Blogging Reflection

As this semester (and #SSED307) comes to a close, I can say I have learned a few things. But even more so, I think I have learned a lot just by jotting my weekly thoughts and feelings down in this blog. Believe me, this semester in SSED 307 has been one for the books. Never in my life have I learned so many new ways to do things in an efficient manner. I am glad that I got into blogging. The things that I have been learning this semester correlate directly to the North Carolina Teacher Candidate Standards, which will prepare me further for Student Teaching. I figured that the most efficient way to summarize the learning, reflection and practice I have done over the months is to go through each of the NCTCS Standards and reflect on what I've learned for each one.

Standard 1- Teachers Demonstrate Leadership

• I've had lots of practice this semester in the task of displaying leadership, with anything from leading in SNCAE to finding our way through the depths of DC. However, in terms of this blog, I think that I have been able to reign in on my inner commandeer when I'm blogging. I feel like I have a different tone of voice that is more serious and hopeful in terms of education. Blogging has also made me realize that every good teacher should blog. It is a show of confidence in our abilities if we are able to talk about them to the whole world on a blog. 

Standard 2- Teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students

• I feel like something that has been heavy in my blogging this semester is talking about how differentiation strategies affect our instruction. I think differentiation is so so important, especially coming out of this class and having so much more familiarity with it. I also rememmber in Hannah's blog when she was talking about disciplining your students. I think there is a fine line in how we treat our students, and I was glad that she shared those experiences she had in her clinical classroom.  I really also liked Benjamin's blog on the reality of special needs students, because I think that is something that needs to be addressed more within the mainstream classroom. 

Standard 3- Teachers know the content they teach

• It obviously helps to know your stuff, but I think that blogging has helped me to understand that if I cannot write a solid blog about it, I need to do some more research because I obviously do not know what I need to know. I think this would be a good method to assess student knowledge. If they cannot blog on it, there is obviously a missing puzzle piece somewhere. That is why I want to do everything on my part so that I can read some of the best content-heavy blogs my students can give me! Also through this process of blogging, I have learned that we should enjoy writing about this content! That means that not only can we understand it, but we can make it appealing to our viewers, who will be our students! 

Standard 4- Teachers facilitate learning for their students

• There have been so many learning facilitation blog moments this semester that it is impossible to talk about them all, but if I learned one thing from the "teachable moment" blogs that my classmates and I wrote, it is that relevancy is key to facilitation. Like I said previously, if you cannot meet students at their level, then you will lose them. I think we all have learned from each other, primarily in our blogs. Even though some of us are not on-campus students, I think we have still maintained that sense of community through blogging and such. Of course, I don't think I could have made it without my best friend Hannah by my side!

Standard 5- Teachers reflect on their practices

• Obviously, your blog should be a safe place where you are not afraid to talk about your weaknesses or strengths. I know that, personally, I have used this blog as a method to look back on what I have learned this week and let it sink in. For instance, many of us would begin a blog with a recap of what has been going on during that particular week. Some great, some not so great. But like I said earlier, the community that we were able to rally around got us through those good and bad times. Not only that, but we have reflected and moved on to correct our mistakes and become greater educators through the suggestions of each other. 

In saying all of this, I think I have become quite the blogger. Prior to SSED 307, I had a blog, but wrote sparingly. I did not really have much to write about. But taking time to reflect and talk about education once a week on a digital platform has changed me. I have grown so much through blogging in every aspect that an educator could grow. I am more susceptible to peer advice, I am able to critique myself to make positive change in my instruction, and I am proud of the journey that I have been able to record as life passes by. 

It is my goal to continue blogging. Of course I will continue to blog in EDUC 435, but I want to be able to continue the process and take that with me to student teaching. I want to make it my goal to blog once a week in reflection of the weekly highlights. The good, the bad, the downright funny. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed becoming a community with you all, and wish you the best of luck as we keep calm and carry on into the world of education. It's been a pleasure learning, growing, and stretching minds with you all! 

