Coming To The End...

I CANNOT believe the semester is over! We have all been waiting for this and now it is FINALLY here! I am going to miss everyone from section 601! We all know it was the best and favorite out of all the other blocks;) 
The content we learned from each of our classes is going to come right along with me through the rest of my journey as an undergrad and I hope to incorporate as much as I can into my future classrooms when I start student teaching and into my very own classroom. The technology skills I have picked up and the resources I can use were extremely helpful and will be great for the students to learn.
I hope everyone does well on their finals and I hope you all have a wonderful winter break!


WE DID IT!!!! :) wel...now just the finals to worry about!

Bullying

Anyone who views my blog, I would like you to watch this video and tell me how you feel? As future teachers, I believe we need to make ourselves more approachable for students like Johan. I do not want to see any child go through feelings like this. This really broke my heart.

Thanksgiving!

It's finally Thanksgiving break and this means time for good food, visiting with friends, family and catching back up on sleep! I know that I really needed this break to get away from waking up early for classes and hopefully get healthy so when I head back Sunday, I should be good as new to get through the next 2 weeks! 
I plan on using this break however to get started on the projects and papers we will have to continue working on when we get back. I will, of course be spending time with the family and baby cousins, but when it is time for down time, I plan on hiding for a few minutes and working on projects. It is crazy to think that this semester is almost over! Time is flying by and I am not ready to think about being out in the real world quite yet! :p
I hope you all have an amazing break, get lots of rest, visit with family and friends and of course eat LOTS! See you all Monday :)

Student’s careless Facebook post nearly leads to expulsion-eSchool

What we should NOT be doing on facebook these days! This article was really an eye opener and all of us should learn from this mistake this young senior made. Facebook has become very popular, so popular that now when going into interviews for future professions, the people that are going to consider highering you take a look into your profile page. For some jobs, this will  allow you to receive an interview or you are no longer someone they are interested in. As future teachers, we need to make sure to get rid of those pictures, not write awful comments about people, inform facebook where you are at all times, because it can cause serious damage into your future.


I have friends on facebook that constant write nasty comments or inform the world where they are and even that gets into a hold new level like creating stalkers. I know that facebook is something I use when I am bored or to keep up to date with friends from high school, but the key is to make sure not to use it for critizing people, things, informing people where you are, or and other nosense like that. It could make you look bad even before going into an interview for a job. Now a days, this is the first perception of the interviewers of you. Take not of this lesson future teachers! 

How to teach young children in the digital age-eSchool

I always knew going into this profession that I was going to get paid tons of money. Most people that go into this profession do it for the love of working with children and want to give them a good education. I know that these were my reasons for choosing this profession. I believe that the reasons for our GPA standards are set much higher than others because we have the responsibility of teaching other people. If don't know the content or information, we can't teach the students to be sucessful. I do agree that if our standards were to be set lower, then students would not try and as hard we do now. I know that I am always trying to do my best to make sure that my grades don't slip and having to maintain a 2.8 GPA to stay in the education program here at Cortland, it strives me to want to do well in all of my classes.

However, what is upsetting to be about this article is that fact that education majors work so hard to get to where they need to go and others jobs who don't require much education background at all can walk into a classroom and substitute teach or actually teach a class. That is saying that anyone can teach, which if that is the case, why do we need to work so hard and go to school for five years? I don't like all of this controversy over getting paid less than other professions, but I do know that teachers know ahead of time walking into the profession, the pay is not high, but we do it for the love of children. I wish our profession was taken much more seriously than it is portrayed today!

iMovie

Recently we learned in EDU315 how to use and understand the iMovie program on the iMAC computers. This is another great strategy to incorporate into my classroom in the future! 


It is a great way to get the students to learn how to collaborate together, and apply the methods in the subjects they have been learning about, and then understanding how to do them. I know that our group made our lesson on math, with a simple multiplication problem, then applied the strategies we learned in Susana's class into how to show students to solve the problem. 


The best way I realized for the students to learn about this program is by letting them explore! Our class was taught to explore first for a few minutes then we would all discuss what we found and different tools it had. I would make sure to let the students explore and then teach them the different techniques this programs has and basic tools they would use.


I will be using this in my classroom, depending on what grade level I end up teaching in. Even if they are young, I would still use this program in the classroom and make my own videos for the students. It's engaging for them and its different then using direct instruction. 

