Afterwards, the students started to work on their "recycle city" projects, in which they created a house, city hall or a school to show how they can recycle. I think it would be really cool if the students could create a whole city and use new ideas to be green other than simply recycling, such as reducing the amount of paper and reusing. But, I was very impressed with their work and how much they know about recycling, and I think it's great that they're learning about it now, but I would like to create something more hands on that they could work on at home so that they actually are showing kindness to the Earth.
Today was one of my student's last days before she moves to Maryland, and it is so sad! Not only is the classroom going to be so different without her, she is also really scared to start at a new school. She has to meet all new people and learn with a new teacher, and that is so difficult! So today, Mrs. Sutliff gave the class a little Lauren time, so we got to do the things she wanted to do. First, we passed around a wishing rock and each person said a wish for her that would go into the rock so that way she would be successful in school. I got the opportunity to type all of this up so that way she could keep these memories in her new school. We also made her a huge card of notes that she could keep in her room to know how much we love her. Afterwards, the students started to work on their "recycle city" projects, in which they created a house, city hall or a school to show how they can recycle. I think it would be really cool if the students could create a whole city and use new ideas to be green other than simply recycling, such as reducing the amount of paper and reusing. But, I was very impressed with their work and how much they know about recycling, and I think it's great that they're learning about it now, but I would like to create something more hands on that they could work on at home so that they actually are showing kindness to the Earth.
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Today I had an amazing opportunity to visit The Learning Spectrum, which is a school for students with severe autism. Now, you might think why do we need schools like this when we have great public schools? And the reason is, parents might feel like their public schools can't provide their students with the extra assistance they need, or the school might decide that they can't handle the child and said him or her to a school like the Learning Tree where the student teacher ratio is much smaller, and the teachers are better prepared with more resources. If the district sends the student to this school, the district pays the tuition, but if parents choose to leave the school district they are faced with a $23000 tuition per year (That is more than in state tuition AND room and board at Bowling Green State University) and parents are expected to pay the additional costs of therapy. So, parents can apply for the autism scholarship, which is worth $27000 per year to pay for these costs. The school has 4 different locations, and I visited the main location in Worthington. Surprisingly, the school is located in an office building. Now, that might sound crazy, but it's just like the ILC! There is no need for a gym, library or a large cafeteria because the school only has 65 students and they stay mostly in their classrooms because they need their teachers there to help. The walls are covered in beautiful shades of green and blue! Just like the ILC! Most of the classrooms function in old offices or conference rooms. Although the tuition is so high, it is evident that the money is mostly going to pay the teachers because the rooms lack the academic resources that public schools have. There are very few books in the classrooms, with very little toys, tables, chairs or other supplies that you would see if you walked into a Hilliard Elementary School. But, it is evident that they do this for a reason because they want to eliminate the amount of dangerous objects in the classroom. The majority of the students attending the school don't need the academic sense because they are focused so intently on behavior. When I walked into many classrooms today, I saw kids mostly playing because they have to play for a long time and study for a little. Which works great for the special need students, but there are a few peer mentors in the pre school and kindergarten classrooms, and I am not quite sure how they are getting the education they need to thrive as a student because the three teachers in the room are constantly focused on keeping the special need students safe.
The lady I worked with today, Tiffanie Ryan, is a Behavior Analyst, so basically wha she does is she works with all of the students and determines what behavior goals need to be met and how the staff should reach those. She also analyzes the meaning of the students' behaviors. For example, there is a student who has a tendency to grab on to pulling hair and yanking it out. She is trying to determine if it is the hair that he likes or if it is the reaction that he gets after he pulls it. It is her goal to determine why each students does the things they do and how these habits can be changed to a more socially acceptable action. But, she does more of the business side, and she said sometimes she works so much in her office that she doesn't get a chance to see a child all day! Which would be awful! She did tell me about a job that I could get once I get a high school diploma it's similar to an intervention specialist, and I could possibly do it as a summer job! So, it was a great experience to learn about a non-traditional method of schooling, and it reinforced my love for special needs students. Additionally, it taught me that I really want to work with kids! I am so excited for my future! Today was my first day back in Mrs. Sutliff's class in awhile, and a few things have changed. Instead of working on math in the morning, the students are working on writing and reading, which is awesome to see! The students receive a checklist and it lists all the options they can do during this time, such as cursive, DEAR, writing and library, and it also lists how many times they can do them. But, before the students could start that, they had to do their spelling word activity and their short opinion piece. It was interesting to see the students working on different things based on their academic speed, but it was very effective to have the students working on their own things. One of Mrs. Hart's students came up to me and said that he didn't want to do anything, not even take a break, so I had to tell him a few funny stories to get him back in the learning mode, but once he did that he wrote a great opinion piece and finished his cursive. He did snip at me a little, but that is expected for a behavior student. He really is such a sweet kid. Another student, who has been having problems at home was repeatedly getting distracted doing his work, and Mrs. Sutliff set a timer, but that didn't work. The goal was to write 11 sentences with a specific spelling word. So, to get him to work, I bet him that I could finish before he did. And guess what, he finished them in less than 5 minutes and much faster than I did ;). I was so proud! I also got to buddy read with three different students, and their ability to read context clues is very strong, as there were some tricky words, such as cease, that they were able to figure out. One student taught the class how to say some words in Arabic, and I would love to eventually learn more about the culture and the language. It's spectacular to see what different students from different cultures can bring to the classroom!