Edcamp & Other Motivational Things

It's safe to say that this has been a crazy week, but much better than the past few! I am beginning to see the light at the end of the long, dark tunnel...

It may or may not be corny, but I have already picked the song I want to use in my student teaching portfolio presentation. The song (Difference Maker by Needtobreathe) has been one of my favorites for the past few years, but I was recently listening to it while driving back to Gardner-Webb one weekend. 

Some of the lyrics include: "...he climbs on up the hill on the rock on which he stands/he looks back at the  crowd/he looks down at as his hands and he says/ I am a difference maker". This song really spoke life into me the past few weeks when I was questioning why I was bothering to pursue my degree in education. April 2016 has not necessarily been kind to me so I was about ready to throw in the towel. But this song reminded me that I can be the difference maker with my own two hands. Education is amazing and challenging and beautiful and difficult I can be a part of that. And you can too! 

On a slightly less emotional note, I attended #EdcampWNC this past weekend! It was a great experience and I am so thankful I went! For those of you who are not sure what edcamp is, be sure to check my last blogs as I've written on them before. This weekend's edcamp was really great for several reasons. For one, I got to meet some really awesome teachers and professors in the area of education. During edcamp, we alternated between sessions that discussed various topics; anything from social media to gamification. 

One discussion in particular that I LOVED was gamification (using games in the classroom for learning purposes). In this discussion, someone brought up the teaching app/tool "Class Craft". A spinoff of Mine Craft, this tool allows students to work collectively as a "village" to maintain behavior, overcome challenges, and solve problems. Not only are you able to give unique content delivery, but you are able to work on classroom management at the same time. There is a cost to this classroom tool but I will most definitely be investigating this program in my own classroom. 

NCTCS Standard 3d (teachers make instruction relevant to students) connects to this practice and could help me with hooking my students. I also see a connection to NCTCS Standard 4a (Teachers know the ways in which learning takes place, and they know the appropriate levels of intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of their students). This use of 21st century technology will allow me to reach my students. As I was told at edcamp, all K-12 students will be digital natives as of the 2016-2017 school year! 

Take My Hand, We'll Make It I Swear...

I think many of you can relate to me when I say that week 14 has and will be one of those "little bit of coffee and a whole lot of Jesus" weeks. It's like I came back from DC and was swept up by a giant education tidal wave. No... but really.

Anyway, this week I have been doing a lot of prepping for the final moments I will be spending in my clinical classroom. Though it is about 40 minutes one way (not everyone can avoid the speed limits), this has by far been my most enjoyable clinical field placement of my two years in the School of Education. Not only was my teacher voted Cleveland County Teacher of the Year (I can see why), but the team that Mr. Propst works with is amazing. There is so much synchronization and transfer of expectation that I have yet to see in any of my other placements.

Being at little 'ole Fallston Elementary School has taught me so much in just a short amount of time. If it has taught me anything, however, I have seen firsthand how a true PLC coexists. Mr. Propst allowed me to work with his other team members on other content areas, and I was really impressed with their ability to coexist as a team. Not to be sexist, but part of me thinks that this could be because there is a male teacher on the team. Typically, a group of all women have a harder time with acquiring different perspectives. Also, a male team member can probably break up any drama that may occur (which is entirely likely in any profession).

Another thing that I noticed about this clinical experience was that, in Fifth Grade at Fallston, students have two seperate ELA classes: Non-fiction ELA/Social Studies and Fiction ELA. Mr. Propst told me that test scores increased tremendously because there was that integration of Social Studies and ELA.

Several of the characteristics that stuck out to me thus far at Fallston correlate with several NCTCS Standards:

• 2a. Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults.
• 2d. Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs.
• I noticed that Mr. Propst and his team members genuinely cared about their students. There is one student in 5th grade who has physical disabilities, and they did not hesitate the differentiate every activity for this student. Their confidence in this student resonated from within, which allowed the student to see they were capable of learning through anything. I want to adapt a mentality of like this for my own classroom.
• 5c. Teachers function effectively in a complex, dynamic environment
• I saw this specifically in my PLC at Fallston. My CE set a great example for how to work within a team to accomplish a common goal. They made it very simple; have fun while learning. They always made sure students were up and doing things periodically. I want to bring this attitude to my future PLC. It was definitely a learning experience. 