Study: Student progress can be tied to teacher students-eSchool news

Teaching is becoming more and more competitive ech day it seems. The States are constantly changing curriculums, testing to certify future teachers and making sure that young canadiates like us, are going to be the best. Studies are showing that the best teachers, are the ones with that have been provided with the best training. So what exactly is the best training? According to this article, many believe it is where you attend college and what the school district provides you with their training. There is controversy over that because then there are others who believe that it has nothing to do with what school or the training schools provide you with, it has to do with the field experience that young future canadiates have had over the years. Many people from this article say that the one thing that they were not prepared for before going into the classroom was the knowledge on classroom management and field experience. Being able to get out into different schools and see what classroom settings are like, you can build you knowledge without even realizing it. It is extremely important for us to get the feel of classroom settings and learn about how teachers collaborate with their students, the structure, and most important teaching techinques. You can't be taught how to teach a classroom from professors because it is not realistic. Young future teachers can learn so much from spending time in classrooms and pick up ideas from their host teachers. In reality, when walking into an interview for a teaching position, it's going to be all about HOW you teach a lesson, rather than where you went to school or what grades you got. If you can teach and the teachers in front of you can understand, then the students should be able too!

Ten Ideas for Interactive Teaching-eSchool News

The title of this article says it all! Informing all of the viewers subscribed to this site, that teaching is not all based on lecture, and that students don't absorb the information and it's ineffective. It also states that "it's ok to try new experiments and have them fail." This is what we are always being told in EDU315 and all of our other Education classes. There is never going to be a time where everything we have planned goes perfectly because in reality, it's impossible. We think out our lessons in our heads, then we get to class and everything you planned in your head goes wrong. We are going to be constantly learning from our mistakes.

This article gives great tips about ten different techniques to incorporate into the classroom to help engage the students, and it's fun for you and the students. The students' will benefit more from doing lessons like this. I know that I am not a student who can just sit and listen to lectures all the time and I know that I will make sure that the students in my class have a variety of lessons with all different types of learning styles. 

About Me :)

Morgan :) 

• Friendly, outgoing, bubbly, fun!
• I have a younger brother who is 16 years old
• I'm a lover of dancing, being with my family, enjoy spending time with friends
• I fear spiders, field mice, and garden snakes
• I would like to visit Italy, Germany, and California

• I am from Geneva, New York so I'm pretty local!
• I spent my summer working for the Cornell Experimental Station working on projects and experimenting with different pesticides on onion plants, peppers, melons, and cucumbers.

Field Experience

Last week on Wednesday, October 5, 2011, it was my very first day exploring what it is like being in a 3rd grade setting all day! I have observed in a 4th grade classroom and a kindergarten room, so I have had some experience out in the teaching field. My first day, after the students were all settled in that morning and did their morning work to get their minds functioning, it was time for morning meeting! I was great because I get to sit in the circle with them all and we all went around and said our names and what was one thing we like to do. This was a way for me to see and understand what each child was about and now I can maybe asking them questions so they know I am interested and am here for them. I learned about their curriculum, what they were learning about in math, social studies, reading and writing. I didn't get to sit in on a science lesson, but I'm sure I will get to do that soon. I spent time seeing how the students interact with one another, what they social patterns were like, and who were the ones who had cliques. I am learning about how the teacher explains lessons to them, and how she monitors the classroom or how she keeps the students engaged during her lessons. My host teacher is great and all the students seem to like her a lot. It will be great to see how the rest of the semester goes with the class and hopefully get to learn more about them!

Technical Skills

We have been spending time in class exploring different websites we can incorporate into the classroom for the future. We did a project called Come To The Edge which was a great way for me to spend time exploring different websites and learning how to can use them in the classroom, or how it could benefit some of the students I might encounter with in my classroom. I learned how to make stories or draw pictures, or putting together a collage. All of these sites can be used for the students and get them to be more independent, but also to become more creative. I have also been lacking in the creative category, so this to me was quite a challenge. Knowing what I know now about all of these sites, I wish I was giving these options when I was in elementary school, because maybe I would not feel so in confident with using my imagination. I will make sure that when I start teaching in my own classroom, I will make sure to incorporate these into my lessons or even fun sites for them to play on when they have free time! I want my students to learn about these sites and become more creative!

