The Effective Carousel: Spinning Right Round, Right Round

Greetings subscribers!
              As many of you may have expected, here is my blog for the week. Taking pre-service teacher education courses at St. John's and St. Ben's has been a very rewarding and fulfilling experience for me. While learning from and observing our professors teach, we are given the opportunity to analyze effective (and not so effective) ways to teach and manage a classroom. I have been particularly fond of this education course because our professors consistently explain to us not only what they are teaching, but why and how they are teaching the material. I believe their lessons are very intentional in teaching the class materials, as well as intentional in modeling effective ways of teaching.
              We have been given the opportunity to learn by jigsaw, gallery walk, carousel, large group discussion, and learning centers. As future educators, I believe in the necessity of having varied teaching strategies. Not only do varied teaching strategies keep students more engaged, they also reach out to many different learners.
               Of the activities we have done in class, I was particularly intrigued and interested in the carousel brainstorming activity. I love the idea of "active learning," which is very evident in this activity. I like how we were obligated to physically move from station to station jotting down answers and responses to a given prompt. To cap off the exercise, we had an open class discussion about the questions. I thought this discussion went very, very well.
              I believe this activity is very suitable for mid-level students because of the social and intellectual interaction amongst the students. This activities forces students to work together in hopes of developing solid relationships and building a good knowledge base. This strategy would be appropriate for a mid-level class once the basic guidelines and parameters are established. This exercise could be done fairly early in the year to ultimately "break the ice" and relieve some natural anxiety. To effectively facilitate student learning, teachers should break the class into small groups (maybe three or four students). Teachers ought to allow everyone to write and read the prompts by reminding students from the beginning to share responsibility.
               After doing some research on how to manage a carousel brainstorm activity, I found this website particularly helpful. This website explains the basics of a carousel activity, as well as example exercises. Also, this website offers a sample room layout for teachers to look at.
              I hope all of this is enough information for you.
              Carpe Diem.

Essentials for Effective Decoding and Vocabulary Instruction

Greetings Bloggers once again!

I hope you all have had a good weekend. For those of you who may not know the blog topic for the week, simply follow this link for the prompt. I think we have had very good discussion over the past two weeks or so. Very insightful and informative.

Any midlevel ELA teacher NEEDS to know a few things about decoding and vocabulary instruction.
Here I am going to list a few things all midlevel ELA teachers ought to know:

• All children learn differently. With that said, there is not exactly one PERFECT way to reach out to children. Teachers must accommodate all students abilities. Differentiation is necessary.
• Learning the different parts of a word (the affixes) are essential for vocabulary understanding. By doing this, teachers are making students more and more independent to figure out words themselves. 
• Useful resources include graphic organizers, read alouds, sustained silent reading, and the use of context clues. 
• Make the learning concepts relevant to children's lives.
• Expose children to new vocabulary everyday. Teachers ought to model learning as well.

I do have one big concern about decoding and vocabulary instruction though. This is a lot of important information. How am I going to effectively teach such essential pieces of curriculum? Will I become overwhelmed? As of now, I am feeling a sense of anxiety towards all of this.

Well that is it for now. Remember to live your life the way you want to. 

Reflection on "The Middle"

Greetings bloggers! This blog I am going to discuss some key learning goals for middle level students. I am also going to discuss some key attributes of effective middle school teachers.

I often think to myself, "What does the perfect middle school child act and look like?" Because I know we live in reality, I realize this is a pretty impossible question to answer. In order for middle school students to be successful, I believe in the necessity of having goals for the future. By having high goals, middle school students set themselves up for success. Some goals may include becoming more fluent in reading, being able to comprehend more knowledge faster, and being able to write effectively with an active voice. I see school (particularly middle school) as an opportunity to truly mold and shape adolescents for the future. By having high goals and standards, middle school students are building their sense of ambition to prepare themselves for adulthood. It is the teachers' job to challenge the students just enough so they are still disequilibreated, yet not too frustrated to continue with the task. This should be done at all grade levels. Teachers can distinguish goals for elementary schoolers and high schoolers by simply communicating them differently to both levels of students. It is imperative to speak with the student, not at the student. Teachers ought to build solid relationships with their children to ensure a successful classroom.

Whether I want to believe it or not, I am getting closer and closer to graduation. With that said, I need to start getting ready for the "real world." I am going to teach in my own classroom sooner than later. I NEED to start thinking about how I will be an effective teacher. I aim at building a comfortable, noncritical classroom climate, one that is a tight-knit community. I aim at also continuing my outgoing, passionate love for helping the common good. I believe I am very ambitious because I enjoy going above and beyond. I believe these characteristics will enable me to operate and facilitate a successful classroom. Effective middle school teachers NEED to have patience. Even though I still need work with this virtue, I believe I have become a little more patient in my professional career. By taking this course and having the opportunity to teach in a local school, I want to gain valuable experience of actually teaching in a classroom. I want to implement what I have learned from lectures and textbooks in an actual school.

So that is it for now. Remember readers: Carpe Diem- Seize the Day.

Appropriate Blogging Guidelines

Hello bloggers! I hope all is well in the worldwide web. Even though much of this may be common sense, I think we ought to discuss basic online blogging etiquette. First of all, in life and online, I think we should treat others the way we want to be treated. Because some people have blogs, many might feel as though they have a lot of power. In some cases they do, but I still think we ought to treat others with respect, dignity, and a mutual feeling of equality, meaning not looking down upon someone for his or her own beliefs. If you say or type something that may hurt another, just don't do it. Simple enough. It is alright to question a viewpoint or belief in a respectful way, but it is never alright to personally demean or degrade another human being. You better believe that. Secondly, please, please, please create and use YOUR OWN ideas. Do not plagiarize and take another's information as your own. Remember to cite your sources.  Lastly, remember that whatever you post is going online for many others to see. With that said, try to edit, censure, and review your work. Nothing is worse than horrible grammar, puncuation, and too much detail. Do I really want to know what kind of underwear you are wearing? Probably not. I have just explained three simple rules to follow by when creating a blog. If you are interested in reading more about blogging guidelines, feel free to go to the website of ISB student's blog. I found this website very informative and helpful. Well that does it for now. Enjoy life and "carpe diem."