The End.

Well, this semester has finally come to an end. I won't be shy about how I feel about this... Thank God! I never anticipated it being this tough. I figured I'd be just fine, and of course - things never go as planned. This little girl is really testing her mommy and making this pregnancy the pits. Just about 30 weeks along now, and I thought things might be easing up, only to have a scare the other morning and end up on bed rest for the last 4 days of the semester - gimme a break! I know it's all worth it in the long run though.. I'll have an amazing little creature, a wonderful addition to our family - but, I think this is definitely the last one for us! :)
We did a lot this semester. I was always really nervous about lesson planning and was glad to be able to finally get my hands dirty and actually write some out. You hear so many horror stories about 30 page lesson plans - I was happy to see that it really isn't that bad at all, and gets easier each time.
I also really enjoyed the class chemistry. It was like coming home each week to see all of the familiar faces. Everyone was so comfortable with each other, it made the class such an easy place to come and learn. I will definitely miss this when I come back to school. I'll miss everyone that I became close with - they'll have moved on to further classes by the time I get back to MSMC. Hopefully, I'll be able to take a couple of summer classes.. we'll see how this baby is :)
Although I spent most of the semester beating myself up for my less than normal performance, I'm glad I stuck with it, and am extremely grateful for having such a supportive teacher. I can't believe that there are many college professors out there that care as much for their students as Dr. Smirnova.. it's refreshing and encouraging - and, most of all, reminds me of what kind of teacher I want to be.

Ahoy Matey!

Time is surely flying by this semester. We continue to discuss Direct Instruction in class, but are quickly moving on to Indirect Instruction and the Information Processing Model. I feel like I’m continuously treading water this semester. I miss the days where I confidently felt “caught up,” with the material, if not ahead of the game. You’d think that with only sleeping a couple of hours a night I’d get a ton of school work done, but that is definitely not the picture :) Instead, I am up all night and then try to do the work and end up staring at my lap top and notes – and sometimes even falling asleep with my fingers on the keyboard! Oi vey…

Well, I am continuing to chip away at my WebQuest. It frustrates me because my normal creative juices are flowing quite so nicely. I feel like I start to have some really great ideas, then I go to put them down and they kind of evaporate. I feel so incredibly grateful that Dr. S has pushed the due date back a couple of times. I know I’m not that far off, but it does seem quite discouraging sometimes… As soon as I finish this up, I have to create an IPM lesson plan based around it. I don’t think this will be too daunting – I just need to get the darn thing done already! :)

This week is about creating Treasure Hunts. I will be working with Christina who already has a good hold on what is required = awesome! She has already made a nice template with a lot of useful information, so now I need to go in and help her out wherever I can. This hunt will be geared towards professional development for teachers, but Treasure Hunts can be used in the classroom for students too. There’s not too much involved with creating one, and the effect they can have is great. Students would get so much more out of a quick hunt than a traditional lesson.



Well… off to work on my WebQuest before I run out of steam – I’m sure that won’t be too long from now thanks to lovely Day Light Savings! ;)

Ketchup!!! (I'm catching up in this post - get it?!) Sorry... not such great joke making skills :)

I’m an honest person. I can’t say this semester started off easily at all. I can honestly say that I feel like I’m finally getting into the groove of thing now, almost 5 weeks into the semester. Due to some personal problems/decisions I had to face, along with the support of my friends and family, I definitely got off to a rough start. However, I am very confident that I am going to pull this off! I know that with hard work and a new found sense of determination that I will excel in my Methods class and learn the most that I can.

