me working in groups on making a vocabulary foldable. Students were asked to draw an example of each vocabulary word we had been discussing while Amy and I were teaching them. Overall, these second graders did very well and understand the basics of economics so far. It will now be time for them to build on that knowledge and become the best citizens they can be.

Fall Getaway

So this past weekend I went to a retreat put on by Cru. It was called Fall Getaway and it was great to getaway. A group of students from K-State and Fort Hays went to Salina and spent the weekend praising God and getting connected with Him and each other. It was really amazing. I met so many new people and got to know others more. It was also amazing to get closer to God. I am a Christian and strive to live my life in His image. I know it is tough and I make mistakes but I know God has forgiven me of my sins.

The main thing I learned from this retreat was that the future is a scary thing to think about but with the grace of God and His never-ending power, the future is nothing to be worried about. Lately, I have been feeling scared about graduating in May and not having a clue what to do with the rest of my life. I know in my heart I will be a teacher but where??? I have no idea. At the conference/retreat, God laid it on my heart to serve overseas, in Africa especially. It became really clear when I watched a clip from Invisible Children in Social Studies last Thursday and then watching an orphanage movie at the retreat. The video at the retreat really made an impact on me and really got my heart thinking. Anyway, in a part of the video, this little girl, about 5th grade, said "We were rescued so that we may rescue others." God adopted us and chose us to spread His word. How cool is that????

Block B Funness

The first month of Block B has been insane. I have been so busy doing lesson plans and getting to know future educators in my classes. It has been an adventure getting to see all the things that teachers have to put up with on a daily basis. One of my teachers said that the average teacher makes at least 3000 decisions a day. That's insane!!!! I can't wait though!! It makes me nervous though that if I make one wrong decision I can change the lives of at least 20 students...AHHH!!! Well, I have to finish my blog assignment for Language Arts so I will write more later!!!!!!