The Time Has Come to Say Goodbye

I want to reflect on the whole year with Dr. Smirnova, not just specifically this past semester. I have developed a great bond with Dr. Smirnova over the past year. She has watched me struggle as well as succeed. I am a totally different person from the moment I stepped into her classroom from the moment I left for the last time. My confidence has increased tremendously, and her classes reaffirmed to me that I meant to be a teacher. She has always believed in me, even when I did not believe in myself. 


A weakness of mine would be taking criticism, but as the year progressed I realized everyone is just trying to make me a better teacher and I am grateful for their feedback. Some of my successes include but are not limited to becoming a role model for the class. I liked to participate a lot in class, and I loved when my classmates would ask me questions and look to me as a leader. 

I have always loved history and it most certainly is going to be a very important subject in my classroom. Many children grow up hating history because it is "boring." My history lessons will be engaging and fun. I know what it feels like to be in their chairs and to not be stimulated. Integrating history into other subjects is also very important to me. For example, reading comprehension stories can be on famous battles or generals. Or in science, let us research who created the experiment they are about to do. I do like WebQuest a lot after using it for my inquiry lesson, and can definitely  be a powerful tool in my future classroom. Many doors were opened to me during Dr. Smirnova's classes such as the door of technology. I have a blog going in depth about my technology experience. 

I am going to miss not taking classes with Dr. Smirnova and I will miss her greatly, but the next chapter ahead of me is very exciting, so I can not wait to see where the wind will take me. 

From Follower to Leading the Pack

       FIREWORKS!! I did it! Before starting Dr. Smirnova's classes I was nervous, but optimistic. For science I was a follower, but for social studies I was a leader! I needed to learn how things were done the first time I had Dr. Smirnova. But for social studies I am glad that she could depend on me. I have learned a lot from her this past year. I not only grew as a person but as a teacher as well.  I was opened to a whole new world, and that world was the world of technology. I was very anxious about using technology but now I feel more confident in certain programs then I ever did before.
         
       I would not have been able to get through this class without my fieldwork group. They are some of my best friends and the hardest working people I know. I loved the fieldwork experience in this class. It was awesome how I got to experience teaching a whole class rather than the same one on one fieldwork.

      Dr. Smirnova had a special bond with our class. She pushed us to do our very best in everything we did for this class. The relationship between students and the education professors is so genuine. We are more than a number to them. I feel confident going into my future classroom teaching my students social studies because of this class. I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot.

Artifcat Bag

Today in class we presented our Artifact Bags. The class before Dr. Smirnova gave each group a bag of artifacts and we had to decipher what they meant. The artifacts that were in the bag we received as a group had to do with Dr. Smirnova's life in Russia. It was very amazing to see all the Russian artifacts and learn how to decipher them and what they meant to Dr. Smirnova. The artifacts that I chose for my bag was a Limited Edition Lucretia Mott Barbie Doll, a steamboat puzzle representing the Clermont invented by Robert Fulton, and a farm puzzle representing where the labor came from for the Industrial Revolution. Even though none of these were actually real artifacts, I was proud of my creativity that I used to create them into artifacts. The Limited Edition Lucretia Mott barbie doll was my favorite artifact, because I took an ordinary household item and created it into something great. I will definitely use this activity in my future classroom.

Tlingit Tribe

Today in class each fieldwork group researched a Native American tribe. The tribes we were given I have never heard of before. My group was assigned the Tlingit Tribe. Researching the Tinglit Tribe was very interesting. I was excited that we got to present as well. My group had the class perform a Tlingit tribe dance. We used the themes of geography for our presentation and learned a lot of interesting things about the Tlingit Tribe. The Native American tribe project is one that I want to use in my classroom. I had to research about the Crow tribe in my 4th grade social studies class. Learning  about the different Native American tribes and seeing their similarities and differences really interests me.

Is it the principle or the Principal of the thing?

Today in class we held a mock job fair. I had the role of being an administrator. I had to tell the interviewee's a little bit about myself. My job was the interview all the candidates and hire a few at the end of the job fair to work at my school, Rosie the Riveter Elementary School.

I was super excited to be given the role of a principal because after I teach for many years I want to become a principal and then eventually work for the Department of Education.

Practicing for interviews any chance I get really is helping me prepare for my first big interview. I want to be the best of the best! I want that job to hire me!