Part of this includes giving my blog A LOT more attention! While barely keeping my head above water the past few weeks, my blog has definitely suffered the most. Future weeks will show more regular updates and reflections – but for now, I’m going to take a glance back at the material we’ve already covered in this one mega-post :)

We started our semester with a creative introduction to our classmates – Dr. Smirnova style! We each created t-shirts that reflected where we wanted to teach, teaching experience we've had, what we’re proud of and what we fear. It was really interesting to see how many of has so many things in common. I’d say a good 90% of the class was afraid of boring their students – we all want to create a fun learning environment. Many of us had families to be proud of, we all wanted to teach in elementary schools – many in special education, and most of us are either substitute teaching or volunteering our time to help out around the local schools. This is a great activity to stick in my teaching tool kit. What a great way to learn about each other and see what we have in common with our peers. This activity could easily be modified to work with all different age groups.

We also worked on reviewing goals and objectives. This was really helpful! Even though it wasn’t that long ago that we were writing them out like it was our second nature, it definitely felt a bit foreign at first. After practicing just a couple of times it all came back to me :) Reviewing is SO important – I really do have to remember that when it comes to be my time to teach. We can never assume that the students all know the material – we must pre-access their prior knowledge and review previous topics.

A new topic for me was the Direct Instruction strategy. It is part of the Behavioral Model, which I knew about from last semester. Direct Instruction is teacher centered and has a goal of drilling information into the students until they reach automaticity (moving information from the short term memory to the long term memory). At first glance I couldn’t see how this teaching strategy could be useful at all. However, once we discussed in class and watched a couple of video clips, I quickly changed my mind. This is how the basics should be taught. DI is quick, efficient and effective. We, as teachers, want to make our lessons creative, reflective and full – but, when teaching the basic and necessary information we need to move quickly. The quicker we move through these lessons, the more time we have to be creative when it’s really needed. I can see myself using DI for basic math skills, spelling and much more.

Through using the DI method I worked with 2 other classmates to create a lesson on Anticipatory Sets. I was really lucky to work with two women who were cooperative, insightful and readily available. I think our group did a really awesome job at creating an effective DI lesson. We made the information short and sweet, checked for understanding and reflected at the end. We also followed the “I do it,” “We do it,” You do it” strategy. This is the key ingredient with DI. The teacher teaches the material, the class works on it together (guided practice), and then the student attempts it on their own (summative assessment).

I’m so glad that we have gone into this subject with such depth. I really feel like a have a firm grasp on its process and will be able to utilize this strategy when creating my lesson plans this semester. I think I’m on my way to automaticity on the DI strategy :)

Well - this brings me to the end of my crazy long post, sorry if it was a bit overwhelming! I really needed to just bite the bullet, get caught up and start fresh for the month of October. A huge weight has just been lifted off of my shoulders! :)
Here’s to a great month ahead!


I'm all caught up!

I can’t believe we’re back at it again! This summer definitely flew by. This marks my second fall at Mount Saint Mary’s. In some ways I can’t believe a year has gone by already, in other ways, I can’t believe that’s all it’s been! :)

This semester I will use my blog to reflect on life and grad school in general, but mainly on my General Methods Course. This will be my third and final class with Dr. Smirnova. She has taught me SO much, it will be strange to not be taking a class with her my next semester.

I’d like to blame it on pregnancy brain, but I can’t believe how distant last Spring seems. I’m really happy that we’ve strictly been reviewing in class so far.
Everything is slowly coming back to me through the readings, discussion forums and class meetings.

Models, strategies, methods, objectives, performance indicators – we really packed a lot in last year!

Here’s to another great semester, and learning many new exciting and useful tools to use in the classroom! :)

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

I can't believe this class is over! I think the combination of an intense four week class, and the first trimester of pregnancy made it all go by so quickly! I kept thinking I had more time to do things like catch up on my poor dear neglected blog, but alas - this is the last night I can!! Yikes!!
I feel so grateful to have been able to work with such an awesome group of people this semester. I was paired with five really great, hardworking, intelligent, and personable people. Working with this group made every week that much easier. Together we created some really great and well developed projects.Yay Lit Tech Sextet!
I'm an honest person, and beat myself up pretty badly when I don't put all of myself into everything that I do. I'd have to say I feel mediocre about my performance this semester. After over a year of trying for another baby, it figures this little blessing would makes it appearance the week before a four week graduate course would begin. I would never change anything about the last month, everything happens for a reason, but, I do feel like I didn't put my whole self into this class. However, in the same hand I feel like I couldn't put any more of myself in - does that even make any sense? :)
Well, a month off, and then back at it again! I am really looking forward to the fall semester and me feeling better! I love school and take pride in the work I put forward. I can't wait to see what's ahead for September :)

WoW WoW WebEx!!!

