Castle

For one of our projects this semester, our professor had us get into groups and create our own medieval castle. Initially, this project was super intimidating to me. While I chose to partner up with some very creative partners, figuring out to initially begin was hard. But, once we started constructing the castle, the project turned out to be way more fun than expected! This project taught me so much about the benefits of having students create in the classroom. As my partners and I were working on this, we were forced to put ourselves into the mindset of what strategic-thoughts/reasonings people building these castles must have been thinking. For example, how tall or thick to build the boundary of the castle and how many guarding towers would be needed to keep the enemies out. Overall, this would be such a great activity to use in a classroom. One great way I would love to incorporate this in a class would be by having each group study a castle from medieval times, and then have them use their research to construct a replica! This could also be utilized after a medieval unit where groups would have to construct their own strategically built castles!

While I believe this project would be best incorporated in an upper elementary classroom, here is a blog a first grade teacher wrote about a castle unit she completed with her students-including a small part about how her class created a larger castle together out of cardboard:
http://adayinfirstgrade.com/2016/02/a-kindergarten-unit-on-castles.html

Here are a few pictures of our castle:

 

 

Talent Show

On the very last day of the semester, our class held a talent show. This talent show enabled each of us students to show off a talent that we had to the rest of our class. While I’ve had A LOT of great memories with my peers, I think this talent show had us laughing the hardest together we ever had in our lives. For my talent, I chose to sing “Jesus loves the little children” in Fijian to my peers. Since I don’t get talk much about my time in Fiji, this was such a fun opportunity for me. I was able to express a tiny bit of my time there in such a unique way! The rest of my peers’ talents ranged from a speech about loss of money college brought them, showing off a handshake, showing off scrapbook pictures of a fun trip, to so so much more! This was truly my favorite day out of any class I’ve ever taken. I loved how each of us students were given the opportunity to show off our talents, no matter how “bad” or “small” we felt they were, and then received the huge amount of praise an applause we deserved! One of the best parts, our professor even showed us her talent; her instagram page of the most beautiful pictures she’s taken throughout the years. I would LOVE to utilize this in my future classroom as an end-of-the-year activity!


Here is a blog that gives tips on how to prepare students for a talent show and more fun end of the year activities:
http://teacherblog.evan-moor.com/2014/05/07/end-of-the-year-activity-ideas-talent-show-student-awards-and-more/

Cowboy Ethics

A few weeks ago, our class had a guest speaker. Our speaker came into our classroom at IUSB to speak to us students about something he created called Cowboy Ethics and how useful it can be in schools. This program approaches students by teaching them about how cowboys live, giving them a picture into their daily lives. This goes so much farther than the day-to-day duties of cowboys. This program focuses on instilling in students the underlying ethics that cowboys hold! Through the interesting videos shown, the interesting lessons, and exciting activities, students are ultimately shown what it means to stand for something bold and good. Something they may have never been taught growing up. This program teaches them that ethics take hard work, put in on a daily basis. While this program is available to all schools, it primarily works in inner city schools. And if I find myself eventually teaching at an intercity school, this is something I will undoubtedly be taking advantage of!

Here is a teacher's blog on her viewpoint on cowboy ethics:
http://a-teachers-view.blogspot.com/2011/09/cowboy-ethics-and-character-education.html

Following are some pictures of an activity we did as a class:

Music In The Classroom

At the end of this semester, one of our classes was focussed on integrating music in the classroom. Our professor began the class by setting out several different QR codes that were connected to a song she thought would be great for some use in the classroom. Each of us scanned and listened to the songs, and then our class circled up and we discussed why the songs we got would be great for the classroom. Ultimately, this was such a great discussion to be a part of. Through my experience in the field, I have witnessed the benefits of host teachers playing popular instrumental music during student work time and also GoNoodle to get students to relax or get those extra jitters out of their system. But, our class discussion involved using music to get students to express emotions. This could be through having them create their own (pre-approved by the teacher of course) playlists that they feel define them and their lives thus far, by having students listen to a song and reflect on it as a class, or by simply having a class theme song that they let define the year they will have. I love all of these ideas, but especially the activity that involves students creating their own playlists. This would be a great activity I would love to use at the beginning of the school year. It would be a great way for me to get to know students, and also an excellent way for them to start of the year by expressing who they are to their peers and I, as their teacher!

Here is a blog giving more information about integrating music in the classroom:
https://blog.kamihq.com/integrating-music-into-the-classroom/

CNN 10

About halfway through my placement in my placement classroom, my host teacher started
doing something very interesting to start off each day. She replaced the typical daily math
warm-up problems with having students instead watch CNN 10. CNN 10 is a 10 minute long
news show designed for kids and teens. Due to the wide age gap in the audience, the anchor,
Carl Azuz, sometimes chooses stories that my class found a little boring or my teacher had to
skip over due to it being too inappropriate for our students. But, overall, the stories did a great
job of making students aware of what’s going on in our world, along with stories about new and
interesting technology being developed. After the news is over, students know to circle up, my
teacher joins the circle, and then the class has a discussion about what they learned and found
interesting. This is such a great way to get students interested in the news, also teaching them
how to pay attention to find information to discuss. I would love to incorporate this into my future
class!

Here is a teacher written blog that gives a more in-depth description of CNN 10 and its benefits
in the classroom: https://www.theliterarymaven.com/2015/01/you-oughta-know-about.html

Here is the anchor, Carl Azuz, during one of his broadcasts.

Word Of The Day

Speaking of our personalized notebooks, one of our daily uses for it was a featured “word of the
day” page where my classmates and I were tasked to write down a word that describes how we
were feeling each day, with the date, in our notebook. Though our professor never collected our
notebooks, in a normal elementary classroom this would be an excellent way for the teacher to
track students’ moods and attitudes throughout the year! Furthermore to this act, our professor
also had us start each class by writing our mood of the day on the whiteboard as well. This would
be followed by a morning class meeting, where any of us students were given the opportunity to
share about anything we desired. Whether it be a triumph, a struggle, or anything in between. I
would love to incorporate this into my future classroom because not only does it enable students
the opportunity to share any negative feelings/things going on that are bottling up inside of them,
but it also creates a closer community in the classroom.

Here's an interesting blog a teacher wrote regarding how a teacher's mood can be utilized to
set the tone of the classroom:
https://aprimaryschoolteacher.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/a-teachers-mood/

Here's a picture of one of our many "word of the day" boards!

Personalized Notebook

At the beginning of this semester, our professor had us start the year off with a super fun activity. Each of use brought in our own composition notebooks, our professor provided hot glue/tape and cloth materials, and we spent a class decorating our own social studies notebooks we would be using throughout the duration of the semester. This was easily one of my favorite memories and activities from this class. Not only did it give us students the ability to start off getting to use and show off our creativity, but it also provided us students with a day to have fun and bond with each other. After this initial day of creating, we proceeded to use this notebook everyday for various purposes. Personally, this act of personalizing my own notebook completely motivated and excited me to open and use this notebook whenever I got the chance. In my future classroom, I 100% plan to utilize this idea. I think allowing students the opportunity to make the notebook into something they will enjoy using on a regular basis will get them excited to use it and also motivate them to write neatly and try their hardest.

Here's a link to a teacher's way of incorporating the DIY notebook for writer's notebooks in the classroom!
http://applesofyoureye.blogspot.com/2012/08/writers-notebook-organization_24.html

Here's a picture of my journal!