ED Proposes Teacher Prep Reforms-eSchool News

I decided this week to start reading the articles on eSchool News, to get more up to date on what is going on out there in the teaching world. this next few years, things are going to get tough and jobs are going to be much more competitive, and I need to get up to par with my skills and more marketable than other canadidates like myself. 
This article informed me about the changes that the government wants to taking control over in the education fields. It's extremely important for not only the teachers, but the students as well, to build up their skills and become more educated. The teachers need to have the best training so their students can learn from the best and then this will greatly improve our education system, which is what we need right now. Instead of maybe getting rid of "bad" teachers, try to help and give them more training to learn how to improve. The have a plan for "teacher excellence" which is going to prepare all if the future tecahers to be the best and prepare us to be ready to teach in the classroom. School leaders feel that students coming out of school are not prepared enough to teach in classrooms so this plan will help everyone, even no education majors to be prepared about the teaching field. This also means we will be getting more assessments as future teachers, and tests will become more frequent. I overall will do whatever it takes to be the best and teach my students what they need to know to be successful!


http://www.eclassroomnews.com/2011/10/04/ed-proposes-teacher-prep-reforms/?

Freedom Riders

From middle and high school on, we have always been taught about freedom, liberty, justice for all. We have been taught about the civil rights starting back in the 1920's, but I am guitly of not fully understand and connecting with the people had to go through those struggles.
Freedom Rider's was an amazing, overwhelming, but courageous video that discussed all about the struggles these people faced to try to make a difference for our world. They did succeed of course, but it's sad that the ones that fought for this, didn't make it through the end to see the accomplishment they made. 
I am a history concentration so this to me very very interesting, and what made it better was me being able to feel and connect with Freedom Riders. Now I will never be able to feel the emotions that these people were feeling during that time, but to actually see what they were going through like being beaten to death by a white mob or being thrown in jail for no reason. I will never be able to understand the way they felt, but my feelings were embarrassed, sad and shocked were my emotions when watching this documentary.
I am going to some day have to teach my students about this subject, and it's challenging when they are younger, because they really can't see what was really happening, and lecturing about it, does not give you the same emotional connection as it would when watching it. Going into to teaching and knowing that many international students might not have even realized this was going on or even other students won't be aware of this, its shocking, but I have to think back and understand that I was not around during that time, and teachers had to teach me about this content.
Over all, I felt this documentary was a good eye opener for myself and I'm sure for the people around me. This really did happen and to actually see and here from the survivors of the Freedom Riders, made it that much more emtional and made me feel connected.

Raquette Lake Experience

When I was informed about our class going on a camping trip to this place where I would be COMPLETELY away from civilization, I was extremely terrified. All of us in this generation have been brought up with the advancement of technology so asking us to either not bring our cellphones or to bring it, but expect no service, this was just asking way too much from me! Talking to people from different sections or took Block 1 last semester, some had informed me that it was awful, while others said it was amazing and had a great time! I never walked in with a negative attitude, but hoped for the best.
When we got to Raquette Lake, our schedule for the "2 full days" that we were there were packed with things to do. We did a plethora of team building activities, bonding with other people in our class and the other section, and of course, getting to know and see our professors in a different way, then them seeing us in a different light too! I enjoyed every second of Raquette Lake and wouldn't trade it in for anything. It was so inspiring, exciting, adventrous, beautiful, memorable and busy. The views we all got to see were amazing, and breath taking. I felt so lucky to be going into this field profession, but also to be part of SUNY Cortland's programs. This camp is not open to the public so knowing that I and many other education majors are the only ones to be able to see and us this camp made this trip even more amazing!
I learned a lot from going away for 3 days and experiencing all of the obstacles and projects we had to do. Working and collaborating with other students, not just from my class, but in the other section, was exciting, but also seeing my professors in a different way made me see that they are actually "real" like us as well. I hope to do activities like this with my students some day so they can see that I am just like them too and I enjoy having fun, and that I am a "real" person too! This has made me feel differently about my classes now, but in a completely different way than before. I feel much more comfortable with the students in my classes, but also don't feel so intimidated by my teachers, and its reassuring knowing that my teachers want all of us to succeed and be the best that we can be, and are willing to help us in every step of the way! I am so grateful that I was able to attend and be apart of this trip and will always be able to look back on it with a smile on my face :)