This final week of my summer course was crazy! I had sooo much to do, and of course there never seems like there's enough time for it all. I was compiling all of my notes for my "Wonder of the Webs" project - my report was on using digital avatars in the classroom. I had used web 2.0 tools like Voki before, but had never given much thought to using them to actually teach a lesson. I knew that they could do a great job at introducing a new lesson, but wasn't sure how to make them do more than that.
After researching the topic quite a bit, I learned a lot! It turns out that Voki can be a great tool for shy students, audio/visual learners and for teaching a foreign language. I also explored new sites like Gravatar and BeFunky. Gravatar allows a person to set up their avatar to follow them from site to site, and BeFunky allows the user to manipulate a photo to look like a cartoon, water color, pop art portrait, etc.
When it came down to the actual presentation for our projects, it was done in a way I was definitely not used. The whole class was asked to meet in our WebEx classroom on one night to "present" our projects. I was nervous, but very interested, to try this type of presentation for the first time. It actually reminded me of my projects theme - I was going to use a digital portal to present, which allowed me (someone who is so shy to present in front of a crowd) to "hide" behind the computer.
However, I didn't get a turn to present due to time constraints. Every one's presentations were absolutely wonderful, and filled to the brim with loads of useful information. It was a really neat experience watching the presentations take place without necessarily seeing the presenter a few feet in front of me.
In order to "present" my project to my peers I used Screen Toaster. This tool was SO neat! It definitely took me a few tries to master it, but I am really happy with my final project! The program basically records your navigation via your desktop, and your voice. I was able to maneuver through my power point presentation and describe the contents of the slides as I did. I could see this being a really great tool to use in the classroom (digital story telling, presentations for projects, etc.).
Cheers to a great new way to present information! Boo to the boring old ways I was used to :)

Engrade!

This week our assignment was to check out the site Engrade. It is a free site available for teachers to keep track of their student's grades and attendance. It also allows for a teacher to plan with a great and easy to use calendar. Parents can also use this site to keep track of their child's progress, and to see what assignments are in the future.
I think this is an awesome tool. I made up a small make believe class, created a couple of graded assignments, attendance issues, and upcoming events. Engrade is awesome! I really do love the layout, the tools, the accessibility for the parents, and the organization. So often parents go by completely unaware of how their child is performing in class until it is too late. If their child's teacher included this link in a welcoming newsletter, the parent might be more inclined to keep track of their child's current grades. With parents working more and more, and the world going digital - parents could be checking their child's progress on the blackberry while sitting in traffic on their way home at night.
I could really picture myself using this website on a daily basis as a teacher. I could access it from any computer, laptop, personal, school, etc. and constantly be updating the information. It wouldn't take any longer to enter grades or attendance on the computer v.s. the old paper method. Not only is it easy to access, it saves on clutter! Sooo many teachers have way too much clutter in their classroom. Grades are difficult to find when needed, assignments gets misplaces - things are messy and disorganized. Engrade allows the teacher to stay organized and cuts down on messy paper trails. I also love the fact that you can merge your information into excel for nice spreadsheets - what an impressive report to give to your principal or parents! :)
I have to say I really love this site. The only thing that I would like changed about it is the home page layout. A more visually pleasing welcome page might be nice for the parents to see when they access your Engrade. Other than that, I think it's a really great tool and hope that I have the opportunity to use it someday soon!