After the interviews finished, the other administrators and myself had to choose who we were going to hire. I chose to hire Anna Nardelli and Allison Rosengrant to work at Rosie the Riveter Elementary School. Both of these young women showed that they can properly implement the 5 elements (Pi.I.G.S) of cooperative learning. They each will bring joy and fun to Rosie the Riveter.

A Growing Nation Part 3

Today my group taught our first cooperative learning lesson. We were very nervous because we have ever taught a cooperative lesson before. Teaching cooperatively was my favorite lesson I have taught thus far in fieldwork. The class was broken up into group five groups and assigned a teacher as well as a cause they had to support. The causes the students had to support were Women's Rights, the Cherokee and Seminole fight to keep their land, abolitionism, and rights for workers during the Industrial Revolution. The students had to support their cause in a creative way, such as a rap, song, poster, poem, etc. My group was the Cherokee Indians and they had to fight to keep their land back. They chose to support their cause with a rap and a poster. Each person in the group was assigned a job. They all did their jobs well and really impressed the rest of the class with their rap. The students enjoyed the cooperative lesson the best they told me. I had a lot of fun watching them come up with ideas, and it was pretty awesome for them to spit back facts we taught them during the direct instruction lesson. Overall, I had a blast teaching this cooperative lesson. Sadly though this was the last day of fieldwork!

PIGS

Positive Interdependence

Individual Accountability

Group Processing

Social Skills

Face to Face Interaction

I did not realize how important the aspects of working collaboratively are. In class we were all broken up into groups. My group was to research positive interdependence and individual accountability We were to make a presentation and present it to our fieldwork groups, who would also present their topics to the group as well. The P.I.G.S. jigsaw was really beneficial to me. When teaching the cooperative learning lesson on America as a growing nation I did not understand completely what P.I.G.S meant. I wish I learned what it meant before I taught, because our cooperative learning was pretty good, but I wanted it to be pretty great! It is very important to teach children at a young age the important aspects of P.I.G.S when working in a group. P.I.G.S can help children out not only in the classroom but with future jobs and sports. I definitely see the elements of P.I.G.S come out in my daily life. I work on a team daily and all parts of P.I.G.S are very important for all of us to be successful.

A Growing Nation Part 2

Today my group taught an inquiry lesson to the fifth grade class. We brought back our friend Petunia the Panda. Petunia's library had been flooded by the snow storm we had, and all her biography books were destroyed. She needed the fifth graders to help her using their I-pads. Each group was assigned a teacher as well as a person Petunia needed them to research. The students used a WebQuest on their I-Pads to research on approved links. The people they had to research were Samuel Slater, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Andrew Jackson, and Frederick Douglass. My group researched Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The WebQuest was also really easy to navigate for the students and easy to make for the teachers. I am excited to use WebQuests in my future classroom. The students enjoyed writing their letters to Petunia, and Petunia was grateful for all their help.

Wasted?!

Today I attended the Wasted Conference at Mount Saint Mary College. It was very informative for me as a teacher candidate as well as being a Resident Assistant. I can hold informative programs in the Residence Halls, and educating programs in my future school for both parents and students. I learned a lot about how much food actually goes to waste, and how we all take it for granted. The presenters showed me what they do to the waste so it isn't "waste" anymore. Reduce, reusing and recycling will be very important in my classroom.

Come on Roboto. Mr Roboto (Technology)

I learned many different types of technology this semester. Some I enjoyed using and others not so much.

Google forms: I understand how to use it a lot better now from creating pre and post assessments for fieldwork. I am glad I expanded my horizons and stepped outside my comfort zone this semester.

Pinterest: I gathered many ideas for my lesson on this website. Avid Pinterest user. I am very familiar with this website because I use it for lesson ideas and RA boards and door tags.

Powtoon: I was not a fan of using this for my violent weather project from Science Methods. I need to do more research on it before I use it again in front of a class.

Voice Thread: I am very familiar with using Voice Thread because I used it for my science fair project as well as my About Me Project this semester. I will definitely use this audio/visual animation program.

Glogster: I live being able to make collages on the website. When I tried to log on the other day and now says I have to pay.

Thinglink: I love this type of technology that I have used it in other classes for projects. Thinglink reminds me off an upscale powerpoint.

I am so happy I stepped outside my comfort zone and was not afraid to try new types of technology. I am now more familiar with certain websites than I have ever been before.