End of Year Video

Below you can view my End of Year video that I had made using Animoto!

This year has been an amazing year, and we have all become a family. I couldn't have had a better class to be with. I love all of you, and will miss you dearly.

Thank you: An Appreciation for my Teachers

In response to Mrs. Stevens' blog,

Almost every student in the world has had at least one teacher that has made them feel special, or helped them in some way.With that, I'm sure they have wanted to say thank you to that teacher at some point, and since this week is Teacher Appreciation week, this is a great time for that! I know I have a teacher that I would like to thank and this teacher would actually have to be, the one and only, Mrs. Stevens.
I remember when I first entered the Ready Set Teach classroom my junior year of high school, I was really quiet and not very outgoing. Mrs. Stevens got me to come out of my shell a lot during this class. Going into this class, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. While I had been learning from Mrs. Stevens how to do lesson plans and different teaching strategies, I had noticed that my love for teaching grew stronger and stronger. Mrs. Stevens was not only there to support me with my struggles throughout the past two years, but she has also been a great role model. I would like to thank her for everything she has done for me and my fellow classmates. I don't know where I would be if it weren't for her. She has changed my life completely, and I love her for that.

Thank you Mrs. Stevens.

Smartest Kids in the World- Part one

In response to Mrs. Stevens' blog,

Amanda Ripley's book, The Smartest Kids in the World, is quite interesting. She delves into the lives of 3 students who go off and do study abroad for one school year in three different countries. Now, this is interesting because these students have no idea what they are getting into. Yeah, they may have a slight idea, but they don't understand the complexity of how Finland, Poland, and South Korea all work with their students inside the classroom. 

While I was reading the first part of this book (chapters 1-4), I was so interested in the way the students had been conducting themselves in the different countries. I think the country I was most interested in, was South Korea. It was so fascinating that one test was what judged what would happen throughout their whole life. I also thought it was quite odd that the teachers were completely okay with their students sleeping within the classrooms. I would have reacted the same way that Eric did while he was in the classroom. He was so confident when on his way their, but when he actually got to South Korea, he had ended up being a little concerned with the way things were going with the classes.

Even though the system for South Korea is a little weird, I would like to have some kind of system where you were pressured to get your life sorted out. I would like their to be a stricter system in the United States, because there are quite a few people that are just messing around, and don't want to figure out what they want to do with their lives, so having a system where your school can kind of lead you in that direction, would be pretty cool. 

What Will Revolutionize Education?

In response to Mrs. Stevens' blog,

Learning. There is a formula for learning, and there are plenty of ingredients that go into this formula. Some of the ingredients would include: the teacher, technology, class size, the student, parents, etc. Some of these ingredients have more of a meaning than the others, and are more important.

I believe that the most important ingredient to the learning formula would be the students and their minds. When it comes to the teacher helping the students be successful with themselves in school, it requires the students to focus, and to want to be successful in order for them to achieve that goal.

When the students put themselves out there to learn, and to be involved in what is going on within the classroom, they will be able to see what it is like to learn, and to achieve more within the classroom. I believe that if every student, or at least a majority of the student body does this, then we will see a major increase in the results of the students involved in their classroom.

Students are the main ingredient in the learning formula, and with each others help, we can see how much of an effect they can have on that formula.

The Tribes Method!

In response to Mrs. Stevens' blog,

What is the Tribes method?

The Tribes method is a way for teachers to be able to have their students in a learning environment that they are comfortable in. The purpose of this method is to allow the students to feel comfortable with their learning, and show a healthy development of their skills and knowledge. Withing the Tribes method, there are four tribes agreements that the students will have to follow. These agreements include:

1. Attentive listening
2. Appreciation
3. Mutual respect
4. The right to pass

I feel that this method is great. Student's should be able to feel comfortable in their learning environment. This method allows the students to feel positive about their learning and it helps them be more successful when they are able to work at the rate that they need to, The aspect of having mutual respect for others helps each of the students feel positive when they are working with others, because they hopefully won't feel judged about anything they are discussing in class.

In my opinion, I believe that there is a possibility that the Tribes method might work in my site school classroom. The reason I think it might not work, is because I am with a group of second graders. Second grade is still working on their main focusing skills, and my students are a group of kids that just love to talk. They will work together, but I'm not quite sure they will all have mutual respect for each other while working on a group assignment. The Tribes method would work best with a set of older students like middle or high school. This method could work in our classroom, however, we aren't a big class. We all work together as a group anyways when it comes to group assignments, so it would be pretty interesting to see our class use this method.

Like bookmarks? Get Symbaloo!

The web tool that I had chosen is called Symbaloo!

Symbaloo is a a great bookmarking website! You can get to your favorite websites with just one click and create/customize your own homepage!

Symbaloo has a pretty cool app on the iPhone and iPad that is very organized, plus it has a built in web browser! If you would like to view the app, please click here.

There is a tutorial for Symbaloo below if you would like to watch it.

In order to create an account on Symbaloo, all you have to do is 

1. Click on the sign up button.

2. Enter a username.

3. Enter password.

4. Re-enter password. 

5. You're ready to go! 

There is a free version of Symbaloo, but there is also a premium version. The premium version of Symbaloo costs $10/month.

The premium version would actually be great for teachers. With the premium version, you are able to share multiple webmixes at once, you have your own dedicated URL, and you have an admin panel where you are able to manage users on your account. 

There is not an age restriction on Symbaloo, nor do you need parent permission. 

While in my site school classroom, I could use this website as a bookmarking system for the sites that we usually visit during class, such as the math and reading websites. I'm not really sure I would use this in any of my classes at my high school because I don't go on the computer that much, except for when I am in Ready Set Teach.

I could see potentially see my site school teacher using this website. Although, I would have to teach her how to use it, that way she doesn't get frustrated. 

I hope you like this website, and would want to use this in the future! 

My Glogster!

In response to Mrs. Stevens' blog,

Below you will see my Glog learning center! My learning center is a government related glog that will help me be able to teach my students the roles of the mayor, governor, and the president.

The Ron Clark Academy

In response to Mrs. Stevens' blog,

If you would like to view the Ron Clark Academy website, click here! 

The Ron Clark Academy is an institution that has the "vision to transform classrooms around the world by demonstrating transformative methods" that the teachers use across the classrooms that are used the same way everywhere. 

The Ron Clark academy uses something called the Annual Fund to be able to raise money for the academy. The funds that they are able to raise up, go to academic programs, technology upgrades, and scholarships that will help students be able to be successful in their academic career. 

The Ron Clark Academy is different from other schools. The Ron Clark Academy is a school in which they do what they can to be the best school in the "world" by using different teaching techniques and "transformative methods" that they are very passionate about while they are teaching throughout the academy. 

What's a Wiki?

In response to Mrs. Stevens' blog,

Click here to view my Wiki!

A Wiki is an electronic portfolio that shows all the work that I have done within my interning throughout my Education and Training class. You may view all of the different things that I have done in my class, including my lesson plans, my involvement in TAFE, and a little bit about me. It is a great resource for people to be able to view things that I may have not mentioned about myself.