Additionally, I did some research on male elementary teachers just because of what I got to experience with my PLC at Fallston. I came across this article: 

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/mr-teacher

After reading through, I strongly believe that male teachers can be a positive influence for students, especially those who lack a father figure. My experience at my clinical placement school, combined with this research, has me drawing the conclusion that more male teachers are needed in our schools!

Lessons Learned From A Washington DC Trip

This week has been an absolute whirlwind. Our SNCAE group at Gardner-Webb University loaded up and took off for Washington, D.C. I had never been before, but the goal of the trip for many of us was to gain insight that will help us a future teachers. I have to say, I have learned a lot about ways I can enrich my teaching on politics, history, and culture. I have also learned so much in regards to field trips in general. But overall, I just learned a lot this week.

We peeled out early, early Monday morning. I can't say that Dr. Parker was doing anything near the speed limit, but hey, we got there with plenty of time to spare. We took that whole day of Monday activities to explore and pay tribute to Arlington Cemetery. There is rich history behind the property and it's relevance to prominent figures such as Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee; I did not previously know this. If you have not been before, I really think it is important for all Americans to go and experience. The property was absolutely beautiful, and we actually go to witness a changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. For me, it put into perspective just how many lives have been laid down in honor of the United States. It was overwhelming, really, but I am so glad we went.

After visiting Arlington, we took a short Metro ride to kind of get the lay of the land of the National Mall. We did a lot of walking around and observing for the coming days, where we would do much more walking. At this point, we decided to take the Metro down to a restaurant favorite called Tortilla Coast. However, Dr. Parker succumbed to some sort of illness/disease and had to leave his favorite restaurant. We enjoyed the food for him, though, so that's what really matters.

Day two consisted primarily of Capitol touring and Smithsonian shenanigans. We rose early in the morning so we could make it for a staff led tour of the Capitol, including entrance into the House Chamber. It was pretty cool to see where all of the legislature either gets enacted or shot down, Lunch at the Capitol was a lot better than I expected, but here is one piece of advice I can offer anyone wanting to travel to DC. Food is anywhere from double to triple what you might pay anywhere else!

I have to say, I was really surprised with everything that they had put into the Smithsonian museums. To be free and open to the public, everything was really up to date and captivating. My favorite museum has to be American History, even though we didn't end up going through the whole thing. After touring all of those, we made our way to Union Station for supper.

Wednesday was a day full of walking and adventure. We set out early to make the trek to the World War II memorial, as well as several others, before making the long haul to the White House. Long story short, we got a lovely shot with the backside of the White House, but I'm not complaining. When we leave, we get into quite a bit of shenanigans trying to make our way back to the Mall for our Library of Congress tour. Let's just say we finally saw all of DC. The Library of Congress was interesting, and I never knew it was that simple to get a card and use the resources there.

After that we ventured back to Union Station for some lunch, as well as a Metro mishap. For future reference, never use a Metro day pass for the Metro bus. Doesn't work. After lunch we were fortunate enough to get tickets into the Holocaust Museum, which was absolutely humbling. I am so glad we got the opportunity to see unbiased evidence of such an intense historical event. After that, we did some more memorial touring, including Lincoln, Jefferson, Vietnam, and Korean memorials.

Our final day/hours in Washington were spent recapping history we missed and, of course, buying mass quantities of cupcakes from the world-famous Georgetown Cupcake. Expensive, but worth it.

All in all, I was so glad we were able to make this trip work this year, and I am very grateful for everyone who went along for the ride. This whole week has been a learning and research experience for me that I will be forever grateful for. All of this wraps into:

• NCTCS Standard 3d: Teachers make instruction relevant to students.
• NCTCS Standard 4c: Teachers use a variety of instructional methods.