Unfortunately, my book didn't win an award, which is sad, but I know there are things that I could improve to make the book spectacular, such as the overall appearance, grammar and word choice. While, I attended this conference, I gained knowledge from several motivational speakers: Harvey Alsted, Frank Kitchen, Nick Jackson and Danny Ciamarra. Additionally, I attended two crucial sessions for educators, which I have included below.
Teaching children how to find themselves in children's literature: Diversity in books is very limited, as most American books are written by white Americans and focus most specifically on the lives of the majority: white children. So, it is important that as teachers we learn to incorporate much more diverse lessons into the curriculum and teach students to relate to the characters in the book so that they see maybe if the characters in a book have a mom and a dad and a student has a mom and a mom hat they are still similar to those kids, as they like to play with friends, eat ice cream and to be happy. It demonstrates a way of relating the students together despite their differences in culture of family life. I think as I have been writing children's books it can be a future reference for me to write about children that may be a minority. Using puppets in children's literature: this lesson was taught by peers from Perry high school with a huge bag of puppets from all different types of animals, from alligators to mice. And, they all correlated perfectly with the books that were read. The students also had other props, so when they read, "If you give a Moose a Muffin," they brought a fake muffin, some blackberry jam, a sheet, a sweater, and all types of things that correlated with the book! It is a spectacular technique to unite students in the classroom, practice social skills and develop oral and literacy skills, as well as simply adding some creativity to the classroom! It's a great method that I can't wait to use as a teacher! Day #5
Oh my goodness I almost started crying as I left Mrs. Kuney's class. They are just the sweetest little things they gave us hugs and a little card with adorable pictures! I was so happy to see that we really made an impact with these kids, as they have truly learned how to be kind and are aware of being kind in every way they can! They have really worked hard to do as much as they could on their kindness check sheet and confidently work to do everything they can to make their school and world kind, which helps all of the students, who maybe don't feel as included, feel included! I really enjoyed working with 1st grade, as they still are very young and I feel like I can better connect with them. I would love to transition my observations to kindergarten or 1st grade (I had hoped to observe with Mrs. Kuney, but the students have specials at 10:15). This opportunity challenged me to "observe" outside of the box and see if I could maybe find a very very innovative teacher that I could observe with. I am thinking of possibly going to Norwich because I know they have some great teachers, and I can also gain the multiage perspective. But, back to Avery, I loved today's lesson of being kind to ourselves because that's one of the most important things to do! Kindness should be given to EVERYONE! Even ourselves, which is a lesson that everyone needs to learn, especially adults. Day #4
Today we did a lesson about being kind to the Earth, which was a great concept because it was a little out of the box, but we struggled to really show how recycling was really kind to the Earth. Our plan with the computer games didn't really work because only a few people got to do it at once (It didn't work on the iPads). So we had to improve with pretending paper was different items and asking if it was recyclable. It was rather boring because the students at the back of the line were distracted. Next time, I would like to give the kids real items and ask them where they go (recycling or trash). Or, I would give them water bottles and give them directions on how to make them into something creative (ie race cars out of toilet paper rolls). While the students do this, students can take turns playing games on the computer. I think that would be a more hands-on activity to demonstrate how they can do more than just recycle. Other than that, I think the idea was great, and it was a learning experience for me to learn so much about teaching and how I could better my lessons. Day #3
Today was another great day, and I don't have too much to say except we asked the students what we might like about someone on the inside (I.e. Personality) and one girl responded saying "I love your bones!" Too sweet! :) Day #2
Today was much better lesson-wise! Nicole and I split the kids into groups so that way we could talk about love with all of the students not just the ones who like to talk. With my group, we made a little beat and shared something we love on the beat which made it a little more interesting! Then the students wrote on a heart something they loved and we taped that to a kind-o-meter! And the students were fantastically kind! After that, they drew on the paper to make it their own! So cute! In the third grade class, one of the students gave me a cute little Apple that says "your so cool!" I LOVE Great Kindness Week!! |
The Map of the Learning WorldAlong with me as your tour guide, you'll also find I've added my daily journal entries, or blogs, to help guide you through the learning world. Feel free to check them out! Archives
May